twostepn2001

l did the exact same thing except for me it was a few years later, 1967-68. Even hauled the hay that the "manager-operator" cut and baled. And had to rake and keep the pea gravel in shape in the landing zone for the local skydiving club. One memorable thing for me was l got a ride in a Cavalier P-51. Congoleum Carpet built a carpet factory in our town. They were based out of Georgia and occasionally would fly in a big shot to the plant in Oklahoma. lf they were bringing in more than one person they had Beech Baron. Anyway, l would give the pilot a ride into town in my trusty 'ol wore out Chevy pickup. After relentless pestering, he finally gave me a ride around the pattern a couple of times.

Couple night ago, wife and l watched a film called "Flying Fortress". Movie about a B-17 crew in WWII in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Made in 2012 l think. A fairly decent movie l guess. All the flying sequences were CGI. And it gets a little gorey and bloody sometimes. For example right at the start of the movie, the pilot's head literally gets blown off by flak. Like my wife pointed out, even though it was more detailed and probably more realistic, it just don't have the "class" like the 1949 version of "12 O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck. And you're squeamish about foul language, it ain't for you. On a scale of 1 to 10, guess l'd rate at about a 6 or 7.

Yeah l agree with you. But the point l wanted to make was that Jerrie Mock did it in a single engine, not a twin. She did it completely by herself without a navigator in the right seat. And she wasn't sponsored by a rich husband publisher. She did it with money she got on a loan. And the most important thing was that she survived the flight. Again, l'm not making any digs at Amelia Earhart, just pointing out that the woman who actually did what Amelia failed to do is basically lost in the history books.

My truckin' friend Scott sent me another sunset pic from New Mexico territory.

Juan Brown aka blancolirio on Youtube did a excellent video explaining the possibilities of ice conditions contributing to the cause of the crash. That's one thing l like about him. He gives the facts and information and not jump to conclusions like so many of those Youtube crash "experts". One thing he did point out was that even though itis really difficult to listen to, the young copilot told ATC everything that the crew was doing and what was happening all the way to impact.

l'm kind of surprised no one has brought it up yet, but there was a woman that actually flew around the world SOLO with no navigator. Jerrie Mock, a pilot with less than 350 total flying hours flew a Cessna 180 to achieve it. From March 19th to April 17th 1964. And during that same flight, she became the first woman to solo cross the Pacific. And her plane is hanging in Smithsonian Institute.

Cost of learning how to fly has risen considerably. Wish l could find a Taylorcraft for $750,00....

According to the story, the P-47 was selected because of all the room in the fuselage for the turbocharge system. ldea was just replace all that and add a jet in it's place. But that's exactly why the project was cancelled, no jet engine at the time was powerful enough.

And on June 12th of 1931 she crashed another autogyro here in Abilene, Texas. She was on a national tour to show that woman could fly a autgyro safely. Guess she proved her point. She survived the crash safely....lol And a few years prior, Charles Lindberg landed in Abilene 4 months after his flight cross the Atlantic.

Ghosts still farming.....

Hey Rick, lf you're interested in unusual aircraft, check on Facebook and search for a page called "Cancelled Aircraft". lt tells about all sorts of aircraft and helicopters that was designed but never built, or in some cases only a few were built and tested. Mostly military but sometimes shows an airline concept type plane. Below is a design from 1944 to convert a P-47 from radial engine to jet power that it shows on that group. here is the address on FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071924734346

My truckin' friend Scott sent me this pic a few minutes ago from Washington state. He said there's supposed to be a sunrise in the clouds there somewhere.

Chevrolet = Constantly Having Every Vehicle Recalled Over Lousy Engineering Techniques FIAT = Fix lt Again Tony Dodge = Dead On Day Guarantee Expires

l was looking through a closet in our spare bedroom yesterday and ran across some of my old crude oil hauling stuff. Out of curiosity l looked online to see what it is worth. l was shocked to see how much it has went up in 10 years. A solid brass thief (to get samples of oil from a tank) is $960.00 bucks! When l bought this one, they were only little over $500.00. l always liked the brass ones because they were quite a bit heavier so you could penetrate the bottom sediments in the tank. BTW, those little glass vials shown in the video below are $65.00 apiece. A gauge line (used to measure amount of oil in a tank) used to cost around 4200.00. Price today is around $450.00 bucks. To get a idea how they are used, here is a short video to show how to get samples the "approved" API way.

Years ago l worked for a road construction co. running a Cat 631-C scraper. l got there early on morning and the mechanic was working on my scraper. Said he was fixing the lights. l asked him why, we never ran after dark. His answer was "lf Caterpillar in their infinite wisdom put it on the machine when it was built then it's supposed to work."