Pelican Parts Forums - All Things Aviation Related

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Guy, Sproat lake is amazing, not the biggest one on Vancouver Island though.

I've driven along a portion of it's shore and it goes on and on, mostly heavy wooded with some nice looking cabins and a couple of small settlements.

At least 20 years ago we stopped to grab lunch near where a Mars firefighter was moored. Haven't found photos yet but the whole Island is so abundant with completely wild areas, huuuuge lakes, black bear, Cougars and wolves oh my!

Long Beach, Ucluelet and Tofino are well worth visits, the beauty has been discovered, it's 10X more busy now in summer than a couple decades back when we started going.

You only need to walk a 1/2 mile from beach entry points to cut down the people to beach ratio dramatically.
Aviation?
Yes, that too

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Interesting video on the SR-71:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gkyVZxtsubM?si=fhKaKvFcZ26s_zFe" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Nemesis
The aircraft set 16 world speed records, and in one of those records, Nemesis flew at over 290 mph (467 km/h). Because of its successes, the National Air and Space Museum has described the plane as "the most successful aircraft in air racing history".[4] To put the Nemesis performance in perspective, most production O-200 equipped aircraft are more commonly found flying at 100mph, and few can reach even half its maximum speed.

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Something like sub 4gph and can do 140mph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickie_Q2

https://www.quickheads.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1463: quickie-for-two&catid=16&Itemid=814
At economy cruise, the Quickie can score an unbelievable 104 statute mpg, and at 100 mph, the miles per gallon drops only to 85. Push everything up to max cruise around 130 mph, and you'll still see 60 mpg or more.

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27 NASCAR laps while waiting to land after a flight.

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My buddy shared this great photo of a flight of BT-13 Vultees. He is piloting the #2 bird.

An incredible photo indeed, it looks like it belongs in a calendar

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The Cirrus SR-22 is popular and known for it's parachute safety system, good to have when losing an engine in the Rockies or Alps or wherever a landing zone is not available. Burns ~15gph.

Another also has a parachute system and burns ~5gph. Comfort etc might not apply.
https://flightdesignusa.com/aircraft/ctlsi/specification/

16 year owner of a Cirrus SR22-GTS gen2. I would get 173 kts (~200mph) in cruise at 8,500-10,500' burning 13.2 gallons lean of peak. My possible range was about 6 hours...pretty much 1,000 miles with a decent reserve. Sweet plane.

I was pretty fortunate to have an opportunity to work on a piece of aviation history while I was in college. I worked summers at the EAA in Oshkosh doing grounds maintenance, mostly setting up and tearing down for the big Airventure show, but was lucky enough to pick up some winter work with them at the Kermit Weeks hangar, assisting their team of mechanics restore and maintain the EAA's fleet of museum and tour planes. They had just started what ended up being an 18 month restoration on the "Aluminum Overcast" B17 after the tour pilots neglected to lock out the landing gear and belly slid it down the runway on a landing. I'll never forget my first day as a know-nothing 20 year old, they had me remove the crushed sheet metal skin piece behind the ball turret and smash it flat, use it as a template, and cut a new piece to replace it. It was so intimidating and exhilarating to get to put my mark on a true piece of history. I spent my winter free time working on countless other historic planes while there, and got to witness the Aluminum Overcast be escorted back into the skies by a P51 on her first flight after the extensive restoration. That job left me with some incredible experiences and an immense appreciation for the sport of aviation, hopefully I'll get to build my own light sport some day. Here she is before and after, one of the most meticulously restored Flying Fortresses in existence;)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JKarow08 (Post 12394580)

I was pretty fortunate to have an opportunity to work on a piece of aviation history while I was in college.

I think we all are fortunate...that was great.

Post more about your experience. I find, as I am sure many do, that level of repair just fascinating.

Best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 12394606)

I think we all are fortunate...that was great.

Post more about your experience. I find, as I am sure many do, that level of repair just fascinating.

Best.

It was definitely a cool job for a college kid, wish I had pictures of those days but it was before we had phones glued to our hands and captured every insignificant moment of our lives. I could probably fill another 163 pages of this thread with EAA stories, not sure the statute of limitations has run out on all of them though;)

I remember when I nervously walked into the Weeks hangar the first day, the boss walked up to me and said, "You must be our new aircraft mechanic." Now even more nervous I responded, "Uhhh...what?" He chuckled and said, "Well Steve said you could twist a wrench." I explained I knew enough to change my oil, alternators, starters, etc but had never worked on planes, he reassured me I'd be fine and that they were going to start me out making body panels on the B17.

I was so nervous in the beginning, thinking everything I was doing could result in a crash if I messed up, but through my time working their I realized even the most complex restorations are never more complicated than their individual parts, there are just many more of them. As long as you take it a step at a time and concentrate on the task at hand, even restoring something like a B17 isn't that daunting. While huge and imposing, a B17 is really just a lot of sheet metal and 4 large, but relatively simple (by today's standard) engines, plus some cool military add ons. After learning the first day how to re create the damaged panels and assist the mechanics to rivet them back in place, I could immediately see the path this process would take. I was just a "helper" and wasn't tasked with the more technical aspects like the engine rebuilds obviously, but as she went together a gained a lot of confidence in the type of projects I could undertake on my own.

While the mechanics didn't have Pelican to refer to, they did have "the book," an original giant detailed manual on how to assemble a B17. The mechanics constantly referred to it as we went through each individual step, trying to not only doing everything properly, but with attention to details on originality. I remember the manual outlining having a little person on the crew to hold the bucking bar in the tight spaces inside the wing. We didn't have one so the boss brought his 8 year old son in to help one day lol.

Anyway, like I said, I could recount EAA stories for days, would be happy to share more of my experiences...hopefully the history of these few remaining survivors isn't lost for future generations.