Re: Bear On The Move!
Well mah boy, it went like this. We had blowed the engine up real good the year before in Mojave. Some slick engineer type used a slip on type hose fitting, and some screw type hose clamps. On a high pressure oil line, well she let go and quick as you can say hold on to yer ass all the oil ran out the engine. Mah dad wasn't able to get the gear down, and she coasted to a stop on two prop blades and the tailwheel.
So thar she sat fer a year. No engine, no money, and believe it or not no crew full of guys willing to do all the work for free. So during the ensuing year lots of fellers with big ideas get jaw-jackin' to mah dad and some of these fellers, Ralph Payne, Randy Scoville, Wally McDonnell well they tell Lyle "just tow it on the highway from Mojave to Van Nuys". So eventually Lyle figures out nobody is going to camp out in Mojave and put the plane back together so he says. "Well guys how are WE going to do that?" Crickets mah boy, crickets. So April rolls by, then May rolls by then June. One day I graduated High school, Lyle says "congratulations, now go fetch man airplane from the desert. Here is the car keys to both El Caminos, modify the Chevy truck get all the permits, don't spend any money, and don't get caught or arrested. So mah best friend and the balance of the Spirit of 77 race crew Tim Reilly and I put about 5,000 miles on the 1973 El Camino, and about 2,000 miles on his new 1977 El Camino figuring out how to move the plane. One fine day at the end of summer we snuck out of Kern county on an unimproved back road. Avoided the Kern county sheriff car, and made it into Los Angeles county by the skin of our teeth.
Well the answer is yep we were too young to know better. But we were following orders.
Originally posted by Big_Jim
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So thar she sat fer a year. No engine, no money, and believe it or not no crew full of guys willing to do all the work for free. So during the ensuing year lots of fellers with big ideas get jaw-jackin' to mah dad and some of these fellers, Ralph Payne, Randy Scoville, Wally McDonnell well they tell Lyle "just tow it on the highway from Mojave to Van Nuys". So eventually Lyle figures out nobody is going to camp out in Mojave and put the plane back together so he says. "Well guys how are WE going to do that?" Crickets mah boy, crickets. So April rolls by, then May rolls by then June. One day I graduated High school, Lyle says "congratulations, now go fetch man airplane from the desert. Here is the car keys to both El Caminos, modify the Chevy truck get all the permits, don't spend any money, and don't get caught or arrested. So mah best friend and the balance of the Spirit of 77 race crew Tim Reilly and I put about 5,000 miles on the 1973 El Camino, and about 2,000 miles on his new 1977 El Camino figuring out how to move the plane. One fine day at the end of summer we snuck out of Kern county on an unimproved back road. Avoided the Kern county sheriff car, and made it into Los Angeles county by the skin of our teeth.
Well the answer is yep we were too young to know better. But we were following orders.
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