Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) The city of Napa is in a quandary, despite having a perfectly suitable airport, hauling explosives into it are forbidden. An upcoming week long "Harvest festival" is planned in celebration of what looks like a very possible victory for certain medicinal herbs to become "Recreational for Adults" in the behind the curve state of California...and the pot heads want FIREWORKS! Every night! Lots and lots of fireworks. 53,000+ pounds of fireworks. To say they are "excited" is putting it mildly. The shear amount is prohibitive via roadways as well...permits, fees, amount of explosive permitted per vehicle...to make a long permitting process short, they looked for a short cut. Enter a Brain and Brown Stratocruiser, currently in the hands of our old friend Pat Moran of "Eureka we Haul It!" who you may recall from his participation in a couple ATWC legs. Pat is well known for finding his way underneath red tape, and leased this old Brain and Brown hauler, just for this trip. He might have told the B&B folks that he was hauling "Festival Supplies" to get the lease rate he did. He is just able to manage the entire 53,523lbs of fireworks in one load, a load of hazardous materials ultimately bound for a secure wine cellar deep underground somewhere in the hills of Napa *nearby, awaiting either victory, or next year's Spectacular Fourth of July extra extra extra long firework extravaganza. "*Nearby" is the Angwin Parrett Field, 2Oscar3, a small strip associated with a Private College, Pacific Union College. It being a private field, Pat is able to negotiate permission and guarantees for this hazard-haul into their strip...a less than ideal situation in any case due to it's short 3217ft runway...but Pat's...Nerves...are up to the challenge. No insurance company will touch the trip, of course, so Pat is able to charge this arm and leg bill ($455,000) for his risk. The fireworks wait in Truckee Ca. The winery has it's own vehicles standing by at Angwin to take the many loads of fireworks to their temporary cavern home via the lesser traveled Pope Valley route. Perhaps the most overworked cargo loader ever...Truckee doesn't have much automation, this poor guy helped us (Thats right pax, you are helping too :), and flying along of course) to hand hump a hella lot of fireworks aboard, and the guy is sitting there exhausted but well tipped. Pat is just as tired, but still has to fly the plane...his tip comes later. You are wiped out, because you had no clue you were going to be Shanghai'd into this trip and forgot to eat your Wheaties this morning didn't you? Pat wastes no time getting us up and away. No Enroute shots...we were too wiped out to bother. Here we are passing over Pope Valley, Angwin is in the center of the center pane, Pope Strip 05cl is center of the rear pane in the image. Clearly, this looks insane...it requires someone with a very varied aviation career (not a little of it in uncharted jungles with "risky cargos") to pull of a stunt like this...Pat is the crazy man for the job. Tale of the green tape...landing is "OK"...and he made some time on his estimate of arrival. A tiny bit off center, and brakes are getting very hot, but it's down...and we get stopped...phewwwwwww. And nothing blew up inflight!!! And cleaned up before crossing the numbers. There is no parking available for this beast here at Angwin...Pat will be pulling the Strat onto the grass on the left by the wide dirt strip...the cargo containers are over on the right ready to get the load out of town. Cheers. Thanks for flying along...you get a bit of hazard "Tip" today...a good pirate shares the booty. The risk of course was the fear that static might set that load off in flight...and result in something like what appears in this Colin Furze stunt. Enjoy your "Tip": "Don't Haul Fireworks". I love this video...appeals to my inner child and pyro...I especially love the Very Helpful pilot towards the end that aids in getting Colin's project completed...hehehe. God I love aussies. Also, take note of the name of Colin's Fireworks...hahaha. How appropriate to the post eh? lololol. Edited October 16, 2016 by Captain Coffee Spelling...always spelink. Link to post Share on other sites
dolf8857 640 Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 Verry nice shots! Link to post Share on other sites
Corsaire31 419 Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 Nice and funny tale ! Nice video too ! I was surprised to see " Risky Hual ", shouldn't it be "Haul" instead ? 1 Link to post Share on other sites
J G 927 Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) I subscribe to Colin Furze's You Tube channel. The guy is a complete nutter and mus have money to burn - literally! There is another good old British nutter with an equally mad penchant for doing dangerous things. Photonicinductio.. Here is a trailer on what you can expect from him: Edited October 16, 2016 by J G 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted October 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) 5 hours ago, Corsaire31 said: Nice and funny tale ! Nice video too ! I was surprised to see " Risky Hual ", shouldn't it be "Haul" instead ? Ha...i spend about 10 minutes fixing spelling errors after each of these long posts...I missed the title...fixed and thanks Hawkeye! And thanks for the lead to another YouTube nutter J.G.! Edited October 16, 2016 by Captain Coffee Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 Haha, and great pic's Matt. Link to post Share on other sites
dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 Good story, nicely done. Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted October 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2016 Thanks guys, it was both a fun haul with an interesting cargo, and the coincidence of seeing Colin's video show up on my Youtube page the day after the trip kind of helped write the story for me. The extra features in Airhualer2 allow many more scenarios for storios. Having a blast with it. Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted October 20, 2016 Report Share Posted October 20, 2016 Very nice! It's been a while since taking out the old bird - as I remember lining up is a task in that plane Great shots, great story!! Link to post Share on other sites
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