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Yes water cooling of the inlet air is common on stationary GTs. The compressors are density sensitive and produce less powe as the density drops. S&L GE aircraft derivatives are rated at around 60MW, but derated to around 50MW in the Goldfields. Super pure water is often injected just before the combusters. Is converts to steam (a steam turbines effect) and cools the combusted exhaust gas and allows more fuel to burn and a consequential power output. Some aircraft also do this to compensate for air density power loss in hot environments on take off. Super pure water is expensive to make so water injection is only used when an increased power is needed, or in power generation to the grid makes it economic. Walnut shells are often used in the air to clean blades.

pilot will have to be unpaid in the hangar ............ fixing that up .......... weekends

You were right. Ran the pump for a while yesterday with the engine off and it was fine. No flooding. Gives me confidence I can run the pump in takeoff now. Just not at idle.

https://x.com/FlightModeblog/status/1938862373424537667

The Kinney HRH (Hot Rod Helicopter) is an American helicopter that was designed by Robert Kinney and produced by Vortech, Inc in the form of plans for amateur construction. The aircraft was first shown at Sun 'n Fun in 2002. The HRH was designed to comply with the US experimental – amateur-built rules. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat enclosed cockpit with a windshield, skid-type landing gear and a four-cylinder, air-cooled, four-stroke, 165 hp (123 kW) Subaru EJ25 automotive engine. It is the high power to weight ratio that gives the aircraft its name. The aircraft fuselage is made from a mix of welded 4130 steel tube and bolted-together aluminum tubing, with a composite cabin shell. Its 25 ft (7.6 m) diameter two-bladed Waitman composite rotor has a chord of 8 in (20 cm). The tail rotor has a 46 in (117 cm) diameter. The aircraft has an empty weight of 1,000 lb (454 kg) and a gross weight of 1,350 lb (612 kg), giving a useful load of 350 lb (159 kg). With full fuel of 18.5 U.S. gallons (70 L; 15.4 imp gal) the payload is 239 kg (527 lb). The HRH can hover in ground effect at 7,000 ft (2,134 m) and out of ground effect at 5,000 ft (1,524 m). By January 2013 there was one example, the 2001 prototype, registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Kennedy Giant was a British biplane heavy bomber designed by Kennedy Aeroplanes Ltd. during the First World War. The design was an imitation of works by Igor Sikorsky, with whom the owner of Kennedy Aeroplanes Ltd., C. J. H. Mackenzie-Kennedy, had ostensibly worked prior to setting up the company. The aeroplane was a notorious failure; its size meant that construction had to take place in an open field as none of the hangars near Hayes, Middlesex, where the prototype was assembled, were large enough to house it. For its weight, the aircraft's four engines were inadequate, and the resulting under-powered aircraft could only fly in a straight line once airborne. Following the unimpressive test flight, the design was cancelled and the prototype was left derelict at Northolt Aerodrome for a number of years.

The smaller mines use 5MW diesel generators. But most large mines use GTs. Usually S&L GE aircraft derived 50/60MW with gearboxes to generators. A few Trent 70's exist and there redesigned to stationary generation rather poor (Rolls Royce aircraft derived). But most new installations are purposely generation designed GT'S of 100MW and combined cycle with steam turbines using Heat recovery (GT exhaust) steam generators and steam turbines 60%+ efficiency. GE have a steam cooled first stage turbine design that is rumoured to have 60% efficiency. Aircraft derived engines are not favoured for power generation as gearboxes above 60MW don't seem to exist. Power generation GTs run at 3000/3600RPM. However the GT that I worked on had Pratt and Whitney aircraft designed blades made under licence. Power Generation GTs of 400MW are now reasonably common.

i remember a gas turbine backup generator on a minesite, somewhere in the goldfields. they had to make a tunnel of scrub in front of it with sprinklers , like a coolgardie safe. apparently it would not work properly with 45 deg heat going into the intake.

I guess you could switch the phone to video and attach it to an email if the online form won't take it. The point is the world has moved on - it's 40 years since the mid 1980's and its not going back.

We thought of that for the 500 and 800 tonne dump trucks, but the physics are different with applications like log trucks and urban work.

Theres a lot of high temp exhaust with Turbines . They are ALL Carnot Cycle and the efficiency is a result of high Combustion Temps and PRESSURES. I've NEVER seen any what you would call HIGH pressures in an aircraft jet engine and you only get IT at near PEAK REVS. Highest I've seen is an EPR of about 2.3. That's AXIAL flow . Multiple Stage, centrifugal ones could go higher but I know of NO examples. Turbines operated at Low Power and altitude have abysmal efficiency and non fan Turbines are a thing of the Past, in aircraft. Also like Many Turbo chargers they can quickly ruin your Hearing. Some LARGE Jet Aircraft engines HAVE been used in the ME to generate electricity but they sit on Lakes of OIL. They can be fired up and at full Power within Minutes. Pistons still remain the Most efficient Dinasaur derived Power Plant but their reliability Borders on Unacceptable some times.. Nev

At only 132h my genuine Rotax radiator has sprung a small leak. I’m curious to know if anyone has had experience with the aftermarket alternatives that sell online for around AUD$90, or other options?

Working for an AERO club is VERY political. You are working for a large committee There's no room for that BS with a business .. A Flying Club is inevitably run by a PART-TIME Committee of Competing EGOS and Biases and as it's said "a Camel is a Horse designed by a committee". Most of us are aware of a Club being taken over by some group of Zealots who want to take in in one direction or another often as the result of some hidden benefit (Kickback). Many FAIL due internal conflict and inept management and getting behind with some requirements with the "Oh I THOUGHT YOU were handling THAT.. THEY follow a similar path as many Co- Ops and SHARED Aircraft arrangements. They can work but it has to be a tight ship and meet the deadlines. Nev

Well good to know John that I'm not the only one seeing the finish line - for aero clubs doing GA training. My aero club is going great at present. If we were to lose the 141 operation it will leave a big hole. We are almost "last club standing" doing 141 training in hundreds of km. And turbs - roadies..... I worked in a RWC shop until not so long ago (just a helper, not a mechanic). Owner had the apprentices do the roadies, a total NO NO - he was never out on the shop floor. Even wanted me to check some basics, I said NUP, nothing to do with me DH. Yes, each fault had to have a photo taken and uploaded to Vicroads. Even photos of INOP horns! Then another photo of the horn working again when resolved! Hilarious.

Round trip 4.3hrs (Hobbs). Times worked out very well - got to Cowra before 12:00 Was almost frozen stiff by the time I got to Condo. Great air, lots of ground fog. Condo deserted - if it wasn't for a passing cattle truck, I would have thought mankind had evaporated. Cowra, Not quite as quiet. Lots of training aircraft lined up waiting for the week to start. Met a wonderful couple, who gave me a lift into town & back for some fuel. Cowra to The Oaks via Wingello - Cloud at 6/8th 5000ft.. Went over the top at 7500Ft - smooth as! This was my longest flight in the Sonex - Perth soon😈

I doubt any modern designer would envisage powering the vehicle directly from the turbine, rather it would power a generator that fed Electric motors, which have a far greater torque/rpm range than any IC Engine and thus need minimal number of gears

We already need 20 speed splitter transmissions plus range boxes in some trucks and that's with a diesel engine set for intermittant power demand.

I worked on the design of 185MW gas turbine range in Florida in the early 90s. Gas turbines can be very efficient. In stationary situations 60% efficiency is easily obtained. In open cycle transport 35% is easily gained. The problem with gas turbines is that efficiency is directly proportional to installed cost. In another job I worked on with a 30% efficiency and 50MW output the replacement turbine first stage blades cost $5M and the overhaul of the combusters $4M, 15 years ago. OK stage that down to several hundred kW and the costs come much lower but still very expensive. GTs do have a longer life between overhauls. Large expense and long life between overhauls sounds just right to me for big trucks.

The information regarding Bert Hinklers crash and death in that crash is a mix of guesses and misinformation. The official Australian report is that Hinklers Puss Moth lost a section of the propeller, thus forcing him to make an emergency landing and he hit a tree whilst trying to do so. But this description is incorrect, and based on hearsay and unknown evidence - if any. The facts are that the Italian aviation authority of 1933 carried out an official crash investigation - but the results were not made available to Australian authorities, and it is believed this crash investigation report was destroyed during WW2 war actions. A retired aviation engineer and air crash accident investigator, Clive Phillips, has carried out a thorough assessment of Hinklers fatal crash. He did his assessment based on a limited number of available photos of the crashed aircraft, and various other written sources of information that he gleaned from Italian and other sources. In essence, he states that he believes Hinklers Puss Moth suffered a wing spar failure - which the Puss Moths were notorious for - and he crashed simply because of that loss of a wing. There is a report in the Australian Dictionary of Biography which states that Hinkler survived the crash and died outside the wreckage. This appears to be at odds with the report from the Italian medical authorities at the time that Hinkler died instantly, after being ejected from the aircraft on impact, and he suffered severe cranial and thoracic injuries, which the Italian doctors deemed as causing immediate death. The investigators report is linked to, below. Interestingly, the investigator also owned a Puss Moth, the one on display in the Hinkler Museum. https://aircentre.com.au/aircraft/pioneers/media/whalley-phillips.pdf The very first of the Puss Moth accidents happened just East of Perth in Oct 1930, and it killed the famous and highly skilled aviator, Capt Charles H.F. Nesbit, as well as his two students, a young woman and a man. The Puss Moth crashes are famous for 4 reasons. 1. They killed a lot of famous, careful and skilled pilots. 2. They were international in occurrence. 3. The Puss Moth crashes led to the rapid application of scientific research and definitive causes to aircraft crashes. 4. The Puss Moth crashes largely contributed to the formation of the Aeronautical Research Laboratory of Australia. Below is a fascinating and occasionally humorous outline (despite the grim subject) of the development of air crash investigation in Australia. It is a document produced in 1993, celebrating the first 50 years of aircraft crash investigation by the ARL and associated investigators, and examines all of the early and famous aircraft crashes, and how the truth was sifted from a lot of initial obfuscation. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA267086.pdf

because the can speak the edocb ut because they contributed so much to confusing the Japanese that after the war when they made friends with us and hung around the pubs picking up the code they branded the first cars with ..........

Bert Hinkler is largely underrated as a pioneer Australian aviator. Born in Bundaberg, Qld, Bert went to England in 1913 where he worked for the Sopwith Aviation Company, the beginning of his career in aviation. In World War I, Hinkler served with the Royal Naval Air Service as a gunner/observer in Belgium and France, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1918 Hinkler was posted to No. 28 Squadron RAF with which he served as a pilot in Italy. Hinkler was an "exceptional mathematician and inventor" and "made a lot of aviation instruments which were in use up until the Second World War". In 1921, Hinkler shipped a tiny Avro Baby to Sydney, Australia. It was filled with fuel and flown non-stop to Bundaberg, a distance of 1,370 kilometres (850 mi). Hinkler flew the first solo flight between England and Australia, departing England on 7 February 1928 and arriving in Darwin on 22 February; and back in his home town of Bundaberg in his Avro Avian a few days later on 27 February. In 1931, Hinkler flew in a de Havilland Puss Moth from Canada to New York then non-stop to Jamaica 2,400 km (1,500 mi), then to Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, and then across the South Atlantic to Africa. From West Africa he flew to London. On 7 January 1933, Hinkler left London Air Park, Hanworth, England, in the Puss Moth in an attempt to break the flying record to Australia held by C. W. A. Scott of 8 days 20 hours. Nothing more was heard of him until his body was discovered in the mountains of Tuscany (Apuan Alps) in Italy on 27 April 1933. He was buried – with full military honours on the orders of Italy's ruling dictator Benito Mussolini – in the Cimitero degli Allori in Florence. A monument in his memory was erected at Prato Alle Vacche in the Pratomagno mountain by the Aretino Aero Club. Hinkler received the following awards for his meritorious service to aviation:- For his England-Latvia non-stop flight he was awarded the Oswald Watt Gold Medal for 1927. He was a pilot of the British Schneider Trophy seaplane competitor For the flights in 1920 and 1928, Hinkler won two Britannia trophies and the gold medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. He was also awarded the 1928, 1931 and 1932 Oswald Watt Gold Medal which is awarded for "A most brilliant performance in the air or the most notable contribution to aviation by an Australian or in Australia" by the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia. For his 1931 flights from Canada to Africa via the Caribbean and South America, then on to London via Africa, he was awarded the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, the Segrave Trophy, the Johnston Memorial Prize and the Britannia Trophy for the most meritorious flying performance of the year. My mother told me that she saw Bert Hinkler land on the main beach at Yeppon near Rockhampton in the 1920s as a yong girl but she was too afraid to go for a joy flight with him.

Nice 2.6 hour flight from Longreach to Charleville arrive 4 minutes earlier than the flight plan a mix of light tail and then head winds plus some showers under the dark sky areas. Both airfields are in beautiful condition and excellent cafes there for mid morning breakfast.

Be careful of the weather Mid week. Nev

For those in Victoria, take a look at the process used by an authorised Roadworthy Authority. Not only is every roadworthy checks and assessed against the standard but it gets a photo to show there is no bias. GA works to a higher standard, so its good to see RA is easier to work with. GA is also financially responsible for "mistakes" if someone is injured or killed, so they have to ensure that you are doing PRECISELY what you are supposed to be doing. Aside from the crossover of liability over the past 40 years, we've had the crossover of computers where much of the frustration you're talking about is probably occurring, particularly the repetitive work. By that should be automated. In one case I've seen a reduction of one week, plus involving an engineer plus a draftsman to do the same job with small variants over and over again. Today I do them in under 15 minutes and can save or print all the calculations.