TOP GUN
05-05-2005, 01:47 PM
#251
RE: TOP GUN
Terry used the 3M aluminum polishing system after knocking the surface down with 600/800/1200. The 3M system cuts quickly and seals the surface against oxidation. The 3M system leaves a proper patina on the mirror finished surfaces as is found in the real thing. Terry's 100 had been stored in the basement all winter. Sheila said all they had to do prior to driving to Lakeland was wipe the dust off of it. None of the aluminum had tarnished.
The Bakersfield polish brings the surface to a true mirror. However it has no oxidation inhibitor. 3M's system includes a bottle of sealant for wiping "into" the Flite-Metal surface.
The Bakersfield polish brings the surface to a true mirror. However it has no oxidation inhibitor. 3M's system includes a bottle of sealant for wiping "into" the Flite-Metal surface.
05-06-2005, 12:25 AM
#252
RE: TOP GUN
This was my first participation at Top Gun and I loved it!
My Sea Fury wasn't ready so I refinished my P51 for the event, spend wednesday fixing the wing damaged during transports but got the plane ready for ProAm rounds. Of course second flight the HS needle valve fall off and had to dead stick on the main runway.
My goal was not to be last (achieved) and learn for hopefully the next invitation. I have a year to get my Jerry Bates Sea Fury ready and following some jet flyer recomendations, I'll will practice.
Thank you Frank Tiano for the oportunity!
Bruno
My Sea Fury wasn't ready so I refinished my P51 for the event, spend wednesday fixing the wing damaged during transports but got the plane ready for ProAm rounds. Of course second flight the HS needle valve fall off and had to dead stick on the main runway.
My goal was not to be last (achieved) and learn for hopefully the next invitation. I have a year to get my Jerry Bates Sea Fury ready and following some jet flyer recomendations, I'll will practice.
Thank you Frank Tiano for the oportunity!
Bruno
05-06-2005, 06:02 AM
#253
Join Date: May 2005
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RE: TOP GUN
Realy excelent photoes on this thred, Congratulations John.
Here is a note i sent a few UK freinds when we got back on Tusday:
I also posted it on the Scale builder.com.
-------------------------
Dave Toyer, myself and Neil Tidy are Just back so here are some impressions from our trip to Top Gun in Florida .
The journey has got much easier than when we did it four times 91-95.
Starting with the realization that the baggage allowance on North Atlantic flights is 64 kg as long as no one piece is more than 32kg.
My Swordfish is best part of 15 kg so I new I would have to work a bit hard to hit the target weight.
Dave Toyer's Miles Messenger is 9 kg but being a furniture maker he made a quality box that weighed 28kg by itself, some dramatic lightening and foam inserts solved his problem but left me a bit concerned.
I removed the dummy engine, wheals, tanks, battery and pilots and anything else that moved and put them in a suitcase of the hard shell variety with my clothes.
A trip to Mick Reeves for a large quantity of light ply, a laminated foam lid glued up with that splendid polyurethane glue that he sells and carbon tape corners got me on target with a box that withstood the journey very well.
At the BA desk at Gatwick we received excellent treatment, The boxes were security checked in front of us and wheeled carefully off, reappearing at the other end undamaged.
Greg Tracy had gone the day before and met us at Orlando with a car of the Chrysler Voyager variety, we upgraded the compact car that was included with our flight to something the same and arrived smoothly at our hotel 45 min later on Tuesday.
We were also met by Reg Hinnant who I had corresponded with E-Mail for about 8 years, he had driven from Texas and bought along all the back up gear we needed such as sun shelter and large ice boxes. Much appreciated.
Wednesday we went to the field and re-assembled, some stormy wind and rain was just clearing off leaving a temperature of 98 deg in the shade.
Thursday I was second on for static receiving a score of 93.417
The 3 static judges etch specialize in Outline, Markings and Craftsmanship. About 1/3 for etch.
The new Pro-Am class that had an entry of 64, starts flying Thursday, continues Friday and has a final 4th round on Sunday. Pro-Am is split into Pro and Am has easier documentation requirments , a truly excellent way of bringing in new talent.
I was in Expert that is for entrees that did not draw their own plan. Len Ashdown who did draw it also was thair from Canada. Their is also a Masters class for those that drew from scratch. Their is no penalty for moulded fuselage but 100% moulded wings/tail etc attract a 2% flight deduction.
Greg's all moulded P51 suffered somewhat in the heat, The 4 blade static prop drooped comically as it did not apere to have bean cured properly.
My static was done so we shot of to the Kermit Weeks fantasy of flight museum 30 min away. A wonderful flight in a 4 passenger 1929 New Standard D25 behind a splendid Wright Whirlwind radial was followed by a tour of the restoration hangers. A lake nearby is big enough to get the Sunderland off but it dose look like it needs some TLC before flying again.
Back at the Lakeland Linder field the next day it was Dave Toyer's turn for Static judging with his Miles Messenger. When the results were posted after the first flying round he was somewhat gobsmacked to receive best static in his Expert class. A great boost to our morale as he beat some big names and past winners.
Expert , Masters Class and team started flying the first of 4 rounds on Saturday.
Top Gun is a scale SHOW and the 4000 Crud pays well for entry etch day and has plenty of action to look at.
The four flight lines are etch 20' apart, frequencies have bean pre-planed from entry and you can not change but thaay are not checked or monitored. Two judges on etch line rotate so the pilots stay on their allocated line.
Etch line has a coordinator /controller speaking to the other 3, If you want to takeoff , land, touch and go etc, you clear it with him first, you may be asked to circle while the runway clears, The system works really well and no incidents occurred, indeed I think their has been only one mid air in 18 years or 2000 flights and that was Dave Plat!
Pilots are not allowed on the runway that is much closer than we are used to. A small but effective net protects the judges, proved by Dave Plat who is still a bit erratic! Most of the time their was a cross wind yet it was easily managed by most.
Probably a 1/3 of the models were jets, all fitted with giros that kept them straight down the middle of the 50' wide runway. BVM had a "facility" for his customers that contained 14 models including Ian (Permagrit) Richardson flying in team who crashed in the first round from radio failer.
My rounds went something like this.
We arrived on the airfield at dawn, prepared well, had the pilots briefing, the National anthem and a magnificent fly-buy with a T28 at zero distance.
I was second on, on line one.
First take-off I applied throttle and the engine died to one cylinder. Do not really know why.
We had reset the engine for the 10% fuel that I did not rely like and had probably re-installed the tanks wrong.
Ground was not broken so I was able to call an attempt.
I went to the back of the round and did a modest flight, my compulsory fast and slow fly buy's were to high. I think we were the only entrees doing a touch and go that counts as two monuverers, 9 monuvers are performed, realism is marked as a 10th monuver in etch round so flights are shorter than we are used to in FAI.
Lunch time is a dramatic 75 min show to entertain the crowd, A B29 dropped an X1 then went on to do inverted pass and outside loops!
Quinky Somenez did a fantastic aerobatic routine and RC combat was demonstrated with 8 models.
Behind the flight line and grandstand are a interesting collection of vendors and food including factory backup teams from the major radio brands.
When I asked how to get a team futaba shirt I was told that first I had to be in the team and second get rid of that silly accent!
Round 2 on Saterday afternoon I did a rubish Touch and Go tipping it over and damaging a few bits.
Saturday night is a awards banquet held in a very nice country club. Good food is followed by pilots choice awards where I collected a large trophy, $100 and a Subscription to RC report magazine. When I got home I realized I had won Best Biplane twice before in the early 90's.
Dave received best pre WW2 and his best static awards trophy's, the cash included paid his hotel bill nicely!
All these awards are sponsored and include goodies and cash hence the need for a decent crowd and big publicity.
Sunday opened with wind and heavy rain, we overstayed another big breakfast at Denny's not leaving enough time to prepare for my early flight, things would have been OK but I had reverse charged the receiver battery and it was flat. I had taken my rather old US voltage charger and the wrong lead.
I had a carefully charged and cycled spare but somehow that was flat as well. A lesson well learnt.
That disposed of round three.
Fourth round on Sunday afternoon went much better and I got some high scores,
The score sheets are available after the rounds and it was encouraging that I was getting 9+ for most.
I nailed the touch with a 9.75 out of 10 but but when I applied throttle for the "go" bit the engine died. When changing the battery I had replaced the tanks with the vents at the bottom and even a Laser will not go with no fuel!
Narv Jensen the FAI scale chairman was one of the judges and his pair were soon known as the hard judges.
110 quality entrees were invited and shows their is nothing wrong with the US scale scene yet they have trouble scraping together a FAI team for scale. No problem with other disciplines such as Gliding, racing or aerobatics.
25 major awards plus the competion awards from 5 classes that in most cases went down to 5 places all included cash and goodies. Mr Top Gun in Expert was Greg Hahn with a B25d and Mr Top Gun in Masters was David Hays with a Rockwell Thrush proving that you do not need a moulded jet to win!
$1000.and a hansom trophy and much more went their way.
Full results are at : http://www.franktiano.com/topgun.htm
Top Gun are always looking for new overseas entrees and if you have a reasoneble competion record and an interesting model an invitation will soon be issued.
We thoughley enjoyed every minute of our trip.
Here is a note i sent a few UK freinds when we got back on Tusday:
I also posted it on the Scale builder.com.
-------------------------
Dave Toyer, myself and Neil Tidy are Just back so here are some impressions from our trip to Top Gun in Florida .
The journey has got much easier than when we did it four times 91-95.
Starting with the realization that the baggage allowance on North Atlantic flights is 64 kg as long as no one piece is more than 32kg.
My Swordfish is best part of 15 kg so I new I would have to work a bit hard to hit the target weight.
Dave Toyer's Miles Messenger is 9 kg but being a furniture maker he made a quality box that weighed 28kg by itself, some dramatic lightening and foam inserts solved his problem but left me a bit concerned.
I removed the dummy engine, wheals, tanks, battery and pilots and anything else that moved and put them in a suitcase of the hard shell variety with my clothes.
A trip to Mick Reeves for a large quantity of light ply, a laminated foam lid glued up with that splendid polyurethane glue that he sells and carbon tape corners got me on target with a box that withstood the journey very well.
At the BA desk at Gatwick we received excellent treatment, The boxes were security checked in front of us and wheeled carefully off, reappearing at the other end undamaged.
Greg Tracy had gone the day before and met us at Orlando with a car of the Chrysler Voyager variety, we upgraded the compact car that was included with our flight to something the same and arrived smoothly at our hotel 45 min later on Tuesday.
We were also met by Reg Hinnant who I had corresponded with E-Mail for about 8 years, he had driven from Texas and bought along all the back up gear we needed such as sun shelter and large ice boxes. Much appreciated.
Wednesday we went to the field and re-assembled, some stormy wind and rain was just clearing off leaving a temperature of 98 deg in the shade.
Thursday I was second on for static receiving a score of 93.417
The 3 static judges etch specialize in Outline, Markings and Craftsmanship. About 1/3 for etch.
The new Pro-Am class that had an entry of 64, starts flying Thursday, continues Friday and has a final 4th round on Sunday. Pro-Am is split into Pro and Am has easier documentation requirments , a truly excellent way of bringing in new talent.
I was in Expert that is for entrees that did not draw their own plan. Len Ashdown who did draw it also was thair from Canada. Their is also a Masters class for those that drew from scratch. Their is no penalty for moulded fuselage but 100% moulded wings/tail etc attract a 2% flight deduction.
Greg's all moulded P51 suffered somewhat in the heat, The 4 blade static prop drooped comically as it did not apere to have bean cured properly.
My static was done so we shot of to the Kermit Weeks fantasy of flight museum 30 min away. A wonderful flight in a 4 passenger 1929 New Standard D25 behind a splendid Wright Whirlwind radial was followed by a tour of the restoration hangers. A lake nearby is big enough to get the Sunderland off but it dose look like it needs some TLC before flying again.
Back at the Lakeland Linder field the next day it was Dave Toyer's turn for Static judging with his Miles Messenger. When the results were posted after the first flying round he was somewhat gobsmacked to receive best static in his Expert class. A great boost to our morale as he beat some big names and past winners.
Expert , Masters Class and team started flying the first of 4 rounds on Saturday.
Top Gun is a scale SHOW and the 4000 Crud pays well for entry etch day and has plenty of action to look at.
The four flight lines are etch 20' apart, frequencies have bean pre-planed from entry and you can not change but thaay are not checked or monitored. Two judges on etch line rotate so the pilots stay on their allocated line.
Etch line has a coordinator /controller speaking to the other 3, If you want to takeoff , land, touch and go etc, you clear it with him first, you may be asked to circle while the runway clears, The system works really well and no incidents occurred, indeed I think their has been only one mid air in 18 years or 2000 flights and that was Dave Plat!
Pilots are not allowed on the runway that is much closer than we are used to. A small but effective net protects the judges, proved by Dave Plat who is still a bit erratic! Most of the time their was a cross wind yet it was easily managed by most.
Probably a 1/3 of the models were jets, all fitted with giros that kept them straight down the middle of the 50' wide runway. BVM had a "facility" for his customers that contained 14 models including Ian (Permagrit) Richardson flying in team who crashed in the first round from radio failer.
My rounds went something like this.
We arrived on the airfield at dawn, prepared well, had the pilots briefing, the National anthem and a magnificent fly-buy with a T28 at zero distance.
I was second on, on line one.
First take-off I applied throttle and the engine died to one cylinder. Do not really know why.
We had reset the engine for the 10% fuel that I did not rely like and had probably re-installed the tanks wrong.
Ground was not broken so I was able to call an attempt.
I went to the back of the round and did a modest flight, my compulsory fast and slow fly buy's were to high. I think we were the only entrees doing a touch and go that counts as two monuverers, 9 monuvers are performed, realism is marked as a 10th monuver in etch round so flights are shorter than we are used to in FAI.
Lunch time is a dramatic 75 min show to entertain the crowd, A B29 dropped an X1 then went on to do inverted pass and outside loops!
Quinky Somenez did a fantastic aerobatic routine and RC combat was demonstrated with 8 models.
Behind the flight line and grandstand are a interesting collection of vendors and food including factory backup teams from the major radio brands.
When I asked how to get a team futaba shirt I was told that first I had to be in the team and second get rid of that silly accent!
Round 2 on Saterday afternoon I did a rubish Touch and Go tipping it over and damaging a few bits.
Saturday night is a awards banquet held in a very nice country club. Good food is followed by pilots choice awards where I collected a large trophy, $100 and a Subscription to RC report magazine. When I got home I realized I had won Best Biplane twice before in the early 90's.
Dave received best pre WW2 and his best static awards trophy's, the cash included paid his hotel bill nicely!
All these awards are sponsored and include goodies and cash hence the need for a decent crowd and big publicity.
Sunday opened with wind and heavy rain, we overstayed another big breakfast at Denny's not leaving enough time to prepare for my early flight, things would have been OK but I had reverse charged the receiver battery and it was flat. I had taken my rather old US voltage charger and the wrong lead.
I had a carefully charged and cycled spare but somehow that was flat as well. A lesson well learnt.
That disposed of round three.
Fourth round on Sunday afternoon went much better and I got some high scores,
The score sheets are available after the rounds and it was encouraging that I was getting 9+ for most.
I nailed the touch with a 9.75 out of 10 but but when I applied throttle for the "go" bit the engine died. When changing the battery I had replaced the tanks with the vents at the bottom and even a Laser will not go with no fuel!
Narv Jensen the FAI scale chairman was one of the judges and his pair were soon known as the hard judges.
110 quality entrees were invited and shows their is nothing wrong with the US scale scene yet they have trouble scraping together a FAI team for scale. No problem with other disciplines such as Gliding, racing or aerobatics.
25 major awards plus the competion awards from 5 classes that in most cases went down to 5 places all included cash and goodies. Mr Top Gun in Expert was Greg Hahn with a B25d and Mr Top Gun in Masters was David Hays with a Rockwell Thrush proving that you do not need a moulded jet to win!
$1000.and a hansom trophy and much more went their way.
Full results are at : http://www.franktiano.com/topgun.htm
Top Gun are always looking for new overseas entrees and if you have a reasoneble competion record and an interesting model an invitation will soon be issued.
We thoughley enjoyed every minute of our trip.
05-06-2005, 09:47 AM
#254
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RE: TOP GUN
ORIGINAL: Falcon0988
I was there Saturday. Took about 50 pics of some beautiful birds. On Saturday, I know at least three went in. I only saw two of them. First the A-26, and then a Zero during the mock battle. The zero took off, rolled over and went in. From a distance, it looked like the wing suffered most of the damage. The A-26 seemed to just just be underpowered and tail heavy. He took off, made two passes, and on the third, he came across the line, went into the pits, and just dropped out of the air into the pits. Luckily no one was hurt, just shocked that a plane crashed so close. The crash I didn't see was, I think an F-86. Supposedly it went down way out there. There was almost nothing left. I did get picks of the A-26 wreckage. I feel bad for him. It was a nice looking plane. Here are a few pics. If you want, I'll post more later.
I was there Saturday. Took about 50 pics of some beautiful birds. On Saturday, I know at least three went in. I only saw two of them. First the A-26, and then a Zero during the mock battle. The zero took off, rolled over and went in. From a distance, it looked like the wing suffered most of the damage. The A-26 seemed to just just be underpowered and tail heavy. He took off, made two passes, and on the third, he came across the line, went into the pits, and just dropped out of the air into the pits. Luckily no one was hurt, just shocked that a plane crashed so close. The crash I didn't see was, I think an F-86. Supposedly it went down way out there. There was almost nothing left. I did get picks of the A-26 wreckage. I feel bad for him. It was a nice looking plane. Here are a few pics. If you want, I'll post more later.
Talked to Mr. Barbee last night....said no way was it underpowered or tailheavy....he was doing a slow flyby with flaps down, gear down, ect.... when he want to throttle up, one engine quit. he was too low when he turned to come and land, and he clipped a tree with one wing.....he then proceeded to get stuck in a tree..the plane sat for 20+ seconds before falling straight into the ground.. that was where all of the damage was done. he also said that there was 7 flights on the plane before the first competition flight. i can also say it was deffenetly not underpowered as i held the plane when he was running in the engine....tons of pull
wanted to clarify things up...
05-06-2005, 09:13 PM
#255
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RE: TOP GUN
Top Gun
Hey Boys...
As my vacation comes to an end, I wanted to drop a line to share what I had seen while here in Florida.
The fact that I dont fly jets did not stop me from going over to Lakeland to see the Top Gun Competition. I was completely in awe when I saw the speed they fly at. I looked for the fella from Saugerties (Bob .. F-16 Designer) and could not find him among all the fans there.
Aside from being reintroduced to the Florida sun on my NY skin that has been hiding under 7 layers of clothing for the last five months, it was a great day! I took some picture of the displayed aircraft, but while they were in the air I was too busy following them with my own two eyes so the camera was ow little use.
I was introduced to the following:
Mark (Last Name?) 3D Heli Demo w/ a gas X-Cell
Queike Sumenzi 3D Airplane Demo
The Futaba 3D Airplane Demo Team
Combat Demo (Ribbon cutting...)
The last fella to demo that day was I think Bob Violet. The pilot was a large man flying a bright orange BVM King Cat jet and answered to Captain Salami! He did his thing simulating breaking the sound barrier and showing what how slow and stable the larger jets are. Wing area is your friend here also. This let went every bit as fast as the F-105's and and F-16's.
The last entry is my salute to all the pilots. The wind was wipping across the runway at a decent rate, maybe 10-20 knots and they still continued to fly. Sometime they would land side-ways and recover! The war planes like the Corsairs and Spitfires seemed to be more difficult to handle in the wind on approach and takeoff than the jets I assume due to speed and wing design. I have a pic of one jet that went down and was carried back to the pits in front of the crowd in the bleachers on the "meat wagon". Many planes would just nose over at the end of the run out due to the crosswind. There was one twin engine jobbie, modeled after Canadian Fire Bomber and lost all radio controll an crashed after flying over the crowd then landing into the "tent city". My condolences to the pilots who may have totaled thier planes.
Could have done without the $25.00 pit passes, $4.00 Lemonades, and $6.00 Cheesburgers.
All in all a great day! See ya at the field.
They don't crash if you don't fly 'em!
Hey Boys...
As my vacation comes to an end, I wanted to drop a line to share what I had seen while here in Florida.
The fact that I dont fly jets did not stop me from going over to Lakeland to see the Top Gun Competition. I was completely in awe when I saw the speed they fly at. I looked for the fella from Saugerties (Bob .. F-16 Designer) and could not find him among all the fans there.
Aside from being reintroduced to the Florida sun on my NY skin that has been hiding under 7 layers of clothing for the last five months, it was a great day! I took some picture of the displayed aircraft, but while they were in the air I was too busy following them with my own two eyes so the camera was ow little use.
I was introduced to the following:
Mark (Last Name?) 3D Heli Demo w/ a gas X-Cell
Queike Sumenzi 3D Airplane Demo
The Futaba 3D Airplane Demo Team
Combat Demo (Ribbon cutting...)
The last fella to demo that day was I think Bob Violet. The pilot was a large man flying a bright orange BVM King Cat jet and answered to Captain Salami! He did his thing simulating breaking the sound barrier and showing what how slow and stable the larger jets are. Wing area is your friend here also. This let went every bit as fast as the F-105's and and F-16's.
The last entry is my salute to all the pilots. The wind was wipping across the runway at a decent rate, maybe 10-20 knots and they still continued to fly. Sometime they would land side-ways and recover! The war planes like the Corsairs and Spitfires seemed to be more difficult to handle in the wind on approach and takeoff than the jets I assume due to speed and wing design. I have a pic of one jet that went down and was carried back to the pits in front of the crowd in the bleachers on the "meat wagon". Many planes would just nose over at the end of the run out due to the crosswind. There was one twin engine jobbie, modeled after Canadian Fire Bomber and lost all radio controll an crashed after flying over the crowd then landing into the "tent city". My condolences to the pilots who may have totaled thier planes.
Could have done without the $25.00 pit passes, $4.00 Lemonades, and $6.00 Cheesburgers.
All in all a great day! See ya at the field.
They don't crash if you don't fly 'em!
05-06-2005, 09:21 PM
#256
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RE: TOP GUN
As I read back in the thread about Mike Barbee'sA-26, Iwonder if he what inputs he was giving to the aircraft? I was told he lost radio comand so I would assume that a gyro was on the rudder? I look back at the photos and the nose gear is pointed to the port side......
05-07-2005, 08:37 PM
#257
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RE: TOP GUN
he deffenetly did not loose radio control.....the only thing he lost was his engine.......three feet higher, and he wouldnt of hit the tree, and he said he wouldve been able to land fine.......im sure he didnt have a gyro on the plane....radio loss, and gyro are both b/s
05-07-2005, 09:59 PM
#258
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RE: TOP GUN
Just wanted to update...today I recoverd my f-18. We must have walked by it several times, but today I got lucky. It was suspended in thick brushes/small trees by two 20' flexible branches which slowed its decent till the nose just touched the ground. I couldn't beleave my eyes...minor damage...just need one wing. And to think I almost gave up..well Frank Tiano knew just what trees to plant around the field! Wish everyone could be this lucky.
George
George
05-07-2005, 10:34 PM
#260
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RE: TOP GUN
"Could have done without the $25.00 pit passes, $4.00 Lemonades, and $6.00 Cheesburgers."
I'm no member of the Tiano Fan Club, and I have not gone to TG since they moved it from the Polo Club, but I think you have to give credit where credit is due...a cheeseburger may be $6(it's up to the vendor to charge what they want, I'd guess) but at least it was EDIBLE, not the absolute horrible garbage they serve at almost every model airplane meet. And the pit pass for $25 is fine, too. Otherwise, there would be 3,465 people in the pits stepping on all the airplanes. Most places would just rope the pits off, and that would be that. At the Polo Club, at least, the venue and the "accomodations", food and grandstand seating and such, were at least nice enough that I would not be afraid to take my wife, which is more than I can say for most meets. I'd rather pay $6 for an edible cheeseburger than $1 for a hot dog that has been floating belly-up in some skanky-lookin' grey water in some vendor's cart since the 1998 Tallahassee Tractor Pull Winternationals. Price out a trip to the local ER to get your stomach pumped, and see what a bargain that two dollar dog is!
I'm no member of the Tiano Fan Club, and I have not gone to TG since they moved it from the Polo Club, but I think you have to give credit where credit is due...a cheeseburger may be $6(it's up to the vendor to charge what they want, I'd guess) but at least it was EDIBLE, not the absolute horrible garbage they serve at almost every model airplane meet. And the pit pass for $25 is fine, too. Otherwise, there would be 3,465 people in the pits stepping on all the airplanes. Most places would just rope the pits off, and that would be that. At the Polo Club, at least, the venue and the "accomodations", food and grandstand seating and such, were at least nice enough that I would not be afraid to take my wife, which is more than I can say for most meets. I'd rather pay $6 for an edible cheeseburger than $1 for a hot dog that has been floating belly-up in some skanky-lookin' grey water in some vendor's cart since the 1998 Tallahassee Tractor Pull Winternationals. Price out a trip to the local ER to get your stomach pumped, and see what a bargain that two dollar dog is!
05-08-2005, 11:18 AM
#261
RE: TOP GUN
ORIGINAL: G.VITTINI
Just wanted to update...today I recoverd my f-18. We must have walked by it several times, but today I got lucky. It was suspended in thick brushes/small trees by two 20' flexible branches which slowed its decent till the nose just touched the ground. I couldn't beleave my eyes...minor damage...just need one wing. And to think I almost gave up..well Frank Tiano knew just what trees to plant around the field! Wish everyone could be this lucky.
George
Just wanted to update...today I recoverd my f-18. We must have walked by it several times, but today I got lucky. It was suspended in thick brushes/small trees by two 20' flexible branches which slowed its decent till the nose just touched the ground. I couldn't beleave my eyes...minor damage...just need one wing. And to think I almost gave up..well Frank Tiano knew just what trees to plant around the field! Wish everyone could be this lucky.
George
Do you have a photo?
05-09-2005, 04:23 PM
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RE: TOP GUN
Funfly and Tiger,
Thanks for getting back to me. I should have know better than to listen to the bleacher talk. I could not realy hear what the announcer was saying. I had read that it was a positive thing to have a gyro on a twin + airframe.
The deal with the 6 dollar cheeseburgers and dogs was probably carried over from going to a an overpriced "bazzar" in Tarpon Springs the night before. I thought it was as good as the ones up here in NY but it was a total wash as the food goes. I was raped for the 6 bucks for a sausage and pepper sandwich plus 3 bucks for a small soda and 4 bucks for 10 french undercooked fries. So I was a little bitter I guess. You have a valid point. We see the Brothers of Italy at the events around the area (carnivals) and they make some kick@$$ food.
Thanks for getting back to me. I should have know better than to listen to the bleacher talk. I could not realy hear what the announcer was saying. I had read that it was a positive thing to have a gyro on a twin + airframe.
The deal with the 6 dollar cheeseburgers and dogs was probably carried over from going to a an overpriced "bazzar" in Tarpon Springs the night before. I thought it was as good as the ones up here in NY but it was a total wash as the food goes. I was raped for the 6 bucks for a sausage and pepper sandwich plus 3 bucks for a small soda and 4 bucks for 10 french undercooked fries. So I was a little bitter I guess. You have a valid point. We see the Brothers of Italy at the events around the area (carnivals) and they make some kick@$$ food.
05-09-2005, 09:55 PM
#266
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RE: TOP GUN
George
That F18 looks just like it did last year when I saw her. I think you are living right because it could have been a total loss.
Remember what happened to Lucos V and his Mig 29 in NY.
Take Care
Ian
That F18 looks just like it did last year when I saw her. I think you are living right because it could have been a total loss.
Remember what happened to Lucos V and his Mig 29 in NY.
Take Care
Ian
05-09-2005, 10:54 PM
#268
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RE: TOP GUN
ORIGINAL: G.VITTINI
Just wanted to update...today I recoverd my f-18. We must have walked by it several times, but today I got lucky. It was suspended in thick brushes/small trees by two 20' flexible branches which slowed its decent till the nose just touched the ground. I couldn't beleave my eyes...minor damage...just need one wing. And to think I almost gave up..well Frank Tiano knew just what trees to plant around the field! Wish everyone could be this lucky.
George
Just wanted to update...today I recoverd my f-18. We must have walked by it several times, but today I got lucky. It was suspended in thick brushes/small trees by two 20' flexible branches which slowed its decent till the nose just touched the ground. I couldn't beleave my eyes...minor damage...just need one wing. And to think I almost gave up..well Frank Tiano knew just what trees to plant around the field! Wish everyone could be this lucky.
George
I was hoping that by some miracle the trees or brush would have saved your jet. I remember when you showed me just the fuselage which had just arrived sitting in the back of your pickup truck (at the OLD house) then the periodic updates during the 2+ years it took you to build it everytime I would stop by.
That's AWESOME that you were given a second chance with that masterpiece.
Congrats man!
Bryce
