Waking Up a Sleeping Midget

In 1972 my Dad bought a brand new MG Midget. He drove it almost daily until the late '80's. Over the years he added lots of switches and gadgets, like every thing else he owned. It has clocks and a compass out of a WWII fighter, custom dash and console, custom engine gauges, an inverter, a smoke screen, and an uga horn. Most of it is disconnected. When my Dad got sick in 2004, he didn't have time to give me anything more than a hand-drawn diagram to make sense of the mess of wires under the hood before he died.

Dad's Midget back in the '70's

Crazy Gauges & Switches

The years of east coast daily driving have rotted the vulnerable British paint and body work. The interior isn't much better, especially the giant piece of foam sticking out of the driver's seat that. I do my best to ignore it! To an outsider the car would be best described as a basket case, but due to my Dad's dutiful maintenance, it is mechanically sound. Ever since he passed away, I've made a commitment to keep it running as long as possible. It gets more smiles, waves, and comments than the M Coupe and brings back nostalgic memories of riding in the passenger seat as a small child, barely able to see over the dash. It spent a couple more years in Maryland before I brought it back to Colorado in 2007. For some reason Diogee took the car. If Jo wasn't with me, he always rode shotgun.

Enjoying the Boulder Foothills with Diogee

He Took this Picture

(dam good shot for a dog)

In the summer of 2008, while driving up a steep hill in my neighborhood, the engine started hesitating. I nursed it home and into the garage. It was the middle of my mountain bike racing season, between work and training I didn't have time to troubleshoot the problem. Summer turned to fall, weeks turned to months then years and the Midget sat in the corner of the garage. The layer of dust thickened, along with my guilt, and the repair evolved from solving a running issue to starting a motor that hadn't been run in years.

3 Years of Dust

Fast forward to 2012. Over the next couple months I have a crazy scheme in the works. I'm not gonna say what it is yet, but I will say that I can't go through with it in good consciousness unless the Midget is running first. When it originally started running rough I suspected either a fuel issue or an ignition issue. I decided to rule out the latter by replacing the 40 year old condenser in the distributor with a solid state ignition. It's a great modern upgrade that remains hidden inside the original distributor cap. I also picked up a new high performance Lucas (prince of darkness) Sport Coil, rotor head, and spark plugs. For bad fuel (if it wasn't bad when I parked, it would be bad now) I compiled a concoction of dry gas, fuel treatment, carb cleaner, and new filter. The battery was long dead so I picked up a new one. It's barely bigger than a motorcycle battery.

The Tools for Awakening a Sleeping Midget

The oil was actually good. I changed it right before I parked it back in 2008. I poured fresh oil into the cylinders and cylinder head. Then it was time to see if the engine was seized. I couldn't turn it by hand without taking the fan belt out of adjustment so I put it 4th gear and pushed it forward slowly. It moved freely! The prep would be completed by installing the electronic goods, flushing the old fuel, cleaning the hell out of the carbs, installing the new fuel filter, and priming some of my gas concoction into the fuel lines. The process took days, but just after dark on Friday night I was ready to try starting it.

Scary Nest of Wires

Solid State Ignition Installed

Jo came out and cranked it while I sprayed a combination of carb cleaner and starter fluid directly into the carbs. It kicked on the first try, but quickly sputtered back to silence. The second prolonged try resulted in nothing. After dumping copious amounts of starter fluid into the intakes, the third try was a charm. It kicked and the revs rose into a grumbly idle. A thick sheen of white smoke poured out of the exhaust as the idle stabilized. Within five minutes it was purring like a kitten, an amazing testament to my Dad's mechanical care.

Dark but Running

WIth air in the tires I headed out to car wash to clean off the dust. An extended road test revealed that the original running issue wasn't totally solved. It happened again going up a steep hill which makes me think I have water or foreign objects in the gas tank. The dry gas in my concoction probably absorbed most of the water. It ran better once the road leveled out, but I don't think it's solved yet. The important thing is the Midget is running again.

Wash Time

Foam Bath

Clean At Last

I laughed out loud at the absurdity of the Midget and its gadgets compared to the sea of boring modern vehicles surrounding me. I can't wait for spring so I can do some proper British motoring with the top down!

Searching for Coffee Photos - Paducah (that's in Kentucky)

Last month I started a new label called "Searching for Coffee Photos". It's about how the random details of what ever city I happen to be in are way more interesting before caffeine than after. The first post in Old Town Sacramento (here) was easy; with giant golden bridges, steam locomotives, and cool urban art I couldn't help but be enthralled by my surroundings.

The hotel we stay at in Paducah, Kentucky is located across the street from a strip mall. It would be hard to find things worth photographing, even with the benefit of pre-caffeinated haze. The point of the post isn't photographic brilliance, it's noticing beauty or at least wonderment in the minor things that I fail to notice once the hustle and bustle of the day takes hold. The same rules apply, only the iPhone camera and only before caffeine. Here's what I came up with from a morning in Paducah.

New Year's Day Ouray in Style

Since its beginning Phoenix Multisport has done a winter trip to Ouray, Colorado. It includes ice climbing, snow shoeing, skiing and snowboarding, hot springing, and hanging in the charming mountain town of Ouray. For several years the trip was a highlight of our winter. There is no better way to take in the new year than sipping Martinellis in a natural hot spring in the Colorado Mountains. We missed it last year and I had to work until late on New Year's Eve this year. The only way to get there would be to fly. The last commercial flight into Montrose left before I finished work. I thought about flying myself, Jo and Lisa in a rented Cessna, but a major wind storm ruled out that as a possibility.

Getting a taste of the mountains was looking bleak, but the first day of 2012 was a new day. Enter Jon. I met Jon through a friend at work. He owns a modern Piper Saratoga II TC (TC stands for turbo charged) and is enthusiastic about flying as well as life in general. I can tell we are going to be great friends. The windstorm had been replaced by a stable high pressure system and Jon was excited about taking a day trip to Ouray on the most beautiful day of the year.

Jon's Saratoga II TC

We met up at Erie Airport and loaded up the Saratoga. I've flown some nice planes over the years, but for a cross country machine, Jon's Saratoga is one of the nicest. It has six leather seats, a turbo charged Lycoming IO-540 engine capable of delivering sea level power up to 18,000 feet, 180 knot true airspeed at 75% power, and touch screen Garmin avionics. It is like the BMW 7 Series of the air! We took off and cruise climbed to 12,500 feet. In no time we were over South Park approaching the Collegiate Mountains. With multiple peaks over 14,000 feet, the Collegiates are a formidable obstacle. The winds aloft at mountain top were about 30 knots. In the stable air that was conducive to light mountain wave formation, but the worst of the wave was forecasted to be north of the I-70 corridor. We aimed for Monarch Pass at the southern end of the Collegiates.

Jon and I Up Front

Jo Enjoying the View

Mt. Princeton in the Collegiate Range

I approached the pass from the south side of valley giving us the widest berth from any rotor lurking in the lee side of Bald Mountain. It also gave us plenty of room to angle out of the pass if we hit strong sink. The ride was smooth as glass over the pass and the views of Monarch Mountain Ski Resort and the Monarch Crest Trail were amazing. The remainder of our route took us over Gunnison, Blue Mesa Reservoir, and The Black Canyon where Jo and I began feeling the affects of Venti Latte's. Our bladder's decided that any touring of the beautiful scenery would be cut short by landing as soon as possible. The Saratoga was firm on the controls, but landed smoothly. An airline pilot trying to land a small plane is always good for a laugh, but I kept the drama to a minimum. They will get better with practice!

Monarch Pass

Monarch Mountain Ski Resort on the far side of Rt. 50, Monarch Crest Trail on the near side

Looking Back from the West

The Rim of the Black Canyon

Landed at Montrose

Jonny V met us at the FBO and drove us into the northern San Juan Mountains to Ouray. We hooked up with Scott, Sean, and few other Phoenix Multisport people and had lunch at the Timberline Deli. Jon fit right in with crew, like he'd known everyone for years. Ouray is situated in a box canyon with cathedralesque rock walls on three sides. The sun was already getting low on the snow caps, but the light reflecting off the east valley wall painted the town in rich late-day light. I wandered off for a few pics. The low sun was our cue that we should keep on the move. We met up with Matt and some Colorado Springs folk for a quick hello then headed back to the airport.

Ouray

After a preemptive emptying of our bladders we took off on runway 31 and turned south for Ouray. I cruise climbed up to 11,500' and looked for the right box canyon in the silhouetted peaks of the San Juans. We followed the Uncompahgre River, which lead us straight to Ouray. Even from our high altitude the box canyon was massive with peaks still thousands of feet above us. We were nothing but a spec, a tiny pixel in a 3D landscape that enveloped us. I entered on the west side of the canyon, ensuring we had enough room to turn around (a bad problem to have in a box canyon). I slowed down slightly to keep our turn radius tight and put Ouray just off the left wing. Once directly overhead we did a few 360's waving at our friends thousands of feet below.

Ouray from Above

The View Out the Front

The sun was really getting low now, it was time to head east. We climbed up to 13,500 feet and crossed over the jagged peaks of the Uncompahgre Wilderness in the northeastern San Juans. I fly over these mountains regularly at work and even after countless of hours of looking down I have yet to get bored. Seeing them out the window at eye level was even more dramatic. The pastel pink alpenglow framing the snowy peaks painted a serene picture that betrayed the danger of flying a small plane over the mountains at night.

The Northeastern San Juans in the Uncompahgre Wilderness

Pointing the Nose Eastbound

The Most Beautiful Mountains in Colorado

Jon and I worked well as a team and the Saratoga flew like a dream. He had recently installed a Garmin Touchscreen Avionics package. The moving map display showed our course, terrain, traffic, weather, airport information, and XM satellite radio on a touchscreen iPad-like display. Night flying through the Rockies had nothing on us. Faint apparitions of the mountains lit by a sliver of moonlight passed under us at 200 knots with a tailwind. The ride was smooth up to Kenosha Pass, but even then the bumps didn't last long. Before we knew it we were on the ground in Erie after my smoothest Saratoga landing yet. It was a perfect New Years day spent with friends - old and new.

Touch Screen Garmin Avionics