Warbird Information Exchange

Dumb crook. Not a terribly smart AP report either. What's the real story?

Drunk man tries to fill his car with jet fuel

Man breaks into airport, arrested for DWI and attempted theft



updated 4:39 p.m. CT, Tues., July. 29, 2008



SAN JOSE, Calif. - A drunken man broke into a small airport and tried to fill up his car's gas tank with jet fuel, police said. Police arrested the man, 20, on Sunday night for driving while intoxicated and attempted theft.

The man probably wasn't trying to save money. The aviation fuel in the pumps used for aircraft and race cars, was going for $5.97 a gallon, accessed by a credit card, authorities said.

"We've had people try and steal gas here in the past," said Jim Meide, who works in operations at the county-run Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Maybe he thought Peter Griffin from "Family Guy" was right, and that he would be able to fly his car using Jet-A....

Robbie

I had no idea that racecars use Jet-A.

I'm not an expert on any subject. I do know a little bit about airplanes. What scares me is this; if we assume that the mainstream media gets at least a few facts wrong in every story they cover, like they seem to do in aviation stories, then how can we trust anything we read in the paper, see on TV, or hear on the radio?

I wonder how many parts of the AP story from San Jose are in fact, wrong. It's only six or seven sentences long but I'll bet half of them contain an incorrect assumption, misleading information, or factual errors.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

The article I read also implied a lack of "security" at the airport, which immediately translates into bloviating by self-righteous politicians and bureaucrats that would LOVE to kill General Aviation so that the valuable real estate could be put to other purposes.

I'm just trying to figure out how he managed to fit a Jet-A nozzle into his car...

Maybe he had a deisel. Runs just fine, but like you say hard to fit it into the filler. Runs good in equipment but for some reason makes it hard to start in the morning. Maybe doesn't get the compression up as high as sulpher fuels.

Maybe he was driving one of these?

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Bloviating! You bet! Everyone wants a piece of Reid-Hillview. I am surprised it has lasted this long.

Build right up into the downwinds, complain about the noise. Talk trash about absolutely anything to anyone who will listen.

The 600/700k crackerbox condos and mini malls that will eventually end up there have the gubmint salivating about tax revenues. Developers salivating about sales. And Santa Clara county will be minus one more pain in the butt airport.

It's happening all over the valley.

What disgusts me is Moffett. No GA traffic allowed. When FedEx wanted to put a hub there, Mountain View said no. No to all of those beautiful taxes and beautiful jobs. But, when Google wants to use it, they bend over and say "Insert here".

PAO is having it's share too. "Who's going to be responsible for this when the money stops coming?". Santa Clara county is trying hard not to be. Another condo development in the making......

Hayward......I talked to a longtime bussiness owner over at Hayward a couple of years ago. She told the board that they needed more hangars and businesses there because the airport is beginning to die out due to lack of core services, her and a couple ten other big time Hayward folks. The word answer "We will take it into consideration". The real answer, A Home Depot built on airport property in the downwind.......

LVK, A warbird owner I know, along with a few others, got a complaint, along with threats of whatever, about noise from our good buds at LVK. A friend of mine looked into it and it turned out all of them came from Pleasanton/Dublin. It's interesting that the airport board is anti airport, wants no expansion renovation or anything, but they have no problems building what I've been told is going to be the worlds biggest Walmart in the downwind. That site is B-I-G Big! Can't build any new hangars though....A funny thing, the Mayor of Livermore, the guy who hammered these guys about noise, asked them if they would do a flyover for a parade....needless to say, he was politely told what pile of sand he could go pound...

It's interesting that airports and GA is totally bad, but The Google boys get whatever they want whenever they want, Larry Ellison can violate time and noise restrictions at will, ect, ect.....But if a 172 driver doesn't make the very hard and low turn before the end of the golf course at Hayward, he's got something to seriously worry about....

In twenty thirty years, the only aviation left in the valley will be SFO and SJC and the rich boys at Moffett....Santa Clara County is so restrictive, cats are taking their planes out of the valley for annuals. It's a hand to mouth life for any kind of working airplane dudes around here. I know that that is probably the case almost anywhere, but this is worse than most

I'll turn the rant off now.....

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DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

a guy that lived in my apartment complex in the 80's worked for lane aviation in columbus ohio while i attended ohio state university. he used to periodically fill his 68 corvette convertable with 100 octane av gas, needless to say, if i was in a hurry he was the guy to get a lift from. but he said the high octane fouled the engine quite frequently.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Orvis, the attitudes and situations you describe are going to happen all across the country, I fear. Even out here in the middle of the continent developers seem to find ways to start subdivisions right under the approach ends and then sell to people who want the airports removed.

Tom, you reminded me of all the sump fuel from the gas trucks I used to burn in my air-cooled Volkswagens. I ran about 80% 100LL/20% mogas and never had a problem, plus it smelled good. And it was free! Those old 36 and 40 h.p. engines liked it fine, and I really never had any plug fouling with them. My Chevy pickup was another story--it didn't care for that much lead just like your friend's Vette.

Scott