pmccarthy

One while we are waiting...

Seen at the Jamesons distillery in Ireland

A friend we miss, whose name comes up regularly at the aero club. We also lost Gleeso, one of his co- conspirators, recently. Fortunately Terry the pluma is still with us.

Have they been shut down? They lost the Box Hill relationship, but their website is still active.

The two vehicles were a Chev truck, which had a kero tank added during the war (with a changeover valve), and an Allis Chalmers tracked tractor. Thanks for the feedback, parts washing it is.

They use Inox to protect firearms. Spray then wipe over, and no rust.

In cleaning out a shed on the farm we found a 44 gallon drum. The contents smell like kerosine and it is yellowish in colour. The drum is heavily galvanised and the top is embossed with what looks like AF, with a vertical arrow between those two letters. The drum has been in the shed since at least 1960 and could have been there since the war. we speculate that it is jet A1 or whatever the equivalent was back then. There were two vehicles on the farm that ran on power kerosine back then. Just curious if anyone remembers that sort of drum.

Welcome back to the world. We would miss you. Hope this doesn't further impact flying opportunities.

My wife was walking the dog using her Polaris quad bike. Lead caught in the throttle and she slammed into the farm gate bending bike, gate and hinge post. Neither she nor the dog was hurt.

I was going to say Piaggio P166 but it doesn't seem to have the gull wing.

From Fatality statistics by industry | Safe Work Australia the annual fatalities per 100,000 workers in Australia are: Agriculture, forestry & fishing 11.2 Transport, postal & warehousing 5.9 Mining 3.7 Construction 2.0 If we take the worst at 11.2, this is one fatality per 8,929 workers. Then allow 1840 hours exposure per worker per year we get one fatality per 16.5 million hours of exposure. If the RAA rate is one fatality per thousand members per year and generously allowing 50 hours flying per year, this is one fatality per 50,000 hours or 330 times the rate of the most dangerous industry grouping

Yes and it does not end with the word traffic.

Yes, what’s this nautical miles thing? Everyone seems to say that these days. As if it would make any difference nautical or statute for a ten mile call. And we are obliged to use nautical so why say it?

Very misty in central Vic today, I don’t know about Gippsland. Hope they come good.

I have never sat in a Jabiru but a new J230 looks like best value for money on the Australian RAA market today. You can get flasher aeroplanes for more bucks, but it seems solid value in terms of airspeed and capacity.

For the comparison to be valid, you would have to look at circumstances. The best test would be “ could that have happened to me?”. For cars, eliminate drug- affected hooning in a stolen car and multiple teenage deaths with unlicensed drivers, etc. For aircraft, eliminate most scud-running inadvertent entry to IMC etc or loss of control during low flying and showing off. Just compare the circumstances that could apply to your driving and flying. I have no idea what the result would be.

That is an appalling death rate. When I started in mining fifty years ago our death rate was one per 1000 per year, and it was totally unacceptable. This is for people exposed in that environment for 1840 hours per year. We got it down so low as to be almost meaningless. But 1 per 1000 pilots, probably averaging 30 hours per year each? It is really, really bad.

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Aaagh!

Just got up for a drink of water and a shot of social media.

Once I was onto the US Mail I could find lots of pictures, but most did not identify the aircraft.

What’s the chance, at 12.15 in the morning, I pipped you by four minutes?

I have been flying VH again for about six years but have maintained my RAA membership. I guess it is to support the organisation, I joined in 1992, but also to allow me the chance to fly RAA if someone offers it and a fallback if medical conditions demand. Of course I could rejoin then, but it seems a bit exploitative to view it that way.

Standard Aircraft JR1-b

My tip for bike safety is ride by yourself. With others, I get sucked into speeds and conditions I would not do alone. Even my wife, who is a conservative sixty-something motorcyclist, pushes me a bit sometimes when we ride together.