Subject: ###Re: Pietenpol-List: Guys with flashers>>On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, Tim Cunningham wrote:>>>>> Mike I couldn't help commenting. I'm one of those guy's with flashersand I>> and bunch of my cohorts have spent our time on bikes and many of themstill>> ride their Harley's. I've never had anyone go so fast that I wouldn'tkeep>> up. Never lost a chase in my 30 years of police work. I hate to thinkhow>> many squad cars I wrecked, but everyone was caught, hospitalized ifneeded>> and jailed. Now I fly the Piet, low and slow and I can't even keep upwith>> normal freeway traffic. At least there's no police brutality (the funpart>> of the job) when I land. Seriously, I like the look of motorcyle wheels,>> but some of the places I've landed just wouldn't do. I'll stick with my>> balloon 800 x 4's.>> Copinfo(at)home.com>> Tim Cunningham>>I've been watching the Paris Ducar rally over the past couple of evenings.>Consistently, over the long runs, the bikes are off the pace of the "cars">(actually, the cars are more like SUV's) by a significant amount. I was>rather suprised by this!>>Back to Piets... The wheels that these guys use take an awful beating over>the course. 10' drops are seen quite often and yes, the entire bike>sometimes lands sideways and on one wheel similar to the described>crosswind landing! Granted, the weight is probably about half of a loaded>Piet but the speed is around the 130-150 kph or around 2-3 times that of>the Piet. They may be worth a look. SpeedVision has been carrying the>races all this week.>>Speaking of SpeedVision...I saw an interesting show last night called>"Airshow World". It looks to be a weekly show on SpeedVision. Anyway, they>were visiting the Shuttleworth Air Museum in England where they specialize>in planes dating from 1909 to 1940. THe currently have the oldest flying>airplane in exsistance, a 1909 Bleriot, I believe it was.>>Anyway, as they progressed through the collection they came to Miles>Aircraft's first plane, a biplane designed for racing in the early 20's.>They are still restoring the plane and they were talking to the engineer>coordinating the rebuild. He said that the original was covered in Irish>linen but due to the cost, they were using American Ceconite. That was all>well and good until he went on to say that one of the Ceconite's>advantages was it's light weight of only 5 POUNDS PER SQUARE YARD!!! Now>let's see, am I going to end up with a 450 lb covering job (5 lbs x 45>liniar yards x 2 yards wide). If so, I may need a second Franklin
. I>suspect that he had the decimal place wrong and it was POINT 5 lbs/sq. yd.>45 lbs seems more realistic.>>Anyway, if you happen to see the show listed, it's well worth watching.>Here, it's on SpeedVision on Wednesday nights along with Sport Flying>(EAA's video magazine), Planes of Fame, World of Flying and Wings! I>generally don't get much done on Wednesday nights >>Ken Beanlands B.Eng (Aerospace)>Calgary, Alberta, Canada>Christavia MK 1 C-GREN>>>________________________________________________________________________________