Author Archive: Bryan McTaggart
Watch The Earliest Videos of ‘Chuteless Skydiving-Nerves of Ice Mandatory
Jumping out of an aircraft without a parachute is universally recognized as an act of suicide. With a typical human hitting terminal velocity (maximum attainable speed) of about 120-ish miles per...
Story Time: The Ballad of Bobbo, Part 1: Small-blocks And Lots of Fire
We all have known at least one person who is so mental that they both impress you with their knowledge and understanding, and yet at the very same time scare the holy hell out of you because they are...
Watch This Subaru WRX Slog Through The Mud Pit At The West Coast Subaru Show
Subaru folks are a bit rabid about their cars, and for good reason. The turbocharged flat-fours are torquey, the AWD system works great, they can haul ass, and they can play in the dirt just as...
Rough Start: A Rally Sport Camaro Hiding In Maine Needs Your Help
Maine: The most northern and eastern section of the Continental United States, surrounded by seawater and Canadians, with a small path to New Hampshire acting as a connector. I wasn’t sure what...
Ebay Find: Pontiac G8 ST Phantom For Sale-Now You Can Own An Aussie Ute Legally!
It was not a good time to be a Pontiac fan in 2009. The only bright spot in the black hole that had formed in GM’s headquarters was the G8, which was the Holden Commodore being sold as a captive...
Watch This Monster Durango Go For Airborne Gold
Try, try, and try again. That’s what our mothers kept telling us when we were wanting to give up from repeated failure, in the hopes that if we pushed the limits one more time that we would...
Unknown Parts Counter Guy: Tales From The Call Center
Not every story I get comes from behind the counter. This particular guy has to be the guy on the phone as an engine tech. I don’t envy him either. Some of these know-it-alls can really screw up...
Watch As This 767 Narrowly Avoids An Airbus A340-Very Close Call
The words “near miss” in the aviation community make even the most jaded pilot pucker. What it means is that there was nearly a seriously bad accident, and it goes without saying that any time...
Rough Start: This Dart Is A “Special” Delivery
I spent last night hanging out with Anthony, a friend of mine from the Diplomat site. As we were eating dinner and discussing the various A-body Mopars he wants to buy and build up, he suddenly stops...
Watch This Turkish F-16 Clear Air Show Fans By Mere Feet- Haircut, Anyone?
In aviation there is an inexplicable joy of seeing the machines doing their thing up close. Maybe it’s because as a kid, you spent most of your observation time watching planes fly over at 30,000...
Unhinged: Wasps, Mustangs, And The Honey-Do List
(“Unhinged” is a new column on BangShift, where McTaggart puts all of his opinions out on the table for everyone to see.) The morning of the Fifth of July, I awoke to a sugar-induced...
BangShift “Would You Rather?”-Which One Could You Live With As A Daily Driver?
Even though I stopped hitting the bottle a few years ago like it was my last night on Earth, I can say that I enjoyed the drinking games. I’ve played pretty much all of them…A-hole, King’s Cup,...
Rough Start: Find Your Inner Adventurer In This 1978 Jeep Cherokee
Today’s Rough Start sent me to the state of Wyoming…which, due to population density, is another state that has only one Craigslist area. And because Wyoming has almost nobody in the state, they...
Train Derailment In Montana Dumps Three Boeing 737 Fuselages Into River
A train derailment is always a bad-news situation. But what happens when the derailment sends whole aircraft into a rushing river? One Montana Link Rail conductor will find out shortly, after a train...