Sorry Don, about the delay in answering your questions. I'm sending this on to Hartmut, as he needs the info, and to all my friends on jtan.

The controls in the cockpit are pretty much the same as last year with only a few exceptions. The rear chain mister has been removed, as it my opinion now that it was totally unnecessary. Actually, the mister was installed by Dan Smith with Dave Campos suggesting that the liner should have the mister. He said that the Easy Rider streamliner would overheat the rear chain on every run, and had to be replaced often. Keep in mind chain technology has come a long way since the Easy Rider was on the salt some 14 years ago. Sam Wheeler's Easy Hook liner can get up to five or six runs with a 520 SK "O" ring chain. As Black Lightning is heavier, we run a 620 SK "O" ring chain, which is quite a bit stronger. Also the length of Black Lightning's chain is longer, which aids in the cooling. Sam's chain is quite a bit shorter. So, the toggle switch for the mister has been removed. This was the toggle on the left side above the low speed parachute button. The pedal, which was formerly the clutch pedal, is now the brake pedal. As the clutch is automatic, there's nothing in the cockpit that has anything to do with the clutch. Put your foot in it and it goes. The brake pedal, which was in the middle, between the throttle and clutch pedal, has been removed. The round pedal for the tow up glider release has been retained in case we have to tow up for some reason or another. If the clutch works as expected, the glider pedal can easily be removed on the salt, or just left alone.

The skid up and down lever has received a mod. I removed the lever and replaced it with a donut handle, which lays flat against the right hand aluminium safety shield, (the shield which keeps your hands from flying out of the cockpit in an emergency). The donut is pretty big, is easy to stick your finger in with a fireglove on, and works quite nicely. Another safety feature is that the donut handle has a shroud around it, which makes it virtually impossible when entering and exiting the liner to disturb it.

All of the rest of the systems are the same as far as location and how they are actuated.

The transmission will be placed in low gear prior to starting the engines. You will drive off on the right skid or left, whichever you prefer, get it up on it's wheels as soon as possible, accelerate, let up on the throttle, make your shift into second gear by pushing the two way toggle switch up. After the shift is made, accelerate in second. When ready to shift into high let up on the throttle. Push the two way toggle switch down and when the shift is made, accelerate. At the end of the run let up on the accelerator. If you had raised the skids during the run insure that you deploy the skids prior to deploying the parachutes. Even though the clutch is an automatic clutch, the clutch will remain locked up, allowing engine compression to aid in slowing the liner. This is due to the fact that the rear wheel is now the driver for the clutch basket, and as long as the clutch basket is spinning over 2500 rpm the weighted fingers keep the clutch engaged. One other thing that you possibly could do to help slow the streamliner in an emergency is to back shift into second.