Donâ??t have much to contribute these days so Iâ??m mostly silent here. But
every once in awhile a thread sparks something Iâ??m compelled to reply to.
In 1971 my father did the London to Victoria (BC Canada) air race. The
stranglehold (for all) was going to be refueling in Greenland (maybe Iceland -
Iâ??m not sure). There were only two fuel pumps and all the planes would be
coming in at about the same time and out as fast as possible. With the aux tank
in the back seat, about 180 gallons were required. Months in advance, Dad
contacted a guy with a pick-up and sent him a waterbed. Pick-up guy met him at
the end of the airstrip, and (hand) pumped a full load into the Comanche 400T.
To the amazement of all, they were in and out in record time!
But I digress...
To get to the start of the race, he and copilot Bill, had to fly the plane from
Seattle to London. Actually not a problem (other than the foaming of the runway
at the Piper factory en-route for a wheels-up landing that never transpired).
On the trip east, they had mostly calm air at high altitude. But shortly after
the start in London they got into some turbulence and flew a lower altitude
than wanted (optimum cruising altitude was 24-32kâ?? (single engine prop plane
and on oxygen).
Dad was always a heavy smoker. About 50 miles from the start, his copilot Bill
smelled gas. Dad wasnâ??t worried and lit another cigarette. In the next round
of turbulence, Bill looked into the back seat (aux tank area) and saw a HUGE
stream of fuel coming out of a vent line! Crazy as it made my dad, he didnâ??t
smoke again on that leg - or at least until that tank was exhausted.
Point being that at the lower altitude and with warmer temps, the fuel expand
quite a bit! Thatâ??s why dad would always refuel the night before a
cross-country trip and why there was often fuel dripping on the hanger floor in
the morning before we headed out.
Make no mistake... gasoline expands a lot!
Greg â??Lunkerâ?? Hilyer
TR4 #314
Albuquerque NM
> On Sep 26, 2019, at 8:.28 PM, Brad Eells via Fot <fot@autox.team.net> wrote:
>
> --Apple-Mail-3E6638B7-D692-4FF1-A2BE-3AA870E70F66
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset=utf-8
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> Funny this came up today:
>
> https://vintageracecar.com/cool-fuel-penske-and-the-art-of-refuelling/2/
>
> Brad Eells
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Sep 26, 2019, at 5:20 PM, Bill Dentinger via Fot <fot@autox.team.net> w=
> rote:
>> =20
>> =EF=BB=BFSmokey signed all of our event posters at that 1992 event.
>> Bill Dentinger
>> =20
>> Sent from AOL Mobile Mail
>> =20
>>> On Thursday, September 26, 2019, Jerry Van Vlack via Fot <fot@autox.team.=
> net> wrote:
>>> =20
>>> I think Smokey Yunick also built a scaled down Chevy Malibu that looked c=
> orrect. Don=E2=80=99t recall if he got caught before he
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