https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/dtbs8j/called_death_way_one_of_the_most_dangerous_roads
Showing posts with label adventurers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventurers. Show all posts
Friday, February 07, 2025
Friday, February 24, 2023
John Miller flew the first commercially available autogyro cross-country from the Hudson River in NY to San Diego, CA
Miller was understandably surprised when, in early May, he read in the New York Times of Beech-Nut’s intent to sponsor Amelia Earhart’s transcontinental flight! Flying to the Pitcairn Willow Grove field, he quickly discovered that the company had inserted Beech-Nut’s order ahead of his and that he was now to receive C/n B-13 (NC10781). This was clearly an attempt by the company to facilitate Earhart’s flight as the Beech-Nut order had been placed after Miller’s, and he later claimed that "the mechanics and the test pilots leaked the information to me that the sales manager had decided that he would rather have Earhart make the first transcontinental flight for better publicity coverage."28 Miller knew that he was merely regarded as an "unknown professional pilot without such publicity as Beech-Nut could provide" and also learned from the Pitcairn company pilots that Earhart’s final check ride was being delayed until her aircraft could be finished. Miller also later claimed that he spoke with Earhart several times while at the Pitcairn factory and that "she told them that she was not interested in all the aerodynamics and short landing procedures" but "she just wanted to fly it across the continent and then fly around the country for a Beech-Nut advertising campaign."29 So Miller resorted to subterfuge in the face of the company manipulation and announced that "if Amelia wants to make the flight she is welcome to it" but that he had to be in Omaha for the Air Races by May 17 or he would suffer a financial loss. He took a room at a local nearby tourist home and while waiting to take delivery of his Autogiro, received a check ride in the experimental PCA-1B, known as the "Black Maria" (X96N),30 by factory test pilot ‘Skip’ Lukens. Lukens took Miller on a single checkout ride, as he had previously done with Earhart, with five checkout practice landings – after that, Miller was given use of the Black Maria for practice during May 9 – 12, 1931 – he made 110 practice landings with a total of 5.5 hours of flying logged. This averaged out to flights of about 3 minutes along with practice in low cloud banks with the turn indicator. Finally, on May 14, 1931, he took delivery of his Autogiro, which he would name, presumably after the David Ingalls article31 in the March 31, 1931 issue of Fortune Magazine, the "Missing Link.". After five short test hops, Miller promptly left and headed west in PCA-2 NC10781.32
Miller was an experienced professional and aerobatic pilot and had gained extensive knowledge of the aerodynamics of the Autogiro from conversations with pilots Jim Ray, Skip Lukens, Jim Faulkner, and Pitcairn chief engineer Agnew Larsen. He would need all of his abilities for the trip west. While the normal cruising speed of the "Missing Link" was 100 mph, Miller flew at 90 mph to conserve fuel and break in the new engine. The Wright R-975-E, 330 hp, air-cooled radial engine consumed 18 gallons/hour, so Miller could only fly for three hours at which point he would only have 15 minutes of flying time on his fuel reserve. Navigation was by magnetic compass, following landmarks such as rivers or roads, and the pilot hoped that when a landing had to be made, there would be an airfield where the Rand McNally road maps showed one – it was not always the case. Miller discovered this at the end of the second day, during which he flew from Harrisburg to Chicago. He had flown seven hops, 11.3 hours over a route he had never flown before, aiming to land at Maywood Air Mail Field – but that airfield had been abandoned, and its replacement, later known as Midway Airport, was not yet finished or marked on the maps. Miller arrived at the site of the older field after dark and, after a perfect landing, located the new field, to which he immediately flew as he would have to refuel before continuing on. He napped on a workbench and, after refueling, left for Omaha at first light. He hadn’t even eaten. He then flew an additional seven hops, 7.2 hours flying and, after arriving at the site of the Omaha Air Races, flew an additional two hours and made 14 demonstration flights after arrival.
Miller remained in Omaha from May 16th until the 19th, and then left for San Diego. Headwinds kept him from reaching Clovis, NM on May 26th so he landed en route and installed extra fuel tanks on the front seat during the night. The next day he reached the NM town but encountered strong headwinds on the way to El Paso, which consumed extra fuel forcing him to land 18 miles short of his destination to add fuel. On May 28th he began the last leg of the journey from Lordsburg, NM before first light and, after flying 4 hops for 8.9 hours, landed at North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego, CA. The first Autogiro transcontinental flight had taken a total flying time of 43.8 hours and was without mechanical incident. The aircraft had performed flawlessly with the most difficult task for Miller seemingly to get used to the shadows of the blades passing over his head, and the severe sunburn he incurred.
NC10780 was sold to George Palmer Putnam, husband of Amelia Earhart, of New York, NY in May 1931, he sold it to Beech-Nut Packing Company two months later, Earhart continued to fly it for company promotions, when they sponsored Earhart’s early flights
Among other products, the Beech-Nut company manufactured Beech-Nut chewing gum, which was supplied in bulk to Earhart for distribution to the crowds who gathered to witness her cross country landings. (Charter member of 99's) https://iwasm.omeka.net/items/show/1297
It was painted green (the cream panel remained), with “BEECH-NUT” painted large upon its flanks.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/with/4729083504/
https://dmairfield.org/airplanes/NC10780/index.html
https://dmairfield.org/airplanes/NC10780/index.html
Earhart wanted to set a transcontinental record in the awkward-looking craft, which resembled a fixed-wing propeller plane with an engine on the front, but was equipped also with four long rotor blades that spun at 100 revolutions per minute –much slower than the 400 revolutions per minute of modern light helicopters—above the open cockpit.
The 52-gallon fuel capacity of the rotorcraft, dubbed the “flying windmill” by the press, made frequent stops necessary. Amelia made time to visit with local dignitaries and give flight demonstrations. She charmed the crowds who greeted her on the ground.
On the tour, she stopped in 76 towns during about three weeks of traveling. She flew an average speed of 80 mph, about five hours daily, often landing 10 times in a day. She became the first pilot to fly an autogiro round-trip across the United States.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
it's both obscure, historic, rare, and something I had no idea I'd ever heard about after I posted it in 2012... the Kellett Autogyro, that went on the Adm Byrd South Pole Expedition!
Byrd returned to Boston from his first expedition during 1930, the first year of the Depression, with a determination to return to the Antarctic. Despite the fact that in 1933 he had little money of his own and only a few financial supporters, Byrd and his assistants tenaciously sought out and acquired all supplies and equipment needed to take on a second Antarctic expedition in the fall of that year.
One very special piece of equipment secured by Adm. Byrd was a Kellett K-3 Autogyro. Apparently only six K-3 Autogyros were built and with its new engine, the K-3 could takeoff in just 165 feet and with a skilled pilot aboard, could land in between five to 35 feet.
And the most famous K-3 Autogyro was NR12615 which was purchased by the Pep Boys (Manny, Moe, and Jack) automotive chain in Philadelphia and named Pep Boys Snowman.
During the summer of 1933, a 19-year-old merchant seaman from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Charles Virgil Dickens, was also docked in Boston. The teenager loved adventure, second only to story-telling; therefore, he found it difficult to decide against applying for a post on Byrd's ship when he found that the crew must agree not to talk about the secret aircraft on board ship. In his later correspondence, the seaman referred to the aircraft as the first helicopter. (it was the autogyro)
The Pep Boys then loaned this aircraft to Admiral Byrd for his second Antarctic Expedition of 1933-1934…and it became the first rotary-wing machine to operate from the South Pole.
Once in Antarctica, the craft was used for short-range reconnaissance and was usually flown by W.S. McCormick but was also piloted by Byrd. The craft performed numerous useful flights but crashed on 28 September 1934 and was destroyed. The remains were left on site and are still there - covered in ice and snow.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/5934695886/in/photostream/
Once in Antarctica, the craft was used for short-range reconnaissance and was usually flown by W.S. McCormick but was also piloted by Byrd. The craft performed numerous useful flights but crashed on 28 September 1934 and was destroyed. The remains were left on site and are still there - covered in ice and snow.
Later versions of the Kellett autogiro proved more successful, and the Army Air Corps purchased a small number of Kellett YG-1s, the first practical rotorcraft procured by the Army Air Corps, at the end of the 1930s.
you can see a LOT of photos at the Boston Library Flikr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/with/5934696682/
and there are 270 photos by Leslie Jones of the Adm Byrd expedition https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Brelated_item_host_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Leslie+Jones+Collection&f%5Brelated_item_series_ssi%5D%5B%5D=Aviation%3A+Byrd+%5BAdmiral+Richard+E.%5D and they include the Antarctic Snow Cruiser built by Pullman for the exploration of the polar ice
the Antarctic expedition is thoroughly written up at https://www.south-pole.com/p0000108.htm and https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159595164.pdf and https://www.jstor.org/stable/4250003
This is getting a fresh post because I just got a comment on my 2012 post about the Pep Boys Autogyro https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-pep-boys-snowman-autogyro.html Thank you Colby!
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
(coffee and donuts video) In 1955, three Scouts left São Paulo for Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada to participate at the 8th World Scout Jamboree in a 1954 "Horse Face" Willys Jeep. During the trip, the three scouts traveled about 45,000 miles in just over a year, through 19 countries
In the video, Hugo Vidal, one of the scouts that made the trip gave his take on the life-changing event some 65 years later.
I can't understand him in Portugesuse, but it is a fascinating story for any Jeep diehard. I haven't been able to get the video to translate from Portugese to English
the scouts were given this Willys CJ-3B for the adventure, through the efforts of J.B. Versteeg of Willys Brasil, who was involved in the Scouting movement and had met its founder Lord Baden-Powell at the 1929 World Jamboree in England
Between northern Colombia and southern Panama are the ancient swamps of the Darién Gap, impassable to vehicles. But Pan American Airways came to the rescue with a DC-4. With rear wheels and roof rack removed, the Jeep was loaded with only 2 inches of clearance, and flown to San José, Costa Rica, where the guys enjoyed the friendship of Costa Rican Scouts.
Shortly after leaving San José they faced the biggest shock of the trip; on a muddy wooden bridge the Jeep slid off into a ravine and turned over. But the steel hardtop possibly saved their lives, and the Jeep suffered only minor damage.
After the Jamboree, the guys drove back across the border to Toledo, Ohio, where they visited the Willys factory. They were still planning continue to Alaska, and the engineers at Willys found the 3B to be in perfect mechanical condition.
They visited the Warn factory, which produced the free-wheeling Jeep system. Seeing an opportunity, Hugo decided to manufacture the system in Brazil. Talking to Warn executives, he obtained the license to manufacture and redesign the device.
read the rest of the trip at https://wj55.org/Stories/Operation_Pineapple.php
or https://www.allpar.com/threads/operation-pineapple-scouts-crossing-the-americas-in-a-1955-jeep.237318/#post-1085245731 which has other details not found elsewhere.
The scouts had to raise funds for the year long trip, and found that Brazilian car parts companies were eager to trade parts and sponsorship money for the international publicity (70 years later and here I am helping at that!)
The Jeep had used several tailpipes and eleven tires, but except for a shock absorber (whose rod bent after getting airborn), no Brazilian part was replaced.
The total expense recorded for the trip was USD $641, a figure far below the actual costs, due to services and lodging provided free because of the nature of the achievement.
Friday, December 25, 2020
someone is biking across America, (loop style) and blogging about it!
I don't have time enough to get into the pages and photos they've posted in the past 52 days, in order to get into specifics like names, etc etc
But maybe you do, and want to start reading along with a new adventure...
I'll try to make time later, but time is something I can do nothing about except see how much I can get done each day.... with blogging, relaxing, cat sitting for a friend who had to go stay with her parents in her dad's last 2 weeks to live (cancer - fuck you cancer) and now will stay with her mom for a couple weeks until she gets her sea legs under her as this will be the first time in 80s some years that she's ever lived alone, and finally, I'll be taking some guitar lessons thanks to my good friend I'm cat sitting for. (this wasn't a trade, it was coincidence. She asked me months ago what I wanted for xmas... and cancer struck her dad hard and fast, and metastasized fast) so with things, and a job, there's very little time for me to be reading about weeks of a bike ride in order to make a decent post this afternoon
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
I accidentally came across Iohan's latest video, you may recall that he was biking from far Northern Canada to far Southern Argentina, and he's nearly there, 2 years after I posted about him the first time
he's not traveling with a baby alpaca, but he did stop to visit with one while getting groceries in Peru
and found a train wreck no one went back for. Not even salvagers go that far from town to get wrecked trains
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/02/johan-is-biking-all-over-north-american.html for my first post about him, when he'd biked from Canada to Mexico
for his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/istarusIG/videos
Thursday, May 17, 2018
It's been National Bike Month... and here is some historical biking across the USA, it was a lot more common than I thought
Mellen C. Plummer in 1925, at the age of 66, rode cross country from Portland, Maine, to see his brother in San Francisco, California.
But that was no big deal because three years later he set off to ride around and through the U.S. In 1929, he changed that plan to simply ride around the perimeter of the country and challenged any amateur rider over the age of 40 to a 12,000- mile road race.
Quichi Tanaka had been traveling the world “penniless” by bicycle for eight years when he reached Boston in February, 1915. He had spent 10 months cycling around the U.S. and claimed to have ridden in 53 countries — more than 93,000 miles.
Phil and Audrey Palaske were on the road for two years, 1948-50, and planned to visit every state in the union. They had severe wanderlust and added Canada and Mexico to the itinerary
The Mascotts left their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1912 to pedal to San Francisco and return home by wheel, hoping to set a record for a tandem tour. For some unex - plained reason, they turned south at Denver, headed to Texas and rode through the south and up the East Coast on their way home, and the journey took almost a year and covered nearly 10,000 miles.
They also walked across the continent to Los Angeles in 1911!
there are twice as many stories of other people biking across America at
http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/resources/20140601_TheEarlyCrossers_Weiss.pdf
https://www.bikeleague.org/content/bike-month-dates-events-0
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Sailor Tony Pizzo was bet today's equivalent of $50000 that he couldn't bicycle handcuffed to his machine from Los Angeles on May 19th to New York before Nov 1st. He arrived Oct 30th 1919.
These restraints had been sealed in Los Angeles the previous spring by Fatty Arbuckle, who had wagered that no man could ride a single-speed bicycle across the country, and offered to pay $3,500 (around $50,000 adjusted for inflation) to anyone who could—as long as they arrived in New York City before November 1.
Fatty had an ace up his sleeve. The man that mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope had a keen understanding of men. His friend, Tony Pizzo was a sailor with the US Navy during the first World War and was recently married to a young actress at Paramount Studios. If anyone could accomplish the feat, it was Tony Pizzo.
“The Navy would only let him do this ride if it could be combined as a recruitment stunt as well,” says his granddaughter Annette. “That was approved by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR.” During the ride, Tony’s uniform “had to be kept neat and clean at all times.” Governors along his ride route would verify the state of his uniform by writing confirmation letters.
Tony Pizzo succeeded, and the fact that he had a young pregnant wife may have offered a lot of motivation. They needed the money.
Arriving in NYC to fanfare and acclaim at the end of 1919, Sailor Pizzo meets Franklin Roosevelt and is reunited with his friends and the makers of the bet. Happily, the best gift is waiting for him - Fatty brought his wife and newborn son.
the above image is best seen full size on Shorpy of course: http://www.shorpy.com/node/19718 though it is found all over. With the image from Shorpy you can see the top of the uniform has buttons along the seems, and down the underside of the arms, allowing him to get out if it when not in front of a camera. No one wears wool shirts when biking a 3000 mile trip
His goal on his 3rd trip was to visit each capital of the 48 states in the union, and on October 5, 1921, Colorado Governor O.H. Shoup sealed Pizzo’s handcuffs before he rode south to New Mexico, headed to Austin, Texas.
above image from the book "Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy, Volume 13"
https://onceuponatown.tumblr.com/post/82978745931/new-york-new-york-to-los-angeles-and-return-may
http://thebikeshow.net/tony-pizzo-new-york-to-los-angeles-return/
http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2014/05/the-adventures-of-tony-pizzo-sailor.html
http://mytruestory.com/story/177
http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/resources/20140601_TheEarlyCrossers_Weiss.pdf
Friday, May 11, 2018
One of only 3 extraordinary women who achieved the Gold Star in Brooklands for completing a lap on a motorcycle at over 100 mph averaged speed, (on a 350cc single-cylinder Norton), Theresa Wallach
She was half of a team that rode from London to Cape Town in 1935, but that's another post some other day. She wrote a book about it, "The Rugged Road",
and though no photos were known to exist, her teammate's slides were discovered by accident in Jan 2018, and sold at auction
During WW2 she served in the Army Transport Corps, first as a mechanic and later she became the first woman to be a despatch rider in the British Army, where she served for 7 years.
After the war she rode across the US, Mexico, and Canada by motorcycle, with a sleeping bag and full saddlebags, travelling some 32,000 miles in the process.
The tour lasted for two-and-a-half years and was funded on the long trek by stopping and taking 18 odd jobs – everything from airplane mechanic to dishwasher – just long enough to earn enough money to get back on the road. In that era, there was no Motorcycle License, or "endorsement" needed, there were no CBs, and seemingly, no limits to a travel visa.
After her trip, she returned Britain only to find a depressed economy and returned to live in Chicago and made a living as a motorcycle mechanic. Eventually, she established a motorcycle shop selling and repairing mainly Norton and Triumph, incidentally becoming the first unmarried woman to own and operate her own motorcycle business in the United States.
The Japanese manufacturing competition became too much in the 70s, about the same time her 2nd book "Easy Motorcycle Riding" was published and became a top seller.
"The opportunity of seeing America came as a contrast to my journey through Africa, from London to Cape Town, before the war. It is interesting to compare “old” Europe with “young” America and “undeveloped” Africa" you can read an except here
http://www.mostlybymotorcycle.com/tag/theresa-wallach
So she sold her shop in '73 and moved to Phoenix to open the Easy Riding Academy, a school training motorcycle riders.
She continued to ride until the age of 88, when vision forced a halt.
http://cybermotorcycle.com/euro/brands/wallach-blenkiron.htm
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=309
http://themotolady.com/motorcycling-pioneer-theresa-wallach/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5297289/The-British-women-conquered-Sahara.html
and remarkably, I missed a post on one of my favorite sites http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2017/12/remembering-theresa-wallach.html while looking there for tool and car source info
Wednesday, May 09, 2018
two adventurers from Czechoslovakia travelled through Africa on a Praga and sidecar in the 1930s
Mr. Stromer and Mr. Uher went over 25 thousand miles, though sources disagree if they went 50k or 65k.
photo taken at a rest stop by waterfalls in Angola
That seems to be the only info online about their trip
https://www.facebook.com/groups/654324954604252/permalink/1713419162028154/
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Mother and daughter on their way to the Pan Pacific World's Expo, across the country, from Brooklyn to San Fran... when do you think was the last time a mom and daughter rode a side car together? Probably not since these two, in 1915
When 26-year-old Effie Hotchkiss set off from her home in Brooklyn, New York, in May 1915 for the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, on her 3-speed Harley-Davidson, she was bound to raise a few eyebrows—even if she hadn’t stuffed her 52-year-old mother Avis in a sidecar.
Effie was first and foremost a motorcycle fanatic tired of her banking clerical job on Wall Street and eager to see the world, she would recount in an unpublished memoir written some 25 years later.
In the summer of 1914 Effie and her siblings acquired equal shares of their father’s estate, she knew exactly what to do with hers: buy a new Harley-Davidson and head for California. She had a sidecar attached to her motocycle, loaded it with her mom, and supplies, and headed for California
They headed up the Hudson valley to Albany, turning west toward Buffalo, then on to Chicago, averaging 150 miles a day. They drew large crowds of curious onlookers wherever they stopped. They would typically rent rooms from the managers of the garages where they bought gas or sought mechanical assistance.
They spent the next two months traveling 5,000 miles through every type of terrain and weather imaginable. At one time, the temperature ranged from freezing to over 120° in a matter of days
From Chicago they headed down to St. Louis, then across Missouri and Kansas into Colorado. Then they rode southwest to New Mexico. Suffering a flat, Effie created a makeshift inner tube by twisting their blankets together. At one point she had to leave her mother alone overnight at a campsite while she caught a train to Santa Fe to pick up a shipment of inner tubes.
Heading home in late August along the newly christened Lincoln Highway, the pair paused for a few days in Reno, where Effie showed off her newfound hunting skills. But by far the highlight of their return trip was the stop in Milwaukee, (the map maker forgot this important detail) where mother and daughter received a royal welcome and a private tour of the Harley-Davidson plant.
In all, they did 9000 miles on the road, over 5 months, and arrived back in Brooklyn in Oct 1915
They were the first women to make a cross-country trip on a motorcycle, and the first to make it round trip. Effie remarked, “I just wanted to see America and considered that the three-speed Harley-Davidson for myself and sidecar for mother and luggage was the best suited for the job.”
Effie received a letter from a guy she'd run into near the Golden Gate bridge, he'd run out in front of her Harley, asking her to marry him and move to Oregon, and she lived the rest of her life teaching school, minding their general store, his 3 kids, their one daughter, and a farm.
She wrote her memoir, which was passed down through her daughters, and her grand daughter Barbara, who was born in time to know both Effie and her mother Avis (both passed away in the 50s and 60s) and the memoir was shared with http://ridermagazine.com/2015/08/04/effies-great-adventure-first-women-to-ride-cross-country/
http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com/2012/03/avis-and-effie-hotchkiss-motorcycle.html
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