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Silly aviation pictures.


Cobalt

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Given the design of bifold, how does a wind force bar a vertical download make such a door slam when they act as wings into the approaching wind, thus wanting to stay in the folding position?

That's not how it happens. Wind force approaching the half-open door directly, simply forces it to shut, because it's hinged in the middle. The force of the wind is simply applying pressure to the two halves of the door. Whether that pressure is at an angle, or straight-on, is irrelevant, the door is simply a big sail, and moves with wind pressure.

 

A mate fell 4 metres onto concrete when fixing the upper door track on vertical bi-fold doors. He'd tied the door back, partly-open, against the prevailing wind, set a ladder against it and went up to work on the track. The "light and variable" wind rapidly reversed with a gust in the opposite direction, and the door whipped back against the untied direction, throwing the ladder and my mate back onto the concrete. It was a hard-learnt lesson, he shattered his left femoral shaft and left elbow, ending up with a full length stainless pin in his femur, and a plate and screws in his elbow - and 6 months in a wheelchair. 

 

Strong wind gusts can even overcome mechanical and hydraulic door operating mechanisms if they're pushed beyond their design limits. And strong wind gusts can happen within seconds, willy-willies are the classic example.

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We need a thread just on hangar doors, which probably cause more injuries to  pilots than air crashes.

 

Our club didn’t have the real estate to fit sliding doors, so went with vertical bifold. They are pretty easy to build but very wind sensitive; I’ve been thrown several metres by one. Most of the time it should be less of a problem than commercial operations- our toys mostly come out to play in good weather.
 

Recently a roller bolt broke, which had me three metres up a ladder -a year after a fall onto concrete broke my hip.

 

I always liked horizontally folding doors, but maybe they’d be safer if they were flat (recessed into the ground) when open. The upper section could be designed for planes to roll across it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Best story ever was from the 1920s. Aussie captain on a London to Paris flight came out of the cockpit unrolling some string. On the way to the dunny at the back he handed the end to a passenger and said if the nose goes down, pull the string. They didn’t know he had a co pilot.

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1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

Best story ever was from the 1920s. Aussie captain on a London to Paris flight came out of the cockpit unrolling some string. On the way to the dunny at the back he handed the end to a passenger and said if the nose goes down, pull the string. They didn’t know he had a co pilot.

They had dunnies on 1920's passenger planes?

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You blokes should know there's more flying things than just aeroplanes. It's the front landing gear on a CH47 Chinook - the front wheels are duals, the rears are single wheel. 

 

They normally land straight down, so rarely very much by way of any skid or drag marks. Sorry about the photo quality, it's over 50 years old.

 

Chinooks-2.jpg

 

Edited by onetrack
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There's one of them sitting in a paddock slightly north of Campbell Town in Tas, you can see it from highway 1.  Been there for years.  If you look at Google Maps with the satellite feature you can spot it.  To the right of the highway as you're going north.

 

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