The first test run was southbound, the car was turned into the wind and after a short team briefing, everyone was ready to go. Part of the purpose of these tests runs is to practice the turn around each land speed challenger must successful accomplish in one hour. FIA rules state that the standing mile must be an average of the 2 speeds achieved in the measured mile in opposite directions in less than one hour. The crew explained how they were going to make the run and proximities to the course they wanted the spectators. With all the data loggers in place and the signals being transmitted to Keith's computer, the chutes were armed and the start cart hooked up, most of the observers moved down course. I proceeded to just past the 2 mile marker were Ed would be approximately at his highest speed for his test run. A flare was fired to signal the start of the run and mere moments later a large plume of dust came from over the horizon. The curve of the earth prevented us from seeing the car; however the dust trail started to come closer and more defined. No more than thirty seconds after the flare was fired could we see the faint outline of an F-104 through the heat waves rising from the desert floor at the 2 mile mark. Ed had the engine spooled up to 75% power dry (with no afterburner) and was going over 350 m.p.h. even with the poor conditions of the flats. The North American eagle roared past and disappeared over the horizon leaving the spectators covered in the residual dust cloud.

   The crowd rushed down track to hear the results, a good test run and all systems worked great. The car was already in the process of being turned around for an opposite run by the time I arrived at the Eagle's finishing position. Physical turn around time was executed in under 20 minutes. The longest part of the turn is getting the parachutes rigged and hooking up the start cart again. After everything was done in well under 1 hour I stayed at the start line to observe the return run. Ed made a few last minute checks before letting it rip. It was off to a slow start but quickly shook off the lag and soared onward. He had reached well over 100 mph before the first mile but unfortunately had to shut it down because of suspension trouble. The team reassembled where the car stopped and decided to turn it around once more for practice. This time they wanted to put another potential driver into the seat for start up; it was Vicki Cruse, a stunt pilot out of Santa Paula, Ca. After giving the start a shot, it seemed that there was some trouble with the igniter and the batteries for the Eagle had to be charged. The crew buttoned up the equipment and headed back to the pit as it was apparent that making another pass would be unfeasible and some work needed to be done to the front nitrogen filled shocks. After some much needed lunch and rest Vicki needed to leave and gave us a short aerobatic show. She demonstrated a very short field take-off from what had to have been between 1/8 - 1/4 mile. After a few stunts and low passes she flew off and left the Eagle in the hands of a different driver. It was time to give the NAE one more engine run up with the second backup driver. After battling the start cart and other minor problems, it seemed the desert was causing tensions to run high; despite some frustration they were able to get the car going after a period of time. Some simple engine tests were done and then it was shut down.

   It was a long arduous day and packing needed to be started, so the team could get home before the weekend was out so we got out of their way and headed home for the evening. The 2009 test session was a good demonstration for what needs to be done to achieve the world land speed record and what the car and crew is capable of. Plenty of data was logged and some video was taken of the suspension performance that will need to be analyzed later. Congratulations and a special thanks to everyone that came out for the week, I know there were many that traveled a long way and made sacrifices to be able to participate in such an event.