Oshkosh and driving a few tanks

[Pistolero]

Oshkosh was the normal overload of all things aircraft, wonderful time.

Then over to Drive A Tank, in Kasota, Minn. What a blast!

First to the indoor range for some blasting with a Sten, a MG-42, M16, Browning 1919, Garand.

Short ranges, mostly intended for city folks who had never shot anything, let alone full auto.

The surprise was the M16. AR has no big deal in recoil, but when they continue hammering
at you, it DOES move around. Much more than I expected. 1919 gasses you a LOT with
powder gases, and MG42 does not. Sten is a hose, I think if it was clamped in a Ransom Rest,
(not possible) it would shoot about 6" at 15 yds. Garand is a Garand, of course. I had him
move the target back to double the normal range, still probably only 25 yds, shot the clip into
about 1 1/2" standing, very quickly.

Then to the tank driving. First the Abbott self propelled gun. Auto trans, head out, full vision, not
bad but pay attention, pulling handles, clanking treads, narrow road, don't hit the trees. Then the
Brit APC, similar to the Abbot SPG, once around the ~1 mile loop head up, then once buttoned up
with the periscope......OK, this is much more difficult.

Then the Sherman Easy 8, twin GM diesel. Manual tranny, more difficult to handle than the two
later model Brit tracks. One loop with head up, then button up and drive it again. You get your arm
workout, prism is smaller than the newer Brit tracks, tight turns you are just blind, going on faith.
Clearly to fight the TC needs to be head up, yelling commands to driver to get him somewhere
close when driving buttoned up.

Easier to understand how hard it was to drive a Sherman for two days straight to a battle then
go right into the fight. Yikes, supermen, indeed.

Then get into a Centurion, T-55, and more, saw a complete M103 ----which I had no idea what it even
was. Freaking HUGE American 1960s tank, makes an M-60 look like a tinker toy, really. 53 lb projectile
at 4200 fps.......giant .220 Swift! Let's see a Swift can push a 53 grain bullet that fast. 7000 times heavier.

Spent a couple hours after the show with the head guy crawling over tanks, talking motors,
transmissions, suspensions, generally all things "tank". WOW! What a day! Learned a LOT. Long
drive home but got here about 1:30 AM. My wife and a friend rode along on all the drives.

If you are interested in machinery and interesting "guy stuff" this is great fun.

No connection to these guys except as a satisfied customer.

http://www.driveatank.com/

Do it!

Bill

 

[smokeywolf]

You have some wonderful adventures Bill. Always wanted to attend Oshkosh.

 

[Pistolero]

My wonderful wife has been buying me "you get to drive it" packages for Christmas for some years now,
and I am not complaining. Lots of fun. The first was a bulldozer. A couple of hours of training/fun
on a D6K was really cool. Lots more stuff that I drove, and she is still thinking up stuff. I'm always game
to try a new thing. The tanks were very different, very fun.

You should see if you can take the time to drive to Oshkosh. If you like ANY kind of aircraft, you will
be on psychic overload the whole time. Ultralights, classics, antiques, current production, modern
military, WW2 military, WW1 military, homebuilts. All there, all flying. Need to see a dozen P-51
Mustangs parked in a row and flying around? You got it. Hear a talk by a Vietnam or Korean
era combat pilot? Yep. Not many WW2 combat pilots left, but in the last 36 years I have talked
to many of them.
Kermit Weeks gave a talk and then started and ran his ultra rare Sopwith Snipe, with a rotary engine - not to
be confused with a radial engine. The rotaries have the cylinders spinning with the prop, crankshaft
is mounted solid to the firewall. Hearing it run was a treat. He also brought a Fokker D7, an
Albatross. Original engines, airframes reproduced exactly, no airfoils switched to modern ones,
no steel tube fuselages, all exactly identical, basically modern (unrotted!) wood, all old metal parts.
Here is Kermit flying the Snipe down at his base in Florida. Nice museum there, too.

If you are serious about Oshkosh, PM me, I can help with planning and answer questions. I
have been there every year starting in '81, flew my own aircraft there most of those years.

Bill

 

[smokeywolf]

Have a 60+ percent complete 1/4 scale Fokker D7 hanging in the shop.

Have to stay focused on selling the Kali house and buying an Ozarks home for the time being.

 

[Pistolero]

THAT sounds very cool. That is a very large scale, since the full sized D7/DVII has a wingspan of 29 ft,
yours would be 7.25 ft!!!! That is HUGE! Very neat. That must take a very large engine, too.

Well, I understand the moving priority, hope you do get it finished. From what I have read the D7 was the best
and most forgiving (unusual combo!) of the WW1 fighters. Having studied aero engineering, when I looked
at the Albatross, Snipe and D7 together, it is really obvious that the Albatross and Snipe have the typical
early type airfoil, highly cambered, very thin overall and about 1" leading edge diameter The thin airfoil
means spars that are not very tall, I estimate 2.5 inches. The D7 airfoil has a much thicker section, about 6 or maybe
even 7 inches max. Beam stiffness is proportional to the cube of the bear height, so by going from 2.5 to 7 tall
wing spars you increase the spar stiffness by a factor of 22 - not a typo! The other aircraft have a spider web of flying
wires to give them wing strength - with tons of drag, too. The D7 has NO flying wires, only a couple of struts.
And the D7s were able to dive faster without shedding wings, always a real issue and serious fear with others.

The DVII leading edge diameter is about 3", so the stall behavior will be like a modern airfoil, more progressive
and forgiving, where the sharper leading edge early airfoils have a very sharp and unforgiving loss of control
at the stall. And the almost flat bottom of the D7 airfoil (low camber) means lower drag, too. So the D7 was fast,
climbed quickly, had low drag, very strong wings, very forgiving stall...... very superior aircraft. The
Allies were very unhappy with it. Slab sided fuselage, square wing tips, not necessarily beautiful,
the Albatross has this absolutely lovely torpedo shaped plywood fuselage - but a terrible, weak, draggy wings
with a spider web of wires and a vicious stall. It is all about the wings, and the D7, which only appeared in
the last 8 months of WW1 was the first really modern airfoil that I am aware of, and a far superior aircraft.

Bill

 

[462]

Bill,

Drop some hints to your wife about how cool it would be to drive a Ferrari 512 S, or a Ferrari 250 GTO, or a Tyrell P34 six-wheeler, or a McLaren M8, or a Shelby 429 Cobra, or a sedate Lotus 7. Other than the Tyrell, they are all two-seater so she could navigate -- and tell you to slow down.

 

[freebullet]

That's insane!

My wife is even annoyed about missing the tank test drives. I'll bet that was a real blast.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ian]

I don't know for sure Bill, but you may be on the verge of defining "too much fun"!!

 

[KeithB]

Bill, did you see my main customer's booth (Flyboy Accessories) at Oshkosh? Did you see any neat aviation products at any booth? Just curious.

 

[Pistolero]

Keith, I am sorry to say that I never ran across their booth, there always seemed to be
something else going on.

462 - all good ideas. AFAIK, most of those are not available to drive. Esp the Tyrell 6
wheeler. I came within a whisker of driving a 289 Cobra owned by a friend of my
father. When his mechanic started the car up to warm it up, the accelerator pumps
in both four bbl carbs were spurting fuel out at each push of the throttle. Ended that
right there until they could be rebuilt. Not a huge deal, but I was in another city,
and the drive never came off. My Cayman is a fair-to-middling standin for a 512
TR. I would dearly love to run a 250 GTO around a track, and there were four that
showed up at the "Ferrari Autocross" held at the Gainesville Fla drag strip back when
I was in college. I watched guys flog them down the drag strip and then through
cones in the return road and parking lot. Way fun, and the cars were almost
affordable and commonly used in the early '70s. Today 250 GTOs are worth many tens
of millions and I suspect most are just garage queens even for their billionaire
owners, sad to say. I did get to spend about half an hour talking with Vic Elford
a few years ago, while sitting very close to the Chaparral "Sucker Car" that he drove
a few times that weekend. And I count a former Chaparral engineer as a friend,
and he introduced me to Jim Hall that same weekend. Hall has kept most of the
Chaparrals, and still drives them when he wants on his own racetrack.

As to high performance car drives, she already set it up for me to drive a NASCAR stock car at
Fontana (AutoClub track now) in LA, banked oval. In 20 laps I got to about 170 mph and the
instructor said "that is as fast as this car, with this motor will go on this track". They had "only" a
600 hp crate motor, not the 900ish that the racers use. And then, there was the Formula
One car down on Circuit of the Americas near Austin. 1300 lb 2005 Renault F1 car with
3 liter V10 making about 600 hp. Paddle shifters, the whole works, had been raced by
Fernando Alonso, a personal favorite driver. THAT was very cool, too.

To get ready for the F1 car we ran some laps at COTA in a 575 hp Mercedes
AMG, seems like a CL55 or C63 or something, I forget the exact model. Very impressive
for a street car, but not even close to the F1 with the V10. Good for getting a few more
familiarization laps on a very complex course.

There's this place in central Fla with two seat P-51 Mustangs.....and I am finishing up a
consulting engineering job that will pretty much cover a hour of seat time in the Mustang.
Thinking. I have an hour of aerobatics in a T-6.

Ian, as far as "too much" fun, I'll take it. We lived our whole life working hard and living well
below our means, to ensure that we could retire comfortably. Because we found a really
skilled financial manager, and we started saving a substantial portion of our annual earnings
early on, we are now comfortable enough to afford some "toy time", and I lost a good friend
a few years ago. Made me think hard about enjoying the time we have here. I LOVE
watching Jay Leno's Garage. I entirely get it.

Bill

 

[462]

Bill,

The 512 S I mentioned was the model that raced against the Porsche 917. Speaking of the TR, another all-time classic was the 250 Testa Rossa.

Two years ago, a 250 GTO sold at a local auction for a record $37 million.

Every year the Collings Foundation flies in with a B-17, B-24, B-25, and a P-51. This year, the P-51 was a two-seater, and a 1/2-hour of flight time cost $2200, and an hour with stick time was $3200.

Michael

 

[Pistolero]

OK, wrong Ferrarri, and I know better. A friend is building a TR replicar from a Fiero, should
have a Northstar Caddy DOHC V8....if he ever finishes it. Has all the body parts, and the
Fiero.

I lived in Fla, a hour's drive from Daytona when the might 917s and 512s dueled on the high
banking for the 24 hrs. And then down to Sebring, a few more hours drive a few weeks later
for the 12 hr race. Did this for a number of years. This year was my first time to Lemans.

And my Cayman is no kind of standin for a 512S from 1970 or 1971, for certain!

If you haven't seen the movie Lemans, it is the best footage ever of those pinnacle years.
I would pay a good bit to drive a 917, being a Porsche guy. But a 512 Ferrari would be
pretty amazing, too. I did sit in a 917 and in a 908 at Daytona, back in the day. Both
cars were broken, sitting unattended in the garage at 2 am during the race......this college
student car nut could not resist. Amazing to just sit there.

Bill

 

[462]

Perhaps a decade ago, a friend of a friend owned a 512 and drove it in the Laguna Seca Historic Races. All I ever got to do was look at it and drool.

 

[Pistolero]

They were impressive cars, usually less reliable than the Porsche 917s, but not always.

Bill

 

[462]

Porsche's exceptional reliability was the reason it dominated international sports car racing, during the late '60s and well into the 80s. Twin turbos eliminated much of the aural pleasure of racing, still the 917 was exciting to watch . . . and win.

 

[Pistolero]

Yes, agreed. The best 512 ever was the Penske one, where Traco pulled down the Ferrari V-12 and
rebuilt it to their specs, and Penske and Donahue rebuilt the chassis from scratch, too. Faster, more
reliable car was the result. It succumbed to an accident on track which delayed it greatly.

Bill

 

[popper]

You guys are mean and nasty, quit it!! 120 mph is all my reflexes could do when I was a kid. I did work with a guy that was hurt at Laguna and another who mashed a leg in Legend car. Last time I saw him he had a dirt model on the trailer. Motor sports are expensive.

 

[Tom]

I have a good friend and former hunting partner that works for/with Tbm . He was at oshkosh and got to fly a p51. I've always thought the mustang was the coolest looking aircraft ever. He posted a video on Instagram of his flying in formation with a couple of tbm planes with him flying the mustang. Not sure if I could stand the barrel rolls, but I wish I could've been there. Color me envious!

 

[Tomme boy]

My better halfs brother flies this Sikorsky and a few other helicopters. They had a Huey and a BlackHawk but they sold them off. The BlackHawk they had was the very first one that was in civilian hands. Thats him in the white shirt. Flying around Tulsa area

 

[Pistolero]

Very cool flying a P-51 and the helos, too.

I have a few hours flying a Robinson R-44 helo, but only in flight, no take offs or landings, the hard
part. My FIL flew P-51s in WW2, got 2.5 kills. He passed on last year, sad to say, but I enjoyed discussing
his combat flying with him over the years. Very laid back, calm, slow driving guy, even when younger. I
think he got all his hell raising taken care of in combat.

I love aerobatics, no motion sickness, ever.

Bill