Are you guys getting excited yet? I talked to Dave Campos three or four weeks ago and he relayed a few tidbits that you might consider. The scrutineers require a helmet with a face shield, and they close the face shield prior to closing the canopy. Dave said that he lifts his face shield as soon as he gets underway. The reason he gave was that peering through two windows, so to speak, creates distortion. He says he can breath better through the Romax firehood and he gets air that helps cool him down through the air vent on the nose of the liner which leads into the cockpit.

He also said that every time he rode an unfamiliar liner he left the skids down until he was thoroughly satisfied as to all of the quirks that separate one liner from another. He says he's never ridden two that were the same. One vote of confidence for the liner that you will be riding, Black Lightning, came from Dave when he told me that the Vincent streamliner was the best handling liner he'd ever ridden. He qualified that remark by saying "up to around 200". Both of you riders, if everything works as planned, will take the streamliner to a different plateau. I've geared the Vincent for 385 mph at 6500 rpm. I don't want to take the stroker motors higher than that if at all possible. Piston speed being the negative factor. It will be of utmost importance that the riders relay any quirks about each pass to me and to each other.

Oh, I almost forgot. Dave, on more than one occasion, left the skids down on the Easy Rider machine in excess of 300 mph. The design of Black Lightning's skids is better as stated by Dave, so he feels that there would be no problem in taking the Vincent to those speeds with the skids down.

Back to rider visibility. My brother worked at Beech aircraft for 40 years (the brother who owns the Chevy Silverado that I use when he lets me). :o) The rule books suggest that the windscreen be made of Lexan. Lexan was used in 2004, however, cracking and shattering is occurring, mainly around the bolt holes that hold it on the aluminium frame. This is not good. Jerry, my brother suggested that I use polycarbonate in lieu of Lexan. It would more than satisfy the scrutineers, as it is virtually shatterproof and is used extensively in aircraft. There are different grades, and obviously the top grade, which our streamliner will require, is more expensive, but distortion, when formed, is far less than the cheaper grades. Don, you had mentioned last year that there was distortion, but tolerable. Hopefully the polycarbonate will improve visibility by eliminating some of the distortion. One drawback that Jerry noted, is that it is more prone to scratching during cleaning than Lexan. And there's no way to get the scratches out that he knew of so we'll have to be extremely careful when cleaning. One thing that may sound a bit shocking to some-- when talking to Denis Manning, he told me his windscreen cost $3000, and they made the form! It was done by a fellow who builds bubble canopies for ultralights and gliders. Ours will cost around $200 and a couple of days work for me. Deep pockets we don't have.