Canon PowerShot SD700 IS
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/5
A couple interesting new vehicles parked out back: Vern Raybern’s Eclipse 500 VLJ, next to a Tesla Electric Roadster.
5 responses to “Special Parking”
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Parked out back? You left that thing PARKED!!! Steve, come on… get flying! What are they going to do, chase you down with the Tesla?
( that would make an entertaining movie) -
Heh! This is the jet, not the car.
The car’s electronics (dash board, stereo, nav system, etc.) draw trivial power. Besides the motor, the air conditioning is the major power draw, and it is presumed to be on when calculating the 135 MPG equivalent.
Funny tidbit: the headlights can be left on for 3 months.
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funny tidbit redux rant: will the Tesla be the first car in history that gets the UI for headlight control right? It should turn the lights OFF when you shut down. Period. Even if the super battery array can run the lights for 3 months, it makes no sense to leave the lights ON. In 20+ years of driving, I’ve never once NEEDED my lights to be on AFTER I turned a car off. But I’ve needed to start my car PLENTY of times after leaving the lights on drained the battery completely (arrrg! battery/car manufacturer conspiracy theories!!!). My fave. car of late, a silver (10% reduction in collision risk) audi allroad 2002 model, which I drive with the lights on *all* the time (another 10% reduction in collision risk), has more electronic gadgets in it than most cars, but I can still leave the lights on and kill the battery. Rediculous.
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ps: its remarkable how much the Eclipse 500 is starting to resemble the original Lear 23.
Much better operating economics, interior ergonimics, avionics, and flight management tools. And the screaching, gas sucking GE CJ610 ramjets (http://www.geae.com/engines/corporate/cj610.html) are nicely replaced by the super quiet and effecient Pratt 610F turbofans. The whole plane is 3,000 Pounds lighter on the ramp!!
But the Lear could still outclimb (4k feet per minute no problem) and outfly (speed, range) the Eclipse any day. Brute force Vs. elegance. The Eclipse is much more apropos for 2006.
PS: did you know that Bill Lear co-founded Motorola (the name was for one of the first car radios he invented and became the name of the company that built it after he got bored and sold it to his partner…and its still the same company after all these years). He also: invented the 1st auto pilot and direction finder, the rotary tuning dial that was in almost every TV set for 40 years, and the 8 track tape player and the cassette mechanism it played (the iTunes of it’s day…also motivated by mobile tunes) which he was smart enough to license to lots of different manufacturers. He was one of America’s great, if mercurial, entrepreneurs — and a formidable pilot.
Learjet 23 Specs
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/learjet23.html* Length: 43 ft, 3 in.
* Wingspan: 35 ft, 8 in.
* Empty weight: 6550 lbs
* Max takeoff weight: 12,500 lbs
* Max speed: 535 mph
* Max range: 1,650 mi
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