Son of the Polaroid camera

There was an old joke in baseball back when Michael Jackson was big. "What do Michael Jackson and (fill in name of poor fielder here) have in common?"

"They both wear gloves for no apparent reason."

Yeah, funny stuff. I was thinking of that the other day when I tried to order just one rear channel for the canopy frame, after I mistakenly misdrilled the splice plate. On the bottom of the order form at Van's Web site, there's a "notes" section where you can give additional instructions.

Don't bother. It's like Michael Jackson's glove. It has no apparent purpose, because what I wrote was "I only need a left channel, I don't need both." Yesterday, I got a delivery. Both. Total cost: $67.

Now maybe, they only sell both. In their online catalog it's listed as a two-channel buy. But why? They're not matched.

I often wonder whether Van's makes their money on the kits, or the replacement parts.

Polaroid had this type of marketing approach and it's not a bad idea. Sell the base product cheap, and then make your money on the film.

Our Daily Thread: Breather run into exhaust. It's on the RV-List.

I was wondering if anyone ran their breather tube into the exhaust. I have seen this done more and more lately on aerobatic planes where the breather runs into exhaust. Granted they have some separation from direct crankcase breathing vie the inverted systems but vent none the less into the exhaust. Any thoughts?

And there are plenty.