DeTomaso Mailing List: January 98, Message #55
     



From: 	Dennis Antenucci <itbewild@gte.net>

Subject: RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!

Date: 	Fri, 2 Jan 1998 16:03:55 +0000



******Hit Delete Key now if you don't like to go fast, race, fly, breed with cows, 

etc*******   



Jumped in the Pantera this morning and went for a "real" ride....not a Walter Mitty 

fantasy ride! So what happened? 



Left Huntington Beach this am (still dark) to Hwy 91 (averaging a leisurly 100+ mph). 

There was no one on the road and when I transitioned to I-5 I accelerated hard to 

150...then saw 170, 180, 190 and all this with out a .655 5th gear option!!!!!!!!



What I "seriously" did  was spend a very real 3.5 hours this morning "flying traffic" 

and in one case shadowing a speeding car over and around L.A. with a bud who at one time 

flew gunships in the Gulf with the Marines (don't hold that against him Frankie!).



Today, my friend Jon who still fly choppers part time flew pilot relief for "Commander 

Chuck  Street", of KISS/FM fame who was taking some vacation days. He's also flown 

vacation relief for Scott (aka: Detour Dan) for KABC and super fox Donna Dower on 

KISS/FM's beautiful Bell Jet Ranger. Any of you guys who were grunts or air crew and 

flew in a early UH-1 would appreciate how smooth the Ranger is in comparison. If I hit 

the Lotto (yea right!) I don't want a Lear Jet I NOW want my own Jet Ranger...Think I'll 

paint it Bumble Bee Black & Gold jus' for you Franky! :-] 



In anticipation of the upcoming POCA Convention and Silver State Race I took Cap'n 

Mike's advise in ramrodding a new event by bypassing the POCA Board (I can hear A-holes 

slamming shut already)... <grin>...and envited my new friend, Jerry Penacoli of CBS TV 

(Hard Copy TV) to ride shotgun with us. Jerry was pumped that we invited him along and 

he drove to my house in Huntington Beach and we took the Pantera (on open headers) to 

the Fullerton Airport at 4:30 AM!! Jerry NEVER took a sip of his Cappachino during the 

whole drive! When we got out of the pantera at the airport he had a sheeit eating grin 

from ear to ear and all the ground crew that had gotten their earlier all came out to 

see what the hell the noise was! :-]  



If your a pilot you'll appreciate what a "busy" place flying L.A. & Orange Counties are. 

I was truly impressed with how confident and smooth Jon was dealing with air 

traffic controllers for airspace over and around 5-7 regional airports and one very busy 

LAX International. I didn't realise how "busy" a pilot has got to be until we got to our 

first SIGALERET in Pasadena on Hwy 210. As we approached the accident site (RV roll 

over...no sign of Crash Jim!)... we had two fixed wing aircraft flying circles above us 

and two other choppers flying either at our altitude or below us and we had low dark 

clouds as well.  All pretty damn exciting!!



Maybe because it's the holidays and the day after the "Rose Bowl" but there wasn't alot 

of traffic in the AM, and we basically flew around the city's multiple freeways until we 

would get a accident call. In 3 and a half hours of flying we only had two serious 

accidents which didn't take us more then 3-5 minutes to report on. Jon explained that 

the traffic helo's spend little time actually "finding" accidents. Some Wienie sits at a 

radio and reports scanner "trouble spots" and then they fly there to get the shots 

or I should say the accident news for the radio, then split all most immediately. With 

the exception of being shot at by Homies in East L.A. and Compton Jon says flying in the 

Gulf War was ALL MOST as exciting. <grin>



Anyway, back to the flight...after our first accident Jon flew us up and around the 

Hollywood Hills where we buzzed Brentwood, Beverly Hills, O.J.'s old house and we drove 

over Arnold Schwartznegger's maga BIG bucks estate. Had TWO Humvees in his driveway! It 

didn't look like we woke him up on the first pass so Jon did a gun run at at about 

180!!! What a triiiippppp! <more grins> "I'll be back"... :-]



We flew over Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Coliseum, the new Getty Museum, the Pacific Coast 

it was all great and I felt like a kid again (okay Mike, maybe a more immature 

kid then you!)....Well I could ramble on about this all day so I'lll attempt to close 

this down cause I'm totally wired.



When we finally landed back in Fullerton, Jerry Penacoli, like me got outta the Jet 

Ranger looking "fully intoxicated". We had a ho=hum ride in the Pantera back to 

Huntington Beach and my face still hurts from all the <serious grins> early this 

morning. . .As yet another aside I'm gonna hook Jon up to fly a medevic chopper at 

Silver State with Steve Waldman and the race sponsors. We may even get Jon to fly into 

the race track in Vegas end of April so he can clock all you serious roundy rounders. 

<final grin>...Sorry for the adrenelin junkie byline just wanted to share my new found 

appreciation of flying Jack/Mike/Tomcat & other pilots!

Mad Dog, IRA