September Fury 2003 Reno air race qual with Mayday landing.

The first year Mike Brown and the team brought the mighty Sea Fury to Reno in her new red paint scheme ended in a very disappointing mayday when the massive R-3350-93R engine blew up during the qualifying attempt early in the week. If I remember correctly the master rod/piston failed and the engine was completely destroyed. The damage to the engine was severe enough that pieces of the engine exited and hit the tail damaging that as well.

[@WTF0v3r]

Thank you for publishing all these videos!! It is saddening that a lot of the former unlimited champions only show up now as static displays. I totally get that its like pouring avgas on to a pallet full of $100 bills, and lighting a fire every time you start an unlimited race plane, but I wish the purse and sponsor exposure was big enough to get these birds back in the air.

[@tomadams266]

Great aircraft, great memories. Sadly Mike no longer owns this plane

[@bendeleted9155]

The good ole days...not that long ago either.

[@PaddyPatrone]

The most beautiful seafury in my opinion. I wondered if was she faster with the modified yellow wing?

[@Voodoo1650]

She was pretty fast with the short wings, but also very heavy so she lost a lot of speed in the tight turns. It looked cool as hell though!!

[@benjaminnevins5211]

Such a great display of piloting also. You guys experience a failure, trade in your airspeed for altitude, then put it right down on the numbers every time.

[@briansmith2616]

My god that thing sounds freaking awesome!

[@warbirdfotos]

Thanks Jason, 232 wearing her fresh paint!

[@drpork1360]

Seafury's are such hotrod, they sound so nice

[@FoxyPaulBlart]

Did they know the speed for that first lap?

[@Voodoo1650]

No, and there was a long standing joke about the half lap calculated speed. Unfortunately the engine blew up on the first official lap, he was going to go for 2 to let the speed build up.

[@theaviationchannel9111]

3:31 I can see Rare Bear's had some work done on it since. Also I'm guessing S Fury is retired?

[@Voodoo1650]

The Aviation Channel Oh yes, she’s had a lot done since this video was taken. The leading edge wing root intakes have all been sealed and now it’s an over the top induction system, the oil cooling is done by a boil off system now, so she is considerably smoothed up now. The 3 blade prop has been retired because it beat the hell out of the plane, but was cool as hell and it sounded REALLY good at power with it too, you could feel it in your chest as she went by.

[@theaviationchannel9111]

@@Voodoo1650 wow you're lucky. I've always wanted to go to reno. Im still young now but maybe even fly there when I grow up/

[@TheClareybrown61170]

THE BEST LOVE THIS SEA FURY

[@TurboJenkins]

What happened to September Fury? This was my favorite plane when I went as a kid in the late 2000’s

[@Voodoo1650]

Rod Lewis sold the plane and it is currently being taken apart for a full restoration back to stock for a new owner out of Europe somewhere.

[@TurboJenkins]

@@Voodoo1650 damn. Would love to see it race again, thank you for the reply.

[@Voodoo1650]

@@TurboJenkins Yeah, me too! I was a crew member on Mike Brown’s team from 2003 until he retired in 2008. The team was getting 232 into top form those last few years, so it was hard to see it all just end like that.

[@TurboJenkins]

@@Voodoo1650 Do you know what all they do to those big radials? I could swear it had a different sound than the other Wrights. IMO it had the hardest hitting clean sound of any radial I have heard

[@Voodoo1650]

@@TurboJenkins 232 was running a 3350-93 which was one of the later 3350’s, these had a form of fuel injection, not direct injection, but still using the carburetor. One of the main reasons for the unique sound was the way the exhaust pipes were made, I believe they were all equal lengths, plus they were tapered at the tip to add more pressure. Also, 232 was running a rare slow nose case, which slowed the prop tip speed way down (more efficient), so you were really only hearing the engine at full power, and not the loud prop breaking the sound barrier like most of the Sea Furies.

[@chandlerlabs2478]

Does anyone know if Randy Bailey is still with Mike Brown? Is Mike still flying? Thanks.

[@Voodoo1650]

No, Randy left the team after 2003, Dan Vance stepped in and flew 911 for Mike after that. Mike is still flying, he still owns his Beech AT-11, his Pilatus PC-9, and he owns the old Risky Business Mustang, which is now called “Goldfinger”

[@chandlerlabs2478]

@@Voodoo1650 Thank you for the update. It's been many years, but I used to work at El Aero in Carson City and always loved getting a call from Mike for fuel;-) Randy and Mike were always very kind to me. I'd like to get in touch with Randy and say "hi." Hopefully this 2021 Race season goes well for all. Thanks again for the update and good luck to Mike and Team.

[@alanrockey4142]

You can find Randy at Dillon Flying Services, Dillon, MT.

[@chandlerlabs2478]

@@alanrockey4142 thank you

[@Bergstaller01]

Shame the engine grenaded itself. She seemed to be clocking some pretty good speed.

[@taildraggersunion3671]

I met mike brown with his future p51 goldfinger and met him at grass valley

[@plane3613]

Oh no🤔😰