Flightrite

Used to enjoy the little AOPA mag in the 80's, they got too expensive though when they put up their membership fees considerably.

Don't know about the glass set up but the usual VOR had a failure flag .You always had to ident when transferring or setting a course.. perhaps none of this is relevant to you. nev

Most modern EFIS have a red 'NAV' flag as well if reception is lost.

Whilst I used to like reading various rags after a while they where breeding and a PITA to store! I enjoy E-Mags now, no hassle?

It's all just a nail in GA's coffin? In the not too distant future GA at most levels will all but be gone, relegated to out of the way back country strips for the few?

Ground adjustable is another choice for some airframes, find the sweet spot?All props are a trade off really.

There would be plenty of corruption in these high stakes Govt contracts!

Bottomless pits tend to attract the opportunists!

The world's powerful nations spends huge bucks to find ways to blow each other up!

There are lots of videos on Youtube showing how to get the last drops out of a pressure can by recharging the can with compressed air. They usually say to use 90 psi. Other videos will show you how to put a tyre valve stem into a pressure can so that the you can refill the useful contents, then insert the valve core and pressurize the can.

 

 

 

Sarcasm or a real question? I'll take it as a real question.

 

Why not have steam power? Who would have thought that diesel engines would work in small aircraft? We know that the Junkers Jumo 205 aircraft engine worked for the Germans. It was successful as a power unit for non-combat applications such as the Blohm & Voss Ha 139 airliner. Its more fuel-efficient operation lent itself for use on Germany's few maritime patrol flying boat designs during World War II, such as the BV 138 and BV 222. These were all big aircraft. How many cars were powered by diesel engines in the mid-20th Century? Not nearly as many as now.

 

70 years of development in materials science has improved the power to weight ratio of these engines and the efficiency of their energy conversion. Why not steam engines?

 

The big difference between Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) and steam engines is how the pressure that moves the piston is created. In an ICE, the high pressure gas is created by burning fuel inside a confined space (the cylinder). In a steam engine, the high pressure gas is created outside the confined space and introduced to it. In both cases, the flow of gas into, and out of the confined space is controlled by a valve system. It would be quite possible to convert an ICE to a steam engine simply by connecting the steam supply to the intake manifold. (Disregarding rusting) It is interesting to note that a steam engine, like an electric motor, produces maximum torque as soon as it is started.

 

Here is a video which shows two types of boilers used to produce steam for industrial purposes.

 

The dryback boiler design would be most suitable for adaption to a vehicle engine as the fuel burn is not continuous. Once maximum pressure has been reached, the fuel burner is turned off (or back to just a pilot light) until the steam pressure drops to a determined level. This is exactly the way a workshop air compressor and tank work. It would not take much to miniaturize the design of an industrial boiler to a size suitable for a small vehicle power plant. The flame is contained within the structure of the boiler, and for a small engine, one can imagine that a 9 kg bottle of propane would last a while if the air/fuel mixture was set correctly.

I thought we where talking about steam engines here not diesels?

Anyway seeing as there are NO steam powered planes currently plying our airways that kinda says it all wouldn't you say!?

Everything in aviation is based on risk, calculated risk, life without risk is not life at all? All one can do on a personel level is reduce their own risks, that could be by carrying a dozen GPS devices all the way up to not even getting out of bed in the first place??

Steam powered engines in planes was left behind a hundred plus years ago, now I wonder why??

Another Cessna HH flew???

It's the current not the voltage that kills you. A 240 volt AC wire onto dry skin and out through rubber soled shoes on carpet is not much current. A 120 volt through wet skin and out through wet feet onto wet concrete may be thousands of times more current. Try playing with an ohm meter and see for yourself.

Correct, I used to get shocked a bit when I was playing around with dads old valve radios, high V low Amps....soon learned thigh!? Regardless of AC, DC or any other sexual preference it still 'hertz'?

Maybe, but some thing else to go WRONG you will see them motoring a certain number of blades depending on the gearing to the prop, before they fire them up Nev

That's a common practise and hydraulic locking won't happen anyway as who in their right mind would start a radial without first hand turning the prop several times?

ICOM VHF AIR BAND TRANSCEIVER IC-A15 | Other Electronics & Computers | Gumtree Australia Bundaberg City - Bundaberg North | 1246369750 This is on Gumtree. $190

I've got one of these with a PTT adaptor, very handy and works well?This is cheap?

I don't think I could. So much of what happens is out of your hands. Like golf, you putt for sheep stations. At each end is the unknown where you lose the points. Get someone on final when lining up or some so and so is backtracking SLOW. I've had it done on purpose and got sent round " I elected to" because it was too close. Not ALL pilots are gentlemen. Nev

So true Nev! It's a game to some pilots, I've seen it first hand with the SkyGods, they take great delight in playing the man whenever they can!

Here's my last fast one. You'll be relieved to hear.

ADL- MEL chock to chock 47 minutes This is brakes release for push back to brakes "on, engines cut "at destination. You don't set out to do these things. They just seem to fall in place and with a little assistance, happen. I took off to the east from Adelaide after a "ready for immediate" rolling start, 330 knot indicated climb, then got a good tailwind to top of descent. Descend at 350 Kts and we didn't have the 250k? below 10,000 restriction and got a straight in to the east at Melbourne straight to the finger. As simple as that. I doubt it will ever be beaten as a few things that helped then don't happen today. The current scheduled time is 70 minutes. This included an inflight replanning back to Adelaide. passed over the radio. It might sound exciting but it's just another day at the office, but you are not just sitting there, fat, dumb and happy. Nev

Been there done that, gotta do better than that???

Might be the Uniform effect . so I'm told. . Police, soldiers etc. Are judges cross dressing when they wear wigs .? They have ball bearing hosties these days as well. Everything is changed. Nev

Nah the trolley dollies these days come in both flavours and are 20 years old with their heads stuck on social media 24/7! Relying on them in an emergency these days would be like getting the Govt to help you!?

Never really had that 115 ponies all at once unless you ran it flat out in level flight?Got about 98 of those ponies working together at any one time?

The Navigator and I made a nonstop to Goolwa from Lethbridge in the Citabria 95 knot machine about 18 years ago. About 4.5 hours and could have made Adelaide direct if we had to. Somehow, I think things have changed.. Nev

I loved the 7ECA, taught you how to manage its staggering HP?

Hopefully the lessons of the current pandemic will be applied widely; we became too dependant on imported medicines, PPE, etc. There is now pressure to ensure our nation has the capacity to produce basic stuff at least.

How many pilots would be able navigate when (not if) our internet and GPS systems get clobbered by solar storms?

Funny you should say that! Many moons ago the GPS system went down and I was in the FL's between Kunners & Broome, navigation by looking out the window with a map was 'challenging', we sure do rely on those Sats these daysM

I used to work for an Aeromedical outfit years ago, got plenty of 'customers' from the crazies on bikes! The saddest part was witnessing the parents of said crazy mourning their brain dead sons!

Navigation by Constance was used for long distance navigation. It used ADF but did not fly from or to the aid. It used rate of change of bearing to the aid. The Mooney that I owned was flown across the north Atlantic Ocean using the system I'm the 1980's. Not VOR but interesting. Very mathematical but I love applied mathematics. Including Full SAR.?

Geoff

FullSar was the best??

Around 40 years ago I was part of a group of 4 planes and pax heading for the Birdsville races out of Melb. ( did it for many years back in the good old days) I had the slowest plane (C172) that coupled with at times a 30 knot h/w I got as far as Swn Hill cause the girls I had onboard (the lightest, lucky me!?) had to go! Airborne again and you guessed it Pooncarie for another 'rest stop'! Finally made it to Broken Hill for fuel and yep more 'relief work' for the girls! Again airborne and passing Moomba rumblings where heard from the back seat, this time I said can't stop now or we will run out of fuel! When I got to Birdsville LATE that Friday the others in the group where talking to the ATC guys there (yes back then the Dept had a temp ATC set up at no charge (imagine that now?) My friends where getting worried that we had crashed! No Mob Ph's then or OzRwys just a lot of WAC's! Was a looooong trip! Coming home days later was a whole other story!?

Christ how did we old codgers ever get thru school and make something of ourselves??I've got a headache just reading that???

Multi eng flying machines are all about getting more HP and more blade swept area as well as redundancy without having one large powerplant. Today's modern high bypass jet engines produce well over 100000 lbs thrust, enough for a single powerplant to push a large airliner thru the air on its own, they don't do that cause of redundancy (and a host of other issues) There is a growing amount single engine turbines both prop and jet available these days but the redundancy is mostly removed, all expensive and complex, something we don't need in our basic Sunday flyers?

Someone is nipping at the red wine too much here??