Aviation BS and Photo Thread

True. But I think of planes as luxuries in the lower 48.

 

It's been a long time, but I am headed to Reno this weekend to help support and setup the Sander's race team.

 

KaiserAir #4! I drive by that hangar all the time on Doolittle Dr, small world!

 

Weeeellll, I'm only going to be there 2 days to help setup and get through tech inspections before any qualifying or races start, but I'll do all I can with whatever arrives while I am there.

Even though our team is "retired" after 20 years and I am pretty rusty, my college buddy from our team (our crew chief) was asked to serve as their Crew Chief this year. He said he'd love to have my help. But I can't do the full 12 day deployment this time.

 

Awesome...Enjoy!

 

Dodge Boy!

I will. I am also looking as this as an extremely rare opportunity to forge a deeper relationship with the Sanders family and team. Their shop and business is about 20 miles from my house.
http://www.sandersaeronautics.com/restoration.asp

 

Got my new Skytec Lightweight starter installed. Going to finish reinstalling the baffling and air box tomorrow for a test run. So far I have saved around $400 in labor! These starters aren't the easiest to get to on the Cardinal, but it's the shiniest thing under the cowling!

 

...^^^... I am curious what a new starter like that and labor would cost at a regular FBO hanger?

The price of anything with "aircraft" on it just astounds me.

Thanks

 

Starter is $500, and labor here is $75-$100/hr. I so far have a little over 4 hours in it, but an A&P could definitely knock it out faster than I can. It would still take them several hours though

 

...^^^... Thank you. I was curious and not as expensive as I originally thought

 

You're welcome!

 

Got it home. Hadn't flown in a year and a half, so we trailered her back from southern Ontario. Just working through the snag list we made after reassembly, and the first water taxi and test flights.

 

We have some new Aircraft for the show this year!!

Exhibitors are a big part of the Leesburg Airshow—it is through them that we are able to make aviation an ‘up close and personal’ experience for our guests. The tarmac always features a variety of vendors including food, flight schools, aviation clubs, and much more. Stay tuned to see what’s coming for the next Leesburg Airshow.

Interested in exhibiting on the tarmac? Complete our Auto & Aircraft Application 2016 or 2016 Vendor and Exhibitor Application and return it to us!

THIS JUST IN: A ch-53 helicopter will be on display. This is a very large helicopter and it will be open for public display!!

EXCITING UPDATE:: A HondaJet will be on display this year! The Honda HA-420 HondaJet is the first aircraft developed by Honda Aircraft Company. The light business




jet was designed in Japan and then developed and manufactured in Greensboro, North Carolina in the United States. Come see this amazing Jet up close and personal!

 

OK, here is the dump from the weekend, if you didn't see them in Live.

The crew my buddy and I were helping out run three Sea Furies.
Race 8 Dreadnought is their modified TMk 20, with a 4-row PW 4360 CI 28 cylinder engine. It has been a top qualifier and won the Gold race once at 450+ mph, but it can't get past the fastest modified Mustangs running today, so they wait to see if the Mustangs will melt down trying to beat each other, and go for the kill in a war of attrition.



Race 114, in the background of the same pictures above, is an FB11 single seat Sea Fury retrofitted with a PW 2800, a recent conversion from the often more common conversion of the Wright 3350, which requires more management and careful attention to oil temps.

Race 924 is a stock TMk 20 with the original Bristol Centaurus sleeve valve engine (18 cylinder, 3272 CI) mated to the original Dowty ROTOL 5-bladed prop.



Reno Stead Airport has an air tanker facility managed by the Bureau of Land Management. We are still in high fire season out here. It is hot, high 80s to low 90s. The field elevation is 5000. Main runway is 9000 feet. In the past, I've witnessed DC4 tanker with full loads use nearly that entire length before rotation, and gear up immediately after rotation to squeak out every ounce of speed for a painfully slow ascent and extremely gentle right turn and orbit of the valley to gain sufficient altitude to escape the surrounding ridges. Everyone on fthe field stops to watch whenever this happens, like we are all rooting them on.
This weekend, a Neptune tanker with JATO pods was in operation, and made at least 3 runs while we were there, along with a couple turbine conversion S2s from CDF. The Neptune did not struggle nearly as much as the DC4.




There were not a lot of Unlimiteds there this year in the pits, but there were more basically stock Mustangs than ever. Rare Bear and 232 were polished up for static display, but not racing this year for various reasons, but they are top crowd pleasers. Strega, too, was not there, but Voodoo was, and Steve Hinton flying. But I didn't have time to get any good shots of them. And I didn't even bother with Sport, Jet, Biplane, and Formula classes just because time and opportunity were very limited.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, here are some interweb images of the racers mentioned:
Strega P-51, multiple Gold winner, not there.


Voodoo P-51. They had it running and flying late yesterday, and it sounded better than I have ever heard it.


Rare Bear F8F Bearcat, heavily modified, multiple Gold winner
multiple Gold winner. There as static display only.


September Fury highly modified Sea Fury. There as static display only.


Czech Mate, highly modified Yak 11, was having prop governor problems upon departure to Reno and had to abort, but got a new one installed and was on base by Sunday. This is a kick-ass little aircraft with an R2800, and if the can stop having mechanicals, it can give everyone a run for their money.


And here is a bunch of eye candy stuff I took of a few stocker Mustangs.

This P-51A with an Allison was awesome. Not fast, but so rare.



More competitive, but still stock and "slow" D models.


These four are all the same aircraft








@justinmbowen @Mtnflyer @MTgirl @OZ-T

 

Garmin has Mac updaters for my hiking and car gps, download from the support area of their website.

 

Hmm, I never did find something that would work for both of my units

 

Blue Angels over Pensacola Beach

 

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In the past, I have had to re-install the Garmin Installer several times to make it work, especially when doing multiple units on a Mac.

In almost seems like the Garmin Installer remembers the last GPS you update.

On some GPS units (with a Mac) it seems like it sometimes it only works once ... close browser, erase computer and reboot and it might work.

Weird but it works. Kind of like erasing cache, history & etc. & rebooting a Mac can sometimes solve many problems.

Good luck
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...^^^... Great photos ... love air shows (and car races) where you can get up close and personal when you work the show or race.
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