p-factor

I found the parts I need at Black Dragon Auto and MSA, I'll call them tomorrow to see if they have it. I was just hoping to get it in my hands today, but I guess they're rare enough that I need to stick with my Datsun professionals!

I've discovered brake fluid leaking from my left rear drum brake. Went to pep-boys to purchase a rebuild kit for the brake cylinder, only to be told that they don't carry rebuild kits anymore because they're usually so cheap just to replace. OK, so I'll replace it. Can't. Corporate says they're out of stock at the factory. Ok, then I guess I'll get the rebuild kit. Can't, same deal. Sooo......does anyone have any ideas? Is there a manufacturer that I'm not aware of that has either a rebuild kit or a replacement? Is there a compatible part from another model? The poor thing in not driveable until I get this fixed. Thanks. -P- '74 260Z

Hate to hijack this thread, but I didn't want to make a new topic with such a similar problem. I have a 74 260 but I have a 327 V8. When the car is off, the tach is at zero, but from startup to shutdown it is usually pinned at the top of the red arc, but when I use my turn signal the needle drops 300 rpm or so in relation to the blinking of the turn signal light. Every once in a while it drops down into the normal range and seems to indicate pretty close to normal rpm and functions normally for a few minutes. Does this sound like a tach problem or a wiring/sending problem from the distributor?

There are a lot of crappy jobs out there, and most of them are considered stepping stones to better jobs. I avoided the regionals for that very reason, and I've been very lucky with my career so far. There *are* good pilot jobs out there but the aviation industry is very cyclical and we're in a trough right now, but things are looking up! All y'all: If you really, really want to be a pilot, do it. It's not easy, it's not for everyone, it's hard on a relationship, but it's also very rewarding and can be a damn fine way to make a living. That is all.

Adding just any random texture to a surface does not necessarily make things more aerodynamic. As much as I love MythBusters (who doesn't?), they are not the utmost authority on everything, and sometimes I disagree with some of their results and techniques. (in this example they only tested on a straight mile, without taking into account variables like wind and temperature.) Regardless, if texture made things faster why don't race cars, jets, bullets, trains, etc. have textured surfaces? High speed aircraft and jets do the complete opposite of a golf ball's dimpling, creating as smooth a surface with no interruptions in airflow. This is call laminar flow, and keeping the airflow laminar for the greatest distance back from the leading edge of the wing makes for the most efficient airflow=fastest speeds=greatest fuel economy=greatest range. Trust me, if you could prove that textures make something more aerodynamic you'd be the richest man alive! /minirant

I agree. Mine is exactly that, I call it cream pearl, but I have no idea what color is actually is. It looks different depending on the light. Looks light here, closer to white. But here, compared to the snow, it's definitely cream. But HERE, in the sunlight, you can really see the pearl.

Just got the BlackDragon harness in the mail and I'm a bit dismayed that the plugs are totally incompatable and there's only limited instructions on the back of the box. I'm going to keep it because I don't feel like sending it back and waiting but I have no idea where to start cutting and splicing. Hell, I don't even know how to get the darn headlights OUT. Does anyone know of a link with specific instructions or care to help a new guy out?

Who the heck is Dave?

Fixed linky:

Fantastic! MSA only has a harness that fits the 240. Thanks! For archiving, here's the page from the blackdragon catalog: http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/zr/images/0065.jpg

The only upgraded headlight relay I've seen works only on the 240 with the square plugs. I already bought the H4 bulbs to put in the car but there's no relay harness available for my 260, and I can't even find instructions to wire them up on my own. Help?

Thanks to a similar crap pilot, I have a pristine looking polished prop from a 172 hanging in my house. Same deal, BRAND new engine and prop, I think it had maybe 20 hours on it. Renter coming home from some trip and encountered some weather, decided to land at a little po-dunk airport with an extreme crosswind. Bounced, skipped, ran off the runway, across the parallel grass runway, and straight out into a field. At which point he ran STRAIGHT into one of those giant 10 foot tall bales of hay. Direct hit, engine first. Engine/nosewheel ended up wedged under the fuselage, it was pretty yucky. Well they sent the prop back to hartzel to get it bent back into shape, since he didn't hit anything hard it wasn't scratched or sliced as if it would be if he hit asphalt. Anyway. Hartzel sent it back, red-tagged, irrepairable. Apparently he hit the hay bale at near full throttle (which baffles me why, but explains why we careened so far off the runway) and the prop was not only bent back under the nose, but it was bent chord-wise along the axis of rotation. Can't be fixed. Long story short, it looks like a brand new prop, but it just rests in the corner of my stairwell landing looking pretty.

Depends on the size of the jump and how fast they were going in reverse when they hit it!

Pringles can thing appears to be a fire extinguisher. Looks like the pressure gauge on the canister sticking out on the left side. I agree, the high vantage point picture looks pretty cool, but the rest of it is

Yeah, I can fit a surprising amount of R/C stuff in the Z. I can fit a Parkzone T-28, a "DW Foamie" combat, and a hang-launch nine-dollar target foam glider thing that I converted to R/C (it's pretty awesome!) in the back, and the Blade 400 heli, 2 controllers, batteries and everything else up front. When I want to bring everything (a Hangar9 Twist and a Nitroplanes Mustang with a Saito 100 4-stroke) I have to take my saab (which also holds an incredible amount of stuff without breaking anything). So yeah....back on topic.....Um.....so the Z hatch area is pretty big, it's easy to make it look nice with a new deck cover, and since people like to look in the back window it's nice to have it looking clean back there.

Looks more gray in the picture because the flash fired, but it's black. I need to get the dustbuster out to get some of the R/C airplane detritus out of the carpet!

I have the "classic Z logo" deck mat from motorsport and the rear speaker box that covers the rear taillights. I like the black mats with the rest of the black interior and the "Z" in silver really stands out. I can take a picture tomorrow, don't feel like going outside right now! The only other modification I can think of as a possibility would be adding a sub to the spare tire area, what else are you considering for inspiration?

Any update Sunny?

@Blue72: I love the southwest. My wife and I lived in Utah for a little while and we loved to hike all around the whole area. Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, etc.. It looks like you hiked the Angels Landing Trail in Zion. Been there, it's amazing! Here's a shot showing the rest of the guys why the chains are there. It gets even more precarious as we climbed and I didn't want to lose the camera over the side!

Interesting take on this issue. Why do you assume that *all* career oriented pilots will do nothing but flight instruct to earn the required experience. The proposed legislation only applies to airline pilots, there are many other ways to gain valuable experience other than flight instructing. The industry practice of students learning from 300 hour instructors who themselves were trained by 300 hour instructors who then go on to become 400 hour regional FO's flying 50+seat swept wing jets with 1600 hour captains is troubling. Sure, there are very good schools that have airline/jet specific training and programs meant to fast-track a student to the right seat of a jet. Some of these programs are very good, some are not so good, and others are crap. I wish I had time to discuss further but I have to run. I find your opinion on this issue interesting, and I think it is very typical of a person who was trained at a large Florida flight academy to get to the right seat of a regional jet.

I was thinking "Z-Factor"

As an instructor with almost 2000 hours of dual given, I don't have a lot more to add, good advice, Globerunner! S130Z, you can save a lot of money by studying before and after every lesson. You might be persuaded to purchase a structured self-study program like the Cessna Flight Training System. It's a series of computerized, guided, video lessons with a quiz at the end of each lesson. Your results and progress are saved on a disk and your instructor can then see what areas you might've answered wrong and where he or she can then give further instruction. This way you can save the cost of hours of one-on-one instruction from your instructor, which is time consuming and expensive. Your instructor also knows exactly where you are in your knowledge base, and can then format each lesson accordingly. You will still be given ground/classroom instruction by your instructor, especially for the more complicated lessons. Expect to spent at least a few minutes before and after every flight going over what the lesson will be, what to watch for, and then what the next lesson will involve, with areas to read up on. Good luck!

They were all shot through the closed canopy. I had it open at the stop (which is like 3 or 4 inches open) but it wasn't any easier to get the shots because I had to be able to move around and shoot rapid-fire. It was pretty bumpy yesterday so the formation was a little sloppier than we like, so I had to wait for just the right moments when they were all lined up and then fire. Opening it up all the way wouldn't work either because the wind kept blowing my sunglasses off my face and making my eyes water! I took a bunch of videos with the smaller camera during some of the more interesting maneuvers like breaks and re-groups and during our follow-the-leader aerobatic session. I held the second camera out into the slipstream during the takeoff and landing and shot video too.