I am considering obtaining the 28 foot 1977 Argosy Airstream Motorhome pictured below. I can get it for free if I fix it up and allow the donor to share in the proceeds of any sale when I am done using it. Alternatively, I can sell it and get half the proceeds. It is powered with a Chevy 454. The front portion of the cabin has a futon and 2 captian's chairs, then the kitchen (containing a sink, stove, oven, fridge, freezer, and blender), then a second set of 2 single beds, and then the bathroom (containing sink, crapper and shower). It also has a rooftop a/c. The onboard generator is missing, but it does have a tow hitch.
On 3/9/10, I flew with my friend Kenneth to Lexington for some BBQ. The flight lasted approximately 15 minutes, and I had a great time. The plane was amazing. It was a Cirrus SR20, which is noted for being the first general aviation production aircraft with a parachute. Fortunately, we did not need the parachute. Below are some photos and a short movie of the takeoff and landing.
Stephen and I almost always bring, buy and/or break a remote control toy when we go to the mountains. This year, I decided to "take it up a notch" and get a better quality remote control plane. The following videos demonstrate the progression of our flying skills. In the first video, the flight was pretty successful because it lasted more than a minute, but we apparently hit, or almost hit, a couple of kids when we crashed. You be the judge.
In the second flight, my skills got worse. The flight was shorter and I crashed into a tree. You can actually hear the crash.
Third Flight was as bad as the second, and I almost crashed into Stephen, who was acting as co-pilot and cameraman.
From here, the flights got a lot better. In the last video, you can see a textbook takeoff from the ground performed by Stephen.
Its been a while since I posted anything relating to my race car, so I thought I would share a couple of videos from the track. I filmed these last Sunday at Virginia International Raceway ("VIR").
My car is a 1989 BMW 325i (E-30). It still has the original un-modified engine with about 250,000 miles on the odometer. The rest of the car is purpose built for the track - it has a roll bar, racing seats, 5-point harnesses, a racing suspension, racing brakes, racing wheels, racing tires, and a stripped interior. I bought it about 4 years ago and slowly have been building it to compete in the SPEC E-30 racing series, which is a racing series for 3-series BMWs built between 1983 and 1991.
1) In the first video I pass a 1990's era BMW 3-series (E-36) and then get passed by a couple of corvettes. I spend the rest of the video chasing the Vettes. As you might expect, I have a hard time keeping up with the Vettes in the straights because they have 8 cylinders and somewhere between 300 and 500 horsepower, which is more than twice my car, which only has 6 cylinders and 168hp. Despite the lack of power, I was able to keep up with one of the Vettes.
2) In the second video, I pass the red Vette and then spend the rest of the time chasing a Porsche 911 Carrera 2, which again has substantially more power than my car.
At the end of the two longest straight-aways I was going between 115-120 mph. The silver Vette easily hit 140 mph. For some reason, I wasn't filming on Saturday - a day on which I had separate incidents where I (1) spun out and (2) skidded off track.
The videos may not be too exciting (nobody crashes, spins, or runs off track), but they give you some sense of my hobby.
