Just one week to go before Steve and I fly to California to join the ThrustSSC team at Black Rock. Funding is still not secure, but even if the team don't make it, we'll just have to have a great time.
But that is one week away, and there is still a lot to do at Farnborough. The move from P8 to X1 starts today. An army of Mach 1 Club members have turned up with buckets and brooms, mops and cloths to make the hangar habitable. By the time I arrived, Neal Fletcher and John Lovatt were busy organising the move. Anything which was going to the States was staying in P8 shed, everything else was to move to X1. The work was physically hard as some of the items were very heavy. Fortunately, we were able to use the Merlo to load things onto the lorry.
Down at X1, the Mach 1 Club has a large area next to Sally Noble's office. We had plenty of screens so we were able to section off a work area. Within an hour of moving half our office furniture to X1, Nigel Grant and I had set up our office. We had desks and chairs, and the computers were up and running - we were operational again. For me, the day ended at around 5:30pm, although I left many Mach 1 Club members still working hard. As I would not be able to help on the Sunday (we had a christening to go to - I'm to be a Godmother for the first time!), it was time to say goodbye to many of my friends with the parting shot - "See you in Black Rock".
Spoke to John Lovatt today - the team is going. I'm getting very excited about the holiday, but my day job is also extremely busy (it's August, it shouldn't be that busy!) so it's been quite difficult to fit everything in.
Talked to Leigh Remfry this morning - many of the team are very tired as they are working long, long hours. Some will fly out on the Antonov via Newfoundland, while the rest will fly BA to Reno.
The funding is looking better - 70% now. The Daily Telegraph has written a half page story about the problems of funding. Maybe a major sponsor will now come forward.
It's now 6:00pm and I'm on holiday. California here I come (once I've packeda)
Up at 6:00am to drive from Luton to Gatwick to catch the 12:00pm flight to Minneapolis. There, we are due to connect with a flight to San Francisco. There is just enough time to check on Teletext and see that ThrustSSC has made the headlines. Must remember to buy a copy of the Daily Telegraph.
11:00am and we find that our flight has been delayed by 45 minutes. Will we make our connecting flight? Once on board we find out that our ETA means that we should have enough time to make the connecting flight to San Francisco.
3:30pm (US CT) That was the longest flight I've ever been on, and it wasn't the most comfortable. I keep reminding myself that flying on the Antonov is probably a lot worse!
5:00pm. We made our connecting flight and arrive in San Francisco after another 3 and a half hours flying. I think it's about 3am back in England. We get a cab to the hotel, shower and head to the bar for a beer and a burger. Here, we hear the news that Diana has been injured and then dies following a car accident in Paris. The reactions of others in the hotel is interesting - the Americans are more vocal in their astonishment. Finally get to bed 23 hours after we first started our great adventure.
Awake much refreshed, and after breakfast head into
the city. We're staying on Van Ness which is quite close to
the start of the California Street cable car line, so we jump on
one and head into the centre of town. We visited
Fisherman's Wharf, then Union Square for a spot of
shopping at Macy's. However, we got rather sidetracked
and ended up getting engaged!!
To celebrate, we had supper at the Hard Rock Caf_, but
after a long day on our feet, we got another early night so as
to be ready for the next day of sightseeing.
We spent another day sightseeing and I had a major clothes shopping spree!
In the States Motorhomes are called Recreational vehicles or RVs for short. This created some confusion amongst the team as to many of them and RV is a Reconnaissance Vehicle. We picked up the RV today, and got underway at about 3:00pm. In my excitement to cope with driving the 25 foot vehicle (the first time I've ever driven anything quite so big), I took the wrong turning off the 6 lane highway and started to head back to San Francisco! After a little detour via the US Navy Base at Treasure Island, we were back on route.
The drive to Lake Tahoe, our first overnight stop, was stunning, even if it did rain. Locals at the gas station assured us that it would only last a few minutes - it continued to rain for at least 50 miles on towards Reno. Hopefully, it wasn't raining on the Black Rock Desert. We would probably find out tomorrow when we meet the Antonov at Reno Airport.
We arrived at Reno Airport about 10:30 and asked US Customs when the Antonov was due. There had been a few problems in Minneapolis and ETA would be after 1pm. This gave us time to stock up the fridge and freezer with the essentials for 10 days on the desert.
The Antonov arrived at 2:30pm and it really is an awesome sight. Everyone helped to unload. The team were staying at the Peppermill Casino that evening, so we decided to join them. Team members who had flown over on the Antinov had been up for over 30 hours and they had only been able to grab a few hours sleep on the way, so they didn't last very late into the evening.
It wasn't only the team members who were staying at the Pepeermill: ThrustSSC and the Jaguar FireChase were parked outside the Peppermill on its illunimated and covered forecourt - what a wonderful sight!
The team briefing was at 9:00am quickly followed by a press conference in front of the hotel. By lunchtime, everyone was ready to travel up to Gerlach. It has always been one of my ambitions to travel the open road with ThrustSSC and now I've achieved it. The journey to Gerlach took about 3 and a half hours. However once we arrived at Gerlach, the trailer was quickly unhitched and Jeremy Davey made the return journey Reno with the MAN cab to pick up the pit trailer. Matt Cole kept him company on the journey and Andy Green hitched a lift so that he could pick up his motorbike from the airport. There are no awards for guessing who was back in Gerlach first!
After the early morning briefing, the team moved out onto the Black Rock desert. The scale of the landscape is vast and it is very easy to get disoriented out on the desert. Depending on the weather conditions, you can usually see up to one and a half miles away. The tell-tale sign of any traffic is a plume of dust in the distance.
The lorries were quickly unloaded, and the Aireshelta was erected in half an hour; very quickly it was beginning to look like home. The Mach 1 Club members started to "Fecher off" the base and the two desert access points - we now have a very impressive 7 mile stretch cordoned off. By mid-afternoon, even ThrustSSC was on the desert. The Spirit of America people were impressed with the speed at which our base had been organised.
There had been rain on the desert last week and all our tracks had been washed away. We needed to get out and start marking the lines again. However, Craig Breedlove had decided to run his car which meant that we had no access to the desert. After a lot of technical problems, he did do a run of around 227mph at about 4pm. After the car was recovered, we were able to get out and start making the tracks.
A seven mile stretch was marked as a roadway. Fechers, both bases and poles, were deposited rather unceremoniously from the back of a pickup truck, whilst 2 people walked along the course erecting the Fechers. Once again, the Fechers have caused a lot of interest and have been invaluable. Getting off the desert at night would be very difficult without them.
So the hard work continues. The merchandise area is now set up - our posters and T-shirts are eagerly sought after. No doubt you will get further updates on our activities from time to time.
As always we are more than happy to publish articles by the Daily Telegraph Mach 1 Club members on or related to Thrust SSC. Please send your articles to mach.one.club@battlement.digital.co.uk
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