Hello all SmileWavy

On my way to Melbourne with a couple of mates for a week of drinking and football.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1564543585.jpg

Have fun in Japan. Was planning to go there in February but now we'll probably wait till we do the "round the world trip".

Just take a nice long nap!

Not to play I can top that, but one of my earliest memories is our trip from California to Hawaii in a C-54. Cruise speed, 190 MPH, facing the tail of the airplane. Distance, 2,500 miles. Over 13 hours in an unpressurized airplane at 8,000 feet looking at waves and more waves. I remember asking my mom, "did we move to the airplane" I figured it was our new home. As a little kid, it was forever in the noisy airplane with the constant drone. No TV, no toys, no running and playing, just sit there. Sheer torture.

I might get over it someday.

Yep. I did 10 hours in a H model C130 without hearing protection. Worst flight ever!

My dad talked about some of the pilot training he received. Back at the start of his career in the 1950s obviously there were no GPS and computers to aid in navigation. Flying at night over the ocean had to be rather scary, as there is nothing but blackness to look at. They were just transitioning away from one system used in WW2 that was for flying to a vector point. One tone in one ear was a beep beep at one rate, and the other ear received a different rate beeping. If you were dead on course you heard a constant tone as the beeps merged into one. If you drifted to one side or the other, the tone in one ear was dominate, so the pilot knew to correct course.

Now imagine flying for hours over and hearing a constant tone at best or a beep beep if off course. He was glad that was replaced by instruments that picked up the radio signal and a needle showed the deviation off course.

JFK Jr died trying to fly at night over the ocean. Dad flew from Hawaii to all sorts of pacific ocean islands at night. Landing on a pinpoint of land in the middle of thousands of miles of water. He did have a navigator on board, and their job was to get them to the right speck. Dad talked about one mission were they were supposed to go to an island, and the navigator gave him the coordinates to fly towards. Dad called the navigator up to the windshield, and asked what is that large object in the sky. The navigator said, "oh crap, the moon is in the wrong place!" and went back to get the right course computed.

The pilots now days have it pretty easy. I had to recompute with the old circular slide rule and sectional when we made a deviation or had an "engine out" under the "hood".

I hate math.

Ya it’s a dry heat, but it’s still pretty damn warm. It’s fine if you are laying by the pool, but I’m not sure about walking around outside at car events....

Wimp. We managed at Boca Raton with 100+ heat index, and lots of humidity. Savanna was about the same. I will be there and sweating as usual.

One of the guys that still drives his 68 911 to Parade was there this year. Maybe it is a 67, the one year they had the oil fill cover like a gas cap. He has driven to nearly 40 Parades. Anyway, no AC just a basic car and he has over 500,000 miles on it. Of course the two guys from Anchorage drove down. It makes my 4,000 mile journey look wimpy.

The one thing I disliked about my old ‘73 911E was the lack of AC. I’m not a fan of the “good old days” before AC in cars was common. Especially in the hotter climates.

For sure. BTDT.

I drove my 1974 914 from September 13th 1974 until March of 1996 and it was not air conditioned. I have had enough of that. The main reason I bought a 911 was to get AC and not cut up my 914, and lose a lot of trunk space in the front.

The real test this year was driving west right into the sun on I-40 for hours on end, and I had to divert the AC from blowing on my face because it was uncomfortably cold. I had it blowing on my chest and legs, and that was perfect. And I did not need to have the fan at max.

The Cobra has o A/C but the worst of it is the headers running a few inches from your feet on the other side of the foot well. If it had A/C I would vent it down there.

Yep, the Cobra was made to haul ass, and driver comfort is not part of the design . My friend had a Ferrari Daytona Coupe. Huge engine up front, no AC, and the windows roll down a few inches max. It too would haul butt, but it was only fun in the cold parts of the year.

That is the nice thing about rear engine in a 911. The engine out back where is it supposed to be, and all the heat stays back there unless you pull the heater levers. Lots of solar heating so the AC is a very nice thing. And sound deadening, and comfortable electric seats, and the best looking car ever made in my opinion. I might be possibly be just a little tiny bit prejudiced, but I know I am right so it does not matter. :p

I guess I have a thing for "uncompromising" cars as the Lancia Stratos would be my first choice of replicas if I could find one. An original would be great if they weren't seven figures. Caterhams are nice too, but don't make such a glorious sound. A V8 Atom though...

For sure a real "sports car" is fun, but for this part of the country, only practical for short drives a few months per year. Certainly not 4,000 mile drives or 12 hour days in behind the wheel.

If I had a large warehouse to store toys, and a lot more budget, I would have a few old British sports cars, Alfas, Cobras, even an old Corvette. Since I am cheap, I will stick to my current toy until I can't drive it anymore.

In El Centro I did not drive it in the daytime in July or August. January was a good time to drive it.

I guess sometime next year I will be asking Sid and the rest of Pelican about Palm Springs, Parade. The first day is simple all the way to Flagstaff, boring 900 miles on I-40. The next day will be less traditional. I want to head south over to Sedona, and Oak Creek, and other fun mountain roads, and go on curvy roads in sorta a south west direction and end up in Palm Springs. I will need advice on the best route. I may have to take a side trip to Friendship Park there at the border of Mexican and San Diego, and get some photos of my car this time. Last time I was in San Diego I did not have a smart phone, and I left my camera in the hotel. :(

Well, if you were on I8 you could take a right at Ocotillo up near Anza Borrego to Julian and end up in Palm Springs. The road through Anza Borrego is lots of fun. Coming down the mountain from Julian is where I literally melted the pads on the OEM brakes on the Cobra. Looks like 10 will take you there closer than the 8. Did I mention that road is lots of fun?

That sounds perfect. I will try to save that information, but I have 11 months to lose it. So I may have to ask for that again.

Hey TGIF all except Jim.

Happy Saturday Jim.

We received .09 inch of rain last night. More than in all of August. We were super wet for the first 6 months of the year, and in July the rain just about stopped. We are officially at .02 inches for all of July.

Of course we have two projects to fly and we need clear blue skies. The good news is we have one larger project that the client wants to wait for a decent rain so everything greens back up. Then we can fly it. Aerials are a ton prettier with green grass and not yellowish brown dormant grass.

It is supposed to be overcast and possibilities of rain for the next week, so we will likely have to wait to fly the small projects, and then the big one, and then run the computers hard getting them all processed.

Since I am pretty sure the weather in Oklahoma is always trying to make it harder for us to do our job, the weather will be confused, and just be cloudy and overcast with no rain so we can't do either the small or large project. :eek: