Area-51

35 years and still going strong and strategically on track - "The slowest longest drawn out death of an icon company in the entire history of human kind". Last one bought a pub, this one going into fiddle fuddle land... wonder what this new one will exit into afterward 🤔

Have just fitted a custom header tank with purge circuit and low level lamp on instrument panel to an airframe, and replumbed the entire fuel system with flexible braided teflon tubing and AN6 fittings; ended up being a real hassle free way to go and will last the life of the airframe... was sceptical when customer requested using this method but was pleasantly surprised in a good way. Have also designed and hand fabricated hard plumbing in custom automotive; fuel, A/C, brakes, hp fluids. Fabricating and bending hard lines is a real art; you really need to know your linear lengths for bends, and relative angles between bends too, and its all got to be calculated before making the first bend, otherwise stuff sometimes gets made again... and again... and again... stuff ups are great learning opportunities... matching siamese lines are the ducks guts of challenges. Using a quality flaring tool is a must; otherwise don't even bother trying, all the work may amount to naught in the end otherwise. Everything from EFI Solutions, available from Burleigh Heads store, or online store... very well priced and excellent quality materials; just measure, cut, put the end on... the return restrictor i just used a thick nylon line, screwed the restrictor jet in and pushed it all down into the teflon line; a snug fit.

Cricky... its hard enough just getting a worksafe certificate that says you are adequately trained to open and close a commercial fridge let alone open steam valve... Maybe my barista license will be recognised as a steam valve operator 🤔

Now we're talking! 😂😂; back onto steam powered omnibuses; they used a big onboard vat of molten aluminium that would remain in liquid state long enough to last for a whole shift... they were heavy... a golf ball size plutonium nuclear reactor surrounded by mercury coolant pumped through a thermal heat exchanger to a steam turbine is guaranteed to get people talking for decades 😀... personally i'm staying with the donkey

Back in late 90's i met an old steam engineer; during our afternoon discussion he told me of a friend of his who converted an XP falcon to run on steam; it cold go from stone cold to driving in 15 seconds; it had a closed loop system... the oil companies tried to buy his IP to which he told them all to go get stuffed... i was told the guys name but never chased it up at the time.

I remember more now, the daimler motor was fuel injected but normally aspirated...

In the mid 60's a couple of brothers in Newcastle i think built a Daimler SP250 drag car that ran without any inlet or exhaust valves and reliably produced 600 odd hp on the dyno at 12500rpm.. it was documented in Sportscar magazine of that era... it must of been running as a 2 stroke... my father for some reason threw the entire collection in the bin just before he passed away because we got no response when advertised for sale... the garbage truck collected it all the day before i turned up to box them for storage... 🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️😂😂😂🤦🏻‍♂️

Micro fission nuclear closed loop steam turbine is the best option; Thunderbirds are go 👍

The water would likely be spent hydrogen exhaust escaping as there is no sealing

Piston engine is here for good, humans are no longer able to advance further unless Elon provides required Capex... Still waiting for previously promised Gravitron to materialise since childhood days... still waiting... no longer holding breath...

Only one way to tell.. we all chip in, buy three Lotax 912 and three Rotax 912 and run them all flat out side by side until they fail 🤷🏼‍♂️

The customs tariff matrix is a quagmire of navigational insanity; these people would never pass their Cross Country endorsement... no cross referencing notes; nada... a fantastic sand pit of baby poo.

In the end its the same old story; they do and tax as they please when they please... when you argue, the next shipment may be taxed more, or substantially delayed for infinitim.

You got scammed; read the right hand column 8807.30.00 - Other Parts... - Free

Unless its changed in last 12 months, aircraft parts are exempt from duty; its written in the customs tariff matrix

Longevity is not the driving factor in automotive where new materials and production methods are concerned; Price/Cost is and longevity is Cost driven to the point of the component lasting the period applied to Factory Warranty, which is covered, like insurance, within the Wholesale Price. Material's Technology is also driven by End User Expectation... 600bhp from a factory 5.0 Coyote V8 is a User Driven result... 35mpg is a User Driven result... Powdered high pressure electrocast conrods are Cost Driven result... A 1930's Royce or Bugatti motor, with all its ancient material's technology will still crap all over a modern engine in performance. The only modern components that can offer any real level of an uncompromised challenge here are computer generated stress optimised 3D printed alloy components. Everything else is old and already long done...

It does pay really well if you are prepared to put up with everything that culture is going to throw at you regarding the many types of customer... lots of disposable capital just waiting be spent on senseless stuff in the auto world.

I did 6000hrs working at a Citroen dealership in early 2000's, never experienced an engine internal failure on PSA petrol and diesel engines, but the timing belts and water pumps would fail leading to catastrophic failure. Oil leaks around the engine were also common and occasionally a welsh plug would let go on +300k unit. The engines are very light for their output and very well balanced with the turbo diesel in a Belingo punching out over 300hp and a bucket load of torque from 1200rpm up to redline. All from 65kg

Well legally some pilots will not be covered under insurance policies due to their "voluntary" participation in a medical experiment... just saying, not a political statement, just a fact; its a clause in most all professional and life insurance policies - voluntary participation in a medical experiment automatically cancels the insurance policy; check it out for yourselves 🤷🏼‍♂️

Roo is softer than cow hide but tougher than sheep and pig skin... Steak is lean and tastes of full iron; unique taste and smell.

Yeah mate flown through way worse than all that... just last week found myself hanging onto the transponder mast at the back of the tail; lucky i had my lucky leatherman belt on. It snagged on the antenna and saved my life... it was rough; real rough mate; plane was bouncing around all over the place like a mad mouse; wouldn't be here now if my lucky belt hadn't grabbed the throttle as i was thrown back out through the canopy; selected full throttle and off it went charging ahead like thunder... i was hanging on for dear life clambering back along the fuselage using my leatherman to grip the phillips head screws in the fuselage and haul myself back to the cockpit in the hail; they were the size of a slazenger footy; no joke... was almost in the cockpit when lightning struck the scene; the carbon sr22 exploded into a cazillion pieces... lucky the brs hit my head and knocked me clean out; it must of got tangled around my arms after and saved me... ... woke up in a back ally surrounded by empty broken bottles of jack daniels 027... gees i was so lucky that bin of bottles was there to break the landing.. real wild night it was...

This is a great diagram regarding optimum CG... correlate the image to dynamic pitch stability at best glide. The optimum CG position will result in a stable constant decent at exactly the 'best glide' velocity, with neutral pitch trim... moving the CG rearward will cause the airframe to gradually pitch up until airspeed bleeds off and the nose pitches down once again; and this can repeat all the way down to an actual hands off landing in a perfect environment... moving the CG forward will pitch the airframe nose down, and into the ground.... positioning the CG too far from the optimum best glide position amplifies these effects until dynamic stability collapses... depending upon the individual airframe optimum CG will change either side of Best Glide; which is the primary purpose of pitch control/trim surfaces... A longitudinal sliding mass is the simplest pitch control device, and things can go very wrong when the mechanism fails. Test proofing an airframe design within Xplane is a great way to study affects without getting dead.. one design recently looked at had a violent tendency to barrel roll immediately if the CG was moved beyond the rearward position by just 5.0mm; the spin was mostly unrecoverable when affecting full pitch up deflection during the upper quadrant of the manoeuvring speed in straight level flight moving the CG 5.0mm forward again allowed for instant recovery of a controlled barrel roll. The perfect CG position on the perfect theoretical airframe will see the airframe return to a stable straight ahead vector immediately at any speed through any vectored direction of fluid (air) when all control pressure is released back to a neutral position.

Magnet Marelli and next Lucas were always the winner and first choice for everyone in europe... They were guaranteed to fail at dusk; leaving the rider/driver at the side of the road to be rescued by the farmer on their tractor who would offer a fresh stable to sleep in and to affect repairs... And the farmer always had daughters to make the whole adventure complete... So failure was not frowned upon in the old days... 🤷🏼‍♂️

Tell me about it... take away was, "learnt something new", received some valuable feedback from military trained influences and mentors. Outcome, planned "operational information circular" to be distributed to all surrounding out of area flight training providers.

Last most recent flight... busy day, lots of training flights entering the frequency area... One aircraft calling rolling 05 departing, visual of departing aircraft confirmed; frequent airfield op's of individual departing aircraft; flying neighbourly. Call "xyz joining downwind 23 full stop"; field and area visual, clear. Foreign aircraft responds; "entering back tracking 05". Flying downwind, visual the field, no aircraft sighted entering and backtracking 05... respond "xyz to xyz, confirm last transmitted position"... no response... Situational awareness raised to alert level... no aircraft sighted at transmitted position... continue flying downwind leg for 23. Late downwind, foreign aircraft transmits, "backtracking 05"... visual field again, no aircraft sighted; look for possible powered parachute on field, no aircraft visual at transmitted position... Situational awareness raised to High Alert, visual circuit airspace, no aircraft sighted. Call "xyz base 23 full stop" status high alert... "xyz to xyz, please confirm present position", still no response... Extreme alert, prepared to bank hard right full power if required. Call "xyz final 23 full stop"... "foreign aircraft responds "xyz to xyz, we will hold to the side of 05 for you"... "xyz to xyz, thank you appreciated"... still no visual of foreign aircraft at transmitted position. Call "xyz late final 23 full stop", then spot foreign aircraft, cessna semonile twin, 50 metres off port side 11 o'clock at 500' AGL flying dead side of 05... (i.e 50 metres off port side flying opposite direction at same altitude while on late final for 23). WTF???? Requested debrief from command pilot of departing aircraft for confirmation of event... not an isolated event situation. Shared the story with club CFI... Club CFI personally contacts owner/instructor of seminole for incident discussion... Seminole owner/instructor response "he (me) never made any calls". CFI's response, "that's impossible". Seminole "why?" CFI's response "because he's (me) anal retentive, and he always makes calls"... Somebody screwed up, and it wasn't me... Somebody will eventually die.. hopefully it won't involve me... Nothing further to add...