Sea Fury flying

[Daveroo]

Tom Dewelle's sea fury,ex critical mass,was flying today,i believe it was his,as i know theyve been ground testing it,dennis sanders was to fly it soon,it was most defiantly a sea fury,and one ive never seen before,had yellow cowling and seemed to have a camouflaged upper surfaces,lighter on the tail but had a dark "swoop" just aft of the wing.

[hairyspin]

I'd like to see that and hear it: if they've put her back to a Centaurus engine especially.

[Daveroo]

it still has the R2800 he used to race it..i would have thought it would have been too modified though,,,story in air classics recently.there is another in the San Fransico bay area ( i think)that has an original centorous engine,and it sounds awesome.get to see it at area airshows often.and Ione,home of sanders aviation and eagles nest,so we get to see ( or hear) sea furies and other race planes often...only thing i dont care about is we moved nearer the airport,but at the old house,we could see aerobatic planes (like Sean Tucker) and reno air racers in the air between auburn and cool california.fun to watch and hear.

[fsxar177]

Curious if it is really Dwelle's that flew yesterday? Hadn't heard of it flying yet. It had a modified Wright R-3350 when racing. Most of the restored Sea Fury's use the 3350. Only one thus far has been converted to R-2800, and that is owned by the Sanders.

- Joseph

[Daveroo]

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48372&stc=1yes yer right ,its seems to be a two row engine,im assuming its a R2800,arent the R3350s 3 rows?..anyway..it did have a R33050.imm sure the air classics mag artical states its a r2800,here is a pic of it off the sanders website from a bit ago.

[fsxar177]

Wright R-3350 and Pratt & Whitney R-2800 are both 18-cyl twin row radials. The Air Classics article might have been related to the Sanders R-2800 powered "Argonaut" ?

- Joseph

[hairyspin]

R2800 and R3350 engines both are twin-row 18-cylinder radials, as is the Bristol Centaurus. The photo definitely shows an R2800: a mere 46 litres versus the R3350's nearly 55 litres displacement, not to mention the possibility of turbo-compound power recovery turbines as well, eeks...

[Bomber_12th]

That is great news, Dave, if it is in fact the Dwelle's Sea Fury that you saw flying (I haven't seen any very recent photos, but there haven't been any Sea Furies flying in the markings you describe)- it could be the Dwelle Sea Fury, as I know they've been getting closer to that first flight.

The engine fitted is an R-3350.

The first engine runs were done already almost a whole year ago, at which time the aircraft already looked largely complete, as seen below (photos by Ken Dwelle):

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae290/seafury10/DSC_1101_.jpeg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/seafury10/media/DSC_1101_.jpeg.html)

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae290/seafury10/DSC_1173_.jpeg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/seafury10/media/DSC_1173_.jpeg.html)

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae290/seafury10/DSC_1109_.jpeg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/seafury10/media/DSC_1109_.jpeg.html)

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae290/seafury10/DSC_1112_.jpeg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/seafury10/media/DSC_1112_.jpeg.html)

[Daveroo]

Wright R-3350 and Pratt & Whitney R-2800 are both 18-cyl twin row radials. The Air Classics article might have been related to the Sanders R-2800 powered "Argonaut" ?

- Joseph
Hey Joseph,
the photo i posted is of the dewlle plane as is johns photos.they are all at the hanger at auburn,ive got a call into tom and his secretary ,see if they respond.....i can call him tom as we both did several months in rehab together,me my really screwed up wrist and him after he blew the fingers off his hand when an air bottle blew up..

its possible the plane i saw wasnt even a sea fury..it flew directly over my head on the first pass,then a second pass which was more south of me but i could see the colors that time...i no longer know what i saw...

:dizzy:

[fsxar177]

Interesting story Dave. I remember that incident well. I was pretty young at the time. It's amazing what he continues to accomplish.

- Joseph

[Daveroo]

pk i cant get a response from dewlles people,so i called down to sanders aeronautics and the gal i talked to said she knows that dennis hasn't flown it yet,then i heard " hasn't flown what?" and she told him our conversation...whoever it was said..oh no..and that the person had no idea of whos it woould be painted that way...so it must no have even been a sea fury,but i do know it wasnt a T-6,i know them well.didnt sound like one or look like one.but i did hear a low fast radial plane today...no idea of what it was as i had been in my room with the curtins closed,but the nice gal there told me Argonaut was in thgis area today,but she didnt know who was flying it..but again,i havent looked its N number up on any of the sites to see if it was...but maybe someone else could?..