Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Monday, December 12, 2011

Fairchild-24

Stu Savory posted a series of photographs of old airplanes in a German collection. One of them was a Fairchild 24.

The Fairchild 24 was an interesting airplane. It was, for its time, a simple and reliable four-seater. It was produced in both radial engine and inverted in-line engine models.



The in-line engine, a Ranger, was also built by Fairchild.*

If you have ever read Richard Bach's book Biplane, you might recall that he traded a Fairchild-24 for his biplane.

There was a Fairchild-24 at the airport I once flew from. The owner had spend years restoring it. Three weeks after he began flying it, a lineman at the FBO drove his truck into one of the wings.

This is what a F-24's wing looks like, uncovered:


The FBO had to contract out the repair, as they weren't terribly experienced at wood and fabric repairs. The lineman, who was kind of an unthinking boob,** was fired.
_____________________
* Sherman Fairchild was an interesting man. He was both an inventor and entrepreneur, he provided the funding to develop the first integrated circuit chips.
** He had a tendency to use the vents on fuel caps as a hand-grip. I caught him doing that to my airplane and, on close examination, both of the vents had been broken loose. They bought me two new fuel caps. But they could not fix stupid.

3 comments:

Nangleator said...

Beautiful pictures. That Ryan looks awfully tempting, but I bet it's a handful. Probably made for racing.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the links, EBM.
I've linked back.

Ruckus said...

"They could not fix stupid."

Sometimes it's opposite can be taught, to a degree. But the time and effort required is huge and occasionally requires the use of a 2x4, forcefully applied. See attention, getting the mules.