Greg Pedersen's Streak Shadow. Conversations about modifications with other Shadow owners.

Dear Greg & Lindsay,
Hello ! Thanks for your mail of 19th Dec & the Story on your Trip to Cape. Greg I enjoy your sense of humour .well done keep it up !! I am glad you liked the karakoram article.
Yes, I would love to be on the mailing list of Microflight,1 am sending an e mail to Kevin Fryer as well but will have act as mail agent for Zaka since he not cyber literate like David " Slide Rule Guy "
I envy you for the painstaking perfect job you do on your Shadow, 1 balance my prop on a suspended pendulum balancer (used for certified props ) and add washers like you do . I have another idea which I am going to try, i.e 1 am going to weigh each of the present GSC wooden blades on a very sensitive electronic scale and match their weights by spraying clear lacquer on the lighter ones. Regarding weighing the washers I am going to try your advice. lately as you can see from my delayed replies that I been away from cyber space & flying for quite a long time. Hoping to go on leave by the end of this month, then will take a day or two to put mods togather one by one, I '11 be requesting you for advice in case I run into problems.
Good to know you'll be having the delightful company of The RUSSIAN !! I have written to him recently. however I keep hearing about him from a mutual friend MICK in UK who is luckily cyber literate. It's a pity that Shadow is not regarded as a microlight in SA. If you like you or I could put it on the web page of shadows owner club in the UK, so fellow members can read more about Shadows flying in SA.
Any news from Dave Cormack about the alloy wheel hubs ? BTW these days Cricket fever is all over and I keep seeing your lovely country on the television. Toda}r was a disappointing day for our team against Australia ,we hope to put a better show in the next match. I conveyed your regards to Zaka and he warmly reciprocates. Whats up at your end ? must be enjoying summers vis a vis our winters ! Allow me to share an interesting mail I got from a friend in USA.
Best regards to you both.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just assholes.
I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.
I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others - they are more fuc-ed up than you think.
I've learned that you can keep puking long after you think vou're finished.
I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities.
I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades, and there had better be a lot of money to take its place.
I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones who do.
I've learned that we don't have to ditch bad friends, because their dysfunction makes us feel better about ourselves.
I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away.
Pass this along to your
friends...trust me, they'D appreciate it. Who knows, maybe something good will happen.
If not... tough shit.

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From: Ajab
Sent: 29 February 2004 05:10 PM
To: Greg Pedersen gray
Subject: Hellooo
Hello Greg and Lindsay,
Long time no news from your end ! I hope all of you are fine. Here not much is happening, besides being very busy with my work, get an occassional oppurtunity to fly. lovely spring weather we have here.
Last Nov undertook a thrilling xcountry flight with my partner to a snow bound valley in the north. Had to fly at 12000 ft to clear the mountain pass and landed in a 30 kts cross wind, pew !! that was scary, our weather man had given us wrong winds instead of SOkts he had twice confirmed 3 kts .It was very cold up there - 7 deg C nad the shadow is anything but airtight. Unfortunately the camera battery gave up so no pics Just managed a few minutes video before it too died of frost bite.One lesson well learnt! have done any flying lately ? How is Jas , I wish him an early and complete recovery.
Take Care and best regards
aj

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Dear Greg and Lindsay ,
Hello and thanks for your earlier mail and all the info on the hubs. I am sorry to hear of Jas , my best wishes to him for a complete recovery. The weather here is turning cold after a prolonged spell of summers. Excellent flying weather here.
Later this month I and my partner are planning a day trip 400Nm round trip to one of the most beautiful valleys (Chitral) tucked up north near the Afghan border. It is located across a 10500 ft pass. It is here that we havejihe highest polo ground (Shandur ) in the world ( 13000 ft ) a lush grassy ground by a pristine mountain lake in the middle of nowwhere .Regular polo tournament is played between our two former princely states. It is interesting to note that this particular polo has no rules only the ball must go through the goal poles, no referee either!!!! No replacement of horses or players that may die or are injured.By the end of the game almost all of the both teams are blood stained !!!
but it is a game of real men, I went there for this tournament in a few years ago, a thoroughly memorable experience.
Interestingly I am in touch with David (the Russian ) through a common friend.
Here is what I have the latest on him

"David sends his regards and is embarking on a lunatic venture trying to develop a flapping wing ultra light powered by compressed air!?!?!?!? I think he has been out in the sun too long. I am seeing him tomorrow and shall catch up with the progress and will report back. He mentioned, as I was rolling about on the floor laughing, that Zaka, being a heroic rotary wing pilot, maybe the man to fly the beast. I said I thought he became heroic reluctantly and only a fool would deliberately get in such a machine so / guess David will be at the controls!!!!!!!!!! The subtly was lost on him."

The situation with our Eastern neighbours is quiet due to escalating violence in Iraq & Afghanistan. I hope it stays this way, Lately I have been indulging in some interesting flying, i.e I flew a Taifun motor glider for a couple of hours following rivers at low level at sunrise in my home province of North West Frontier, a wonderful and soul satisfying experience. Also flew my friends newly assembled Zodiac XL, a nice and fast machine. I am slowly catching up on my flying in the star streak Now since I am back to civilization,1 have asked a friend who has a CMC lathe machine to make a pair if alu hubs. I hope they turn out as I want them to be , other wise back to AZUSA !!!
How are your families, my regards to them.
With best regards
ajab

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Dear A jab,
At last - a reply. I finally managed to get round to Lindsay with some information for you at least on the hubs.
Firstly, thanks for the lovely photograph of you and your family. I am sure you are very proud of all of them.
For some reason, the last couple of months I have been in a black hole, I haven't done much and have hardly flown or been to the airfield. Maybe it was because of just passing the big 51 and also my flying buddy, Jas, had prostate cancer which put a huge dampener on our flying scene. If you remember, it was Jas and I that flew to the Cape together.
Referring back to your last letter, I managed to find out where to source the rims, and unfortunately they don't come from South Africa. Like everything, it all comes from America. Apparently, when we had our Streaks built years back, the original builder, Shadowlite, imported a dozen or so of these Azusa rims from America. T eventually managed to track down a company called Solo Wings who still imports rims, however, only for trikes. They have given me the details which are :
Azusa Engineering, Inc
1542 Industrial Park Street P O Box 2909
Covina, CA 91722-3487 Covina, CA 91722-8909
Tel. (626)9674167
Fax (626) 966 4071
Email: sales@azusaeng.com
Web : http://www.azusaeng.com
Dave Cormack tells me that the rims we used were originally 600 x 5" diameter and he machined them down to a 500 x 5" diameter to fit some of the local tyres which unfortunately were also trolley tyres. However, I am still using my original tyres with no ill-effects whatsoever and that's after quite a few years. These tyres can be pumped up to 50 p.s.i. but require inner tubes, both of which are available locally in Durban.
My brakes are also standard cable-operated ones like yours, unfortunately. It appears that all the Streaks at this point in time have remained with cable-operated brakes so I really wouldn't know where to source drum brakes.
I have hardly seen Jonathan and he seems to be more interested in his motorbike than flying, however, our weather has been lousy this year so we miss each other all the time. He is still using his original three-blade Arplast propeller. I did balance and reset it for him which improved his performance slightly.
I haven't spoken to David either for a long time and maybe I need to write to him to see how he is getting along. We are coming into our summer season now, so hopefully our flying will increase at a steady pace.
How are things going with your 'snarling' neighbours? We don't hear much in the news from your region as everything seems to be centred on Iraq.
Going back through all my letters, 1 see I have promised to send you a couple of photos which I will still do, such as photos of the club at the airfield, the guys I mention in my letters and an updated picture of Lindsay, myself and our respective 'families'. And, as Lindsay says, I need a kick up the 'rear end' because these gaps in the letters are far too long. Its been a bad year for me, but I am confident that it is going to get better. One of these days I will write a little story on myself and the work I do.
Here, 1 the meantime is a photo of Lindsay's only daughter. Erin. She is 15 and the occasion was her boyfriend's matriculation dance which is a bit event on South African teenagers' social school calendars.
Kind regards,
Greg and Lindsay