The non-premixed turbulent Sydney Swirl Burner is a target of the workshop series on turbulent non-premixed flames (TNF). Thorough experimental investigations in Sydney and Sandia provided experimental data for 10 different configurations. This flame series allows for the examination of various fuel compositions, flow rates and swirl numbers and its computation by Large Eddy Simulation (LES) promises detailed insight into turbulent non-premixed swirl combustion. To improve the reliability of these simulations elaborate preliminary studies must be carried out, which are detailed in this paper. Spatial resolution requirements are discussed and an appropriate sampling period for statistics is determined. The paper presents first and second moments for the velocity components in the non-reactive flow and preliminary mixture fraction results for one flame of the series. Results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data, while some deficiencies indicate the need for further grid refinement and more accurate inflow data before the simulation of the entire flame series can be attempted.