On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 19:31:36 -0700, "Tom" wrote:

There used to be a road alongside a Jean NV restaurant (the Bonny and Clyde
death car was exhibited there, maybe still is there, 35 or so years ago)
that a friend and I used to fly to from NLV in the early 70's or so.

I was in my C-140, and he in his C-120. The last time we went there, unknown
to us, there had been a drag race on this abandoned road and more unknown to
us they had left some tall, very tall, upright posts on each side of the
narrow road.

We just thought we were soooo cool, landing and then taxiing up to the front
of the restaurant, impressing all the girls. Hey, we'd done it several times
without incident.

On takeoff, this last time, he preceded me and I watched, as I was rolling,
him make a really slow low turn to the left, looked really dangerous. As I
rotated, I suddenly saw those poles and turned hard to the left, but the
left wing hit the pole putting a nice deep dent about 2' in on the port wing
and breaking the pole off.

Scared the living crap outta me.

Around here, if there's a nice paved road, pick a nearby field. Most
of the roads around here have so many wires crossing them it's like a
net and it'd be difficult to get down between them.

The expressway might not be too bad, but it even has low hanging power
lines over it. However M-20 coming in from the west is 5 lanes wide
and the last 4 or 5 miles have wires over the road every few hundred
feet with a couple of exceptions.

If you find a pave road in the country and a space with no homes or
corners it would *probably* work, but if there is a row of home or
even a few you'll probably find electric or telephone wires over the
road.

OTOH, I remember a stretch of road a ways north of here, but still in
the county that had a big 36 painted on it and about a half mile later
was an upside down 18. It wasn't there long before someone had it
painted over.


Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Never landed on a road again.
"kontiki" wrote in message
...
.Blueskies. wrote:

Potholes, sharp turns, powerlines, ground traffic...
curbs, signs, fire hydrants.....