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Thunderbird Club

#123,604
bobyoung53 said:
OK, first question, I just discovered my T-Bird truss rod wrench is missing, is it 5/8ths?
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IIRC Epiphone uses a 3mm Allen wrench.
Gibson uses a proprietary crack pipe type tool no idea what size it is but I'd bet you can get one at Guitar Center or Amazon.

Edit - just did a fitting of my Gibson Crack Pipe on a set of Allen wrenches, it fits the 5/16" Allen wrench (and 8mm wrench if you want metric) so that's probably the size you should get if you have to buy one.
 
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#123,605
GBassNorth said:
IIRC Epiphone uses a 3mm Allen wrench.
Gibson uses a proprietary crack pipe type tool no idea what size it is but I'd bet you can get one at Guitar Center or Amazon.
Click to expand...

I had the whole tool that looked like a Swiss Army Knife that included the crack pipe, just want to make sure it's 5/8ths, the ones I've seen on ebay are 5/8ths.
 
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#123,609
Chucky Stiletti said:
it killed everyone (who flew it) except Jimmy Doolittle who won the 1932 Thompson in it...they called him "The Human Bullet".....said it was like balancing a pencil on your finger...:eek:
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My dad worked in aviation most of his life. He said the GB had a lot in common with a bumblebee-didn't know it couldn't fly.
 
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#123,610
GonePlaid said:
My dad worked in aviation most of his life. He said the GB had a lot in common with a bumblebee-didn't know it couldn't fly.
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I know I was fascinated with the Gee Bee's as a kid. My dad was a B-25 pilot (Captain) in the South Pacific at the end of WW2 and so we grew up with plane models, wire & motor planes and remote control planes. I know I had a Gee Bee model in those colours. (red & white)
 
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#123,611
JIO said:
Yah, the suicidal equivilant of motorcycle sidecar racing.
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Sidecar racing look like fun so long as you stay right side up. Climbing all over the machine like they do would be a lot of physical and mental exercise and a blast to try.

Some of us are just not right.
 
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#123,612
Gaolee said:
Sidecar racing look like fun so long as you stay right side up. Climbing all over the machine like they do would be a lot of physical and mental exercise and a blast to try.

Some of us are just not right.
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Yes! I've never been in or on a sidecar or bike equipped with such, but the racing has fascinated me since I first read about it. As does ice racing- especially the Russian version with the big spikes. A sort of Siberian winter Mad Max. But even the sheet metal screw version would be cool (oops).
 
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#123,613
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#123,614
Miles_ONeal said:
As a kid, I remember being very confused looking at pics of that. As a 12-14 y/o model builder and aeronautics geek, I was mainly confused as to why anyone thought that was a good idea.
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the Granville Brothers who were from Mass were in bed with Pratt and Whitney (also from Mass) and would get the engines on loan so they had to create an aircraft to use it. Since P&W never built a sleek inline water cooled engine but was known for it's massive radials the only aerodynamic approach that worked was that of the tear drop. a drop of water (which starts out as a ball) will naturally assume the perfect teardrop ratio of 1/3 width of overall length 1/3 from the wide end, when dropped onto the atmosphere....they used this thinking in designing the fuse....the thing could fly all right....it just didn't want to..
 
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#123,615
Chucky Stiletti said:
the Granville Brothers who were from Mass were in bed with Pratt and Whitney (also from Mass) and would get the engines on loan so they had to create an aircraft to use it. Since P&W never built a sleek inline water cooled engine but was known for it's massive radials the only aerodynamic approach that worked was that of the tear drop. a drop of water (which starts out as a ball) will naturally assume the perfect teardrop ratio of 1/3 width of overall length 1/3 from the wide end, when dropped onto the atmosphere....they used this thinking in designing the fuse....the thing could fly all right....it just didn't want to..
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Drop (liquid) - Wikipedia

Today I learned that there are scientists that have nothing better to do than measure the size and speed of raindrops. Although I appreciate the tenure system that allows academics to pursue their intellectual curiosity, shouldn't those vying for tenure track positions be vetted for what their curiosities actually are? And further, who is approving grants for raindrop size, speed, and morphology studies?

I already knew that raindrops are not the stylized teardrop shape.
 
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#123,616
PillO said:
Drop (liquid) - Wikipedia

Today I learned that there are scientists that have nothing better to do than measure the size and speed of raindrops. Although I appreciate the tenure system that allows academics to pursue their intellectual curiosity, shouldn't those vying for tenure track positions be vetted for what their curiosities actually are? And further, who is approving grants for raindrop size, speed, and morphology studies?

I already knew that raindrops are not the stylized teardrop shape.
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Humans are just really easily bored and distracted, and it's not unusual to suddenky find that resources have been squandered when they're finally called upon for something needful.

Or maybe that's just me...
 
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#123,617
Count Bassie said:
Humans are just really easily bored and distracted, and it's not unusual to suddenky find that resources have been squandered when they're finally called upon for something needful.

Or maybe that's just me...
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How much of life is based on dares?

Most Japanese food appears to be based on dares. It appears that some portion of academic research is based on dares - I dare you to write a grant application for... I dare you to get your paper on...published...
 
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#123,618
JIO said:
Yah, the suicidal equivilant of motorcycle sidecar racing.
Click to expand...

Chucky Stiletti said:
it killed everyone (who flew it) except Jimmy Doolittle who won the 1932 Thompson in it...they called him "The Human Bullet".....said it was like balancing a pencil on your finger...:eek:
Click to expand...

It was all a function of the size of the radial engine and the shortest winds that would allow it to fly. Absolutely crazy.

<---Structural failure and crash.
 
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#123,620
Count Bassie said:
Humans are just really easily bored and distracted, and it's not unusual to suddenky find that resources have been squandered when they're finally called upon for something needful.

Or maybe that's just me...
Click to expand...
Weird stuff often turns out to be useful in the end. It only seems like waste. Sometime, what seems practical turns out to be dross after some time.
 
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