Judy and I attended the GMC Cascaders Rally at Arlington, Washington this
past weekend. Held in conjunction with the Arlington, Washington Fly-in in
Northern Washington. Home builts, antiques, foreign makes like the Yaks,
float planes, bush planes, War birds, special aerobatic aircraft, flying
demonstrations, vendors, etc. If you are an aircraft enthusiast, it is a
great event.
We had 10 GMC coaches in attendance, sat right on the flight line,
and watched the continous stream of the golden ages of aviation taxi by.
Not a single homeland security or a TSA agent in sight. Imagine, just walk
up to a parked airplane on the ground, throw your luggage into the cargo
storage, walk around and do your pre flight checks, hop in, buckle up, and
away you go. Not even a control tower at this airport. VFR is the order of
the day.
Dry camping event, so some of our members that don't think they can
exist 3 days without full hook-ups miss out on a great event.
Our trip was not without event. Left on Thursday morning, drove about
a hundred miles and an ominous noise emanated from the engine compartment.
Kind of a whirring, flailing sound. Pulled off the freeway, checked the
alternator charging and that was ok, so i knew my water pump was still
turning. Looked around and spotted an independent auto parts store in a
strip mall and drove into their parking lot. Hot day 85 or so, I opened the
hatch and was greeted by dripping anti freeze and belt fragments. An a/c
belt broke, wrapped itself around the water pump shaft and proceeded to
flail the hell out of everything in the vicinity. Pitched one of my
alternator belts off, cut through the heater hose that crosses the gap
between the radiator and engine, and cracked the "Y" hose fitting that goes
to the hot water heat exchanger. Those thing are made of unobtanium on the
4th of July weekend.
So, I bought a length of 5/8 heater hose and bypassed the heater core
and the heat exchanger, pried the old hoses off the fittings on a hot
scalding engine, put on my new spare set of belts, and headed north. By
this time it was late in the day, so we took refuge in the RV parking lot
of an Indian Casino for the night. Next morning, I retightened my belts and
we headed for the Rally. Trip home was uneventful, just hot and miserable
without dash a/c. Almost 600 miles, round trip. Got to see a bunch of my
GMC friends from Canada and a whole bunch of really neat old airplanes.
Good rally in spite of the belt problem. Keep em running, and use them.
Make some more memories.
Jim Hupy
Salem, Or
78 GMC Royale 403
past weekend. Held in conjunction with the Arlington, Washington Fly-in in
Northern Washington. Home builts, antiques, foreign makes like the Yaks,
float planes, bush planes, War birds, special aerobatic aircraft, flying
demonstrations, vendors, etc. If you are an aircraft enthusiast, it is a
great event.
We had 10 GMC coaches in attendance, sat right on the flight line,
and watched the continous stream of the golden ages of aviation taxi by.
Not a single homeland security or a TSA agent in sight. Imagine, just walk
up to a parked airplane on the ground, throw your luggage into the cargo
storage, walk around and do your pre flight checks, hop in, buckle up, and
away you go. Not even a control tower at this airport. VFR is the order of
the day.
Dry camping event, so some of our members that don't think they can
exist 3 days without full hook-ups miss out on a great event.
Our trip was not without event. Left on Thursday morning, drove about
a hundred miles and an ominous noise emanated from the engine compartment.
Kind of a whirring, flailing sound. Pulled off the freeway, checked the
alternator charging and that was ok, so i knew my water pump was still
turning. Looked around and spotted an independent auto parts store in a
strip mall and drove into their parking lot. Hot day 85 or so, I opened the
hatch and was greeted by dripping anti freeze and belt fragments. An a/c
belt broke, wrapped itself around the water pump shaft and proceeded to
flail the hell out of everything in the vicinity. Pitched one of my
alternator belts off, cut through the heater hose that crosses the gap
between the radiator and engine, and cracked the "Y" hose fitting that goes
to the hot water heat exchanger. Those thing are made of unobtanium on the
4th of July weekend.
So, I bought a length of 5/8 heater hose and bypassed the heater core
and the heat exchanger, pried the old hoses off the fittings on a hot
scalding engine, put on my new spare set of belts, and headed north. By
this time it was late in the day, so we took refuge in the RV parking lot
of an Indian Casino for the night. Next morning, I retightened my belts and
we headed for the Rally. Trip home was uneventful, just hot and miserable
without dash a/c. Almost 600 miles, round trip. Got to see a bunch of my
GMC friends from Canada and a whole bunch of really neat old airplanes.
Good rally in spite of the belt problem. Keep em running, and use them.
Make some more memories.
Jim Hupy
Salem, Or
78 GMC Royale 403
