Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

February 24, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen:

A mid-week work party today, consisting of Earl Gratzer, Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Marty Schenck, Von Armstrong and his friend Tony Riconosciuto, spent an entire day working on getting the engine installed into the car. With a mean age of 68 years old, the “Over The Hill Gang” installed the 4,000 lb, 42,500 hp S&S Turbine Services jet engine into the North American Eagle™ in record time. Utilizing the McVay’s Mobile Welding engine monorail track for the first time, the team had to sort through the usual learning curve and array of small things that come up the initial time you use any piece of equipment. With a few modifications we should be able to install the engine in about 15 minutes after everything is worked out and set up.

Also during the day Ed, Keith, Earl and Von bled the Hydraulic Repair and Design  steering unit. It now works great.  Toward the end of the day, Bernard McVay and Jon Higley stopped by in time to help push the car back into the hangar.  Bernard came with a welder friend, Ryan Gagnon who was driving his utility truck with a beautiful flame paint job. Be sure to click on the middle image below to see the back door in detail. It's worth checking out. The long distance award this week goes to Steve Green from Eagle Machine, Inc. in Abbottsford, BC who dropped off the newly built rear axle with disk brakes.

Saturday will be very busy as the team installs the tail cone, hooks up all the fuel lines, connects the electrical canon plugs, bolts on the windshield, and with a little luck, loads the car into the trailer for transport next Friday.

The team would like to thank Tony Riconosciuto for coming out and helping with the car. Like all visitors to the hangar, if you stick around long enough, we’ll find something for you to do. After everything was done the "Over The Hill Gang"  broke out a case of Geritol® and talked about the good old days. 

That’s it for now. Keep checking back as we add material to the site very often; which sometimes is daily.

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