tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post1078074297128257697..comments2024-02-05T22:44:26.812-08:00Comments on Tailspin's Tales: • Don't Knock the KnockerTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14682476305241175707noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-22052247233559477512011-07-09T19:39:20.158-07:002011-07-09T19:39:20.158-07:00The part about landing had me rolling on the floor...The part about landing had me rolling on the floor as its so true. Great author, very funny writing. Its a great honor to fly an Air Knocker! I love the old stuff. Someday soon they will be just a memory. Keep 'em flying!!!CB flyernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-39764486721395038742010-01-06T22:04:34.543-08:002010-01-06T22:04:34.543-08:00For my tenth birthday my dad bought me an airplane...For my tenth birthday my dad bought me an airplane ride. It was in a Champ at the Monterey, CA Airport. I think it was three bucks. That was more than a Stombecker model in 1948. Altho I spent some time as an aircraft radio repairman, I never had the time or money for flying lessons. Untill one day when talking to a flying buddy, he asked if I wanted to buy a champ? I dunno, how much? He told me the asking price and on a lark I said "offer him half that". Well, now I guess I need to learn to fly the thing. (that was 14 years ago)<br />Yah, it's still a 65 hp. I'm finding that after I push it out the hangar tie it down, start it, untie it, and get my 6'3" old body in and belted, I'm to tired to go anywhere, so most of the time myself and the rest of the airport bums just sit around having a coffee or beer and talking about flying it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-47577293698617329012009-05-06T17:26:00.000-07:002009-05-06T17:26:00.000-07:00Bill says,
"The lunch truck thing is real; in abo...Bill says, <br />"The lunch truck thing is real; in about 1960 when i was learning to be a Goose Pilot in Long Beach...and making $300 a month working in The Pits as a 'mechanic' when i wasn't in a Goose going to Catalina, riding my Triumph Tiger Cub back and forth from Claremont morning and night fog or heat(comma and big breath) the Lunch Truck driver...you know, shiny truck with sandwiches and soft drinks comes by at 12 out on the tarmac on a hot Southern Cal day and bunch of thirsty mechanics gather around...anyway, the lunch truck driver got arrested because...and I was the only guy that didn't know this, being The Kid...he had a layer of cold beer under the crushed ice layer!<br />Most popular lunch truck on Long Beach Airport !!<br />Bill"Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14682476305241175707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-81450559964237021882009-05-05T17:47:00.000-07:002009-05-05T17:47:00.000-07:00I just got back from a two day journey in my Champ...I just got back from a two day journey in my Champ... You captured the essence of the Champ perfectly! :-)<br /><br />RobAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-37968500164650816032009-03-21T18:04:00.000-07:002009-03-21T18:04:00.000-07:00Meanwhile, one of my heros, friends, and a surraga...Meanwhile, one of my heros, friends, and a surragate Uncle wrote:<BR/><BR/>Lex & Tom...<BR/><BR/>One sentence, and the whole thing falls into place !!<BR/><BR/>"... but sitting there on the runway with the spinner stopped in a 65-HP Champ..."<BR/><BR/>My Good Man ! There is no way the spinner will be stopped UNLESS you are stopped on the runway !?!<BR/><BR/>There are stories from the Aleutians of PBY's with ice cold 60 wt. oil in them sitting there while the Williwaws twirl the engines hour after hour ....<BR/>This is directly comparable to a 65 horse airknocker without any forward speed whatsoever!<BR/>It HAS to turn!! What did you think, that *compression* would stop it ???<BR/>Even a Zephir of breeze, "however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense"<BR/>(Surely even you deck-apes have heard the definition of Rape; "penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense"...<BR/>Look it up.<BR/>By the same token, forward movement, however slight, will be sufficient to turn the propellor...all you have to do is open the throttle!<BR/>I mean, yer only burning what?? 3 gals. an hour??<BR/>Give the poor wee thing a dram for to get to the finish line and go for another Take Off !<BR/>Now, if you have some fanscy shmancsy 85 HP !! engine...then that is excess power in the first place and no wonder it won't turn against compression...<BR/><BR/>Now you Boys put your heads together and work this thing out !<BR/>I'm going over and sit in the shade under a wing and see if there is a cold beer under the crushed ice layer in the Lunch Truck !<BR/>Right next to the tomato juice...<BR/><BR/>Uncle BillTomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14682476305241175707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-80144867880183897572009-03-21T17:59:00.000-07:002009-03-21T17:59:00.000-07:00I sent a link to this email to a friend that has h...I sent a link to this email to a friend that has had some, um, <A HREF="http://www.neptunuslex.com/2009/02/20/well-that-was-interesting" REL="nofollow">experience</A>, with a Champ. He posted on his blog thusly:<BR/><BR/>Your correspondent considers that whole taildragger endorsement to be unfinished bidness. I don’t like starting things and not finishing, even if - like the master’s thesis from hell - it takes a hideously extended time.<BR/><BR/>But sitting there on the runway with the spinner stopped in a 65-HP Champ that really wasn’t up to the task of moving the combined bulk of two grandsons of Ireland - one very tall, the other compensating for a relative disadvantage in height by a certain, shall we say, avoirdupois - was off-putting. Perhaps I shoved the throttle up more rapidly than the carburetor could handle on the go. Perhaps. But the same thing might have happened given a bail out from a bad approach or landing, or a runway incursion, or a tower-directed go around, or any number of easily imagined incidents calling for full power rather than its opposite. Any one of which could have injured more than our pride, like.<BR/><BR/>Tailspin Tom has dredged up a relic from the past that details a love/hate relationship with the Champ that almost - but has not quite - convinced me to get back in the fray.<BR/><BR/>I’m still thinking “Citabria.”Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14682476305241175707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-61774434891990321792009-03-21T13:01:00.000-07:002009-03-21T13:01:00.000-07:00Adventure, we learned flying a 1929 open cockpit b...Adventure, we learned <A HREF="http://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2007/12/three-times-thirteen-is-thirty-six.html" REL="nofollow">flying a 1929 open cockpit biplane across the US</A>, is adversity by choice. But only in retrospect.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14682476305241175707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7795385237882019506.post-9717984358747146322009-03-21T11:31:00.000-07:002009-03-21T11:31:00.000-07:00I enjoyed that more than I should have seeing I ha...I enjoyed that more than I should have seeing I have time in a Decathlon and Cub. I've learned that older planes lead to more "adventures" and you need to expect the unexpected.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com