nomadpete

You need to go to Grimaldi. Cheer up !

A fleeing Taliban, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when he saw something far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the oasis only to find a Queens Own Highlander soldier selling regimental ties, name was Shep. The Taliban asked, "Do you have water?" Dougy replied, "There is no water, the well is dry. Would you like to buy a tie instead? They are only £5." The Taliban shouted, "You idiot infidel! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first!" "OK," OK" said Dougy, "It does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie and that you hate me. I will show you that I am bigger than that, and that I am a much better human being than you. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find our Sergeant's Mess. It's leader is a clan chief called Dykes he has all the ice cold water you need. Inshallah and Caberfeidh". Cursing him, the Taliban staggered away over the hill. . Several hours later he staggered back, collapsed with dehydration & rasped......"They won't let me in without a f-------g tie!

Remind me not to attempt using sign language to pick up a girl in a bar.... It could go horribly wrong.

Should've left this for one of our lovely ladies to post. Somehow its just not right for a bloke to draw attention to it....

-----Three elderly golfers are walking down the fairway. "Sixty is the worst age to be," said the 60-year-old, "You always feel like you have to pee. And most of the time nothing happens." "Ah, that's nothing," said the 70-year-old. "When you're 70, you don't have a bowel movement any more. You take laxatives, eat bran, you sit on the toilet all day and nothing happens." "Actually," said the 80-year-old, "Eighty is the worst age of all." "Do you have trouble peeing, too?" asked the 60-year-old. "No, I pee every morning at 6:00 am. I pee like a racehorse; no problem at all." "Do you have trouble having a bowel movement?" asked the 70-year old. "No, I have one every morning at 6:30 am." Puzzled with this, the 60-year-old said, "Let's get this straight. You pee every morning at 6:00 am and poop every morning at 6:30 am. So what's so tough about being 80?" " "Well", said the 80-year old, "I don't wake up until 7:00."

A self-important college graduate walking along the beach took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen resting on the steps why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation. ”You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one”, the student said loud enough for others to hear. The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon. We have nuclear energy, ships and cell phones, computers with light speed and so much more.” After a brief silence, the senior citizen responded as follows: “You’re right son. We didn’t have those things when we were young, so we invented them. Now, you arrogant child what are you doing for the next generation?”

PS Why isn't this thread swamped with 10,000 replies? Or does that just prove my point about apathy?

Management, communication, governance and transparency...... Were any of these terms written into the rules? Unfortunately too many of us were preoccupied with flying to take part in the running of things. "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men (or femmes) to do nothing" I confess to allowing my own apathy to contribute to things evolving as they have done. Pete

Please keep our governance separate from CASA. They seem so focussed on the big end of flying, I don't think they would even want to bother with little fish like us. Pete

Gotta agree that the office staff do a great job. As for the rest, well....... Pete

I have been following this thread like all the others. Even though I did not know the people closely, I am deeply distressed by the sad news of our sudden loss of fellow aviators. In our small flying community any loss of this kind feels like it has happened in our own family. My heart goes out to their loved ones. All of us following these forums are here because we know the joy that comes from following our passion for flight. All of us know there are risks and all of us do our very best to minimise them. We also know that living a life wrapped in cotton wool might result in a longer time here, but no matter how hard we try nobody can rule out misadventure causing an unexpected early end to that boring existence. A life led in safe mediocrity is surely a life truly wasted. All those aboard the Dragon were living life to the full, as it was meant to be lived, following their passion. We will all miss them.

Just a sideline thought about SAR technology in the present tech age - It should be possible to use a directional antenna to pick up a mobile phone from some distance above. (range would be poor through trees or horizontally thru hills) That would require a specialised purpose built antenna. But it might be an avenue that that has not yet been developed? It would not require the phone to be in range of a mobile base. It would just have to be left switched on and it would periodically send a signal to attempt to connect to a base station or to maintain a login if it was already in range of a base station. On the other hand, if it was in range of a base station the telco should be able to assist with identifying the base station if it was advised of the phone number. Ant thoughts, Kyle?

Now PPQ heading for Bris?

The waiting and not knowing makes it so much harder. My thoughts go to all friends and family of those on board.

Seems odd to see a search aircraft retracing the same oval path - maybe half a dozen times so far? My guess is about 2k wide by ten kilometers long, at 10,000 feet. As Ian said, it would be informative to know their strategy.

I saw a car parked outside Woollies with a bumper sticker that said 'I Miss Alice Springs'. So I smashed the windows, stole the radio, let the tyres down & left several empty VB cans on the back seat with a note saying 'hope this helps'.

The wife left a note on the fridge......... "It's not working!! I can't take it anymore, I've gone to stay at my Mums!" I opened the fridge, the light came on and the beer was cold......... Don’t know what she was on about!!

This thread belongs in the "Off Topic" forum.....

Just to add my tuppence worth... Beware of any promises by fibreglass manufacturers. I found a great article in usboating magazine, which told of the problems associated with 'fibreglass'. Normal polyester resin leaves styrene molecules available (within the layup) for ethanol to collect and convey through the engine with disasterous results. Then they tested the best 'ethanol resistant' epoxy resing and found that when they immersed test strips of laminate in E10 (10% ethanol mogas) the test strips lost significant strength over a three month period. That resin is similar to the epoxy based tank wash sealants available. So my assumption is that fibreglass is a highly suspect material for fuel tank construction. My Lightwing tanks developed pinhole leaks through the sides. Although that was after 10 years, it still makes me wonder... PEter T

According to my (non flight) employer's fatigue management procedures, a 'nap' of less than 2hrs is insufficient to reset your fatigue clock. This is because if you don't actually spend time in the deep sleep zone, you don't get quality rest. So the quoted Canada Air policy just makes the PO feel a little better when he wakes up, without improving his decision making abilities. A false sense of security.

Ross, Not ignoring you, just been away for a while - My a/c is fitted with a 80hp that has a set of after market high compression pistons that claim a 95hp result when run on higher octane petrol. The flaps on the GA are hinged at the top of the wing, so when set to reflex they leave a big gap on the underside which I suspect doesn't help things. The reflex maybe gives 2 or 3 extra Kts at a given RPM. Also noted that you get a nicer fuel flow - mine uses 16Lph at cruise. When it comes to range, every little bit counts. Also, my rate of climb is less as you would expect from the smaller wing area. Surely there are some refinements that I can try. regards, Peter

Start a new thresd for OH&S. It's the biggest joke of them all !

So, how long before your hair starts hanging out of your mouth?

Where can I get a graft like that? Only then could I smile every time my mother-in-law kissed me on the cheek.

Thanks, Maj, BTW, your performance figures seem pretty impressive. I found that my GA would turn in an honest 85kts only when I pushed her, was happier at just under 80kts at 5000rpm. That's with a Warp drive 3 blade prop. , pitched to just allow full rpm on straight and level flight (ie optimised for cruise). Have you done any tweaks to smooth the airflow? Peter