The Castrol Rocket

"There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the
credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there." ~ Indira Gandhi

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Below is the Castrol Rocket.

 

Here is a picture of my son, James (Jaybo) Whisler, working on the Castrol Rocket. 

  

Here's the story.  I was sitting by the phone up in Anchorage, AK, on a 3-hour callout reserve.  Scheds called and said they were going to send me to Memphis to sit hotel standby.  Adventures ensued and I found myself at FedEx's Memphis SuperHub preflighting an MD-11 to fly freight out to Salt Lake City.  

This was serendipity.  Jaybo happened to be out at Bonneville Salt Flats preparing the rocket for its record breaking attempt next month.  I called him and asked if I rented a car and drove out there if he'd fit me in.  Sure.  I asked the FO if he wanted to give up some sleep to drive out there and he didn't hesitate.  So, we got to the Hilton in Salt Lake City, took a short 5 hour nap and rented a car and drove out past the Salt Lake into the desert.

Here's a map:

View Larger Map

Here we are standing under the nice shady work area in the blazing Bonneville Salt Flat.

They got the rocket up to 215 mph yesterday.  The driver, Jason DiSalvo has a video of that run at his facebook page. 

This is Jason looking positive while Jaybo makes some last minute adjustments to the amplitude of the franistan.

We hung around in the blazing desert for a hour or so and finally watched them push the rocket out onto the International Raceway.  Jaybo said they were making some clutch adjustments.

At this point, it was getting late and we had to get back to Salt Lake to clean up to fly back to Memphis.

They are planning to run for the record in August.  Jaybo will be there, I won't.  Here's wishing them all the success!

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff