M61A1

The cases I have read about involve acceleration and a pitch up creating an illusion of over pitching, to which they have responded by pushing fwd on the controls. I’m not saying it’s what happened, but just wondering if they were adding power and pulling up at the moment they went IMC whether it could have been a factor. Yes, it’s been known and taught for decades, but so has everything else that’s been killing pilots. Food for thought, that’s all. One of the investigations I read about involving a DC3 taking off on a dark night somewhere near Melbourne. Believing he was over pitching, the pilot pushing down slightly, then had trouble reaching full power. In the daylight it could be seen that the prop tips had been running through the mud flats for some time prior to the resulting crash.

Somatogravic illusion?....

Doing pretty much anything in an aircraft is considered a sin in this country.......Wait, no, just doing pretty much anything in this country is a sin.

Having made some enquires, I think the media have just generalised in regard to “landing lights”. There is an investigation underway. I’m sure we will find reality soon enough, but probably not in the pages of sensationalist news rags.

You might expect that someone might have noticed. That said, the pilots are also a cross section of society, and some of them aren’t as bright as you might hope. The main fire suppression is plumbed to the engine bays and there is one possibly two small handheld extinguishers on board. Perhaps by the time they pulled their head out of their checklist and noticed it, it was a bit bigger than ideal for small extinguisher.

The landing light on most of these helicopters has 3 segments. Two of them are normal white light, the third is an IR flood light. When doing a functional check, you can’t see whether or not it’s on, you stick your hand under it to feel the heat. I don’t think we are talking about the same thing.

I read about a cop a while ago that burned his patrol car that he left running over long dry grass while he was busy handing out tickets. We've had some rain which has improved things somewhat, but I'm still seeing people ashing and flicking butts while driving around here. Morons.

I know what they are, most of the military helicopter light assemblies are almost identical. They are operated using a button on the collective lever and have controllable direction. The lense may get hot, which I guess may start a fire if the grass is up against it, but I would consider it unlikely. Wondering if perhaps the pilot had his IR light (part of the same assembly) on inadvertently, I think it may get hotter and it is turned on and off by toggling the same switch.

Military pilots turn on the landing light and anti-cols just prior to engine start and turn them off just after shutdown unless they are on NVGs. It's a checklist thing, if they don't follow the checklist without prior approval they will get their arxe kicked. On a flight line full of noisy things it's an indication that they are about to start up or are already running. Some helis like Blackhawks can have both engines running and the rotor not yet turning, but will spool up real fast as soon as they release the rotor brake. I'm actually quite surprised it would start a fire, they're just not that powerful.

Good luck with that......they're too busy indoctrinating people to teach them how to think.

That's pretty much a different topic all together.

This seems to be common with a lot of the new technologies. There's a lot of spruiking going on and not a lot of actual progress. In 2006 Boeing was going to have hydrogen fuel cell powered stuff on the market next year. The reckoned they we're that close to cracking it. I really look forward to a good breakthrough ( and I hope it's soon) when it happens, but until then I'm not parting with cash for a half arxed attempt. Unfortunately it's not usually the motor that fails, but the control circuitry, especially with variable speed controllers. Once that smoke gets out, it's not working any more.

I made a snug fitting bar that goes in the outlet. ( a solid piece of alloy bar with a 90° bend in it for good access) As the fitting gets hot you will see the Loctite change colour, I really don't think that 80° is adequate (otherwise they would leak when the engine is at operating temp), but care must be exercised. As Downunder said, apply a bit of pressure while heating and you will feel it start to move. Care is required because they are soft to start with and very easy to distort. If you should wreck one, they are one of the few reasonably priced Rotax parts, around $16 from memory. Yes, I wrecked one, because 80° isn't enough.

That's what they are designed to do. That is how they lock. Generally it is accepted that a screw is "in safety" when at LEAST 2 threads protrude through the nut. If I was supervising/ or inspecting a job where the tradie had screws that didn't go all the way through, he would be replacing all the short ones with the correct length fastener before anything got signed. I agree that it is desirable to use one system or the other. I currently work on metric aircraft, and as far as rivets go, most of them are just standard rivet sizes but labelled in metric, but many are still imperial part numbers. it's damn annoying having a hybrid system. All the screws though are metric.

Did you mean "LEAD" or "LED", as in Light Emitting Diode?

Unless he specifically ordered the nutplates with a closed bottom, (and the one pictured isn't) any length screw can be used until it runs out of thread. The screw in the pic is not shanked out and should screw right through. BTW, grip lengths are not measured in thousandths of an inch, but the far more masculine 1/16 or 1/8 This thread is starting to sound like the "How many forum posters does it take to change a lightbulb" thread.

The photo in his above post clearly shows they are not too long. Dzus are ok or bigger stuff, but for panels Turnlock fasteners are the go. Nothing wrong with nutplates and screws either if access isn't required every day, it sure beats having to get a spanner in a blind confined space. They probably just need some lube and run on and off a couple of times.

Everything looks normal.....are you sure you aren't just a bit limp wristed?

Yep, never before have so many had it so good, yet the the average millenial or genZ will tell you this is the worst time ever to be alive and everyone else has had it better than them.

A -6 should fall through a -10 nutplate. -10s are about 0.190" , a _8 is about 0.161" and a -6 about 0.130". It sounds like an nutplate quality issue, if it starts easily then gets really tight at the end. Many of the ones I use at work with close tolerance screws require grease or anti-seize when new or they are excessively tight . By excessive I mean run on torque far exceeds the listed maximum torque for the fastener.

That one is always a good reminder for me. I was taking the Drifter with pax and fully loaded up to a Gympie weekend fly-in a few years ago. It was perfect weather on the Downs and at Gympie, but I ran into poor weather just past Jimna and diverted to Kilcoy instead. My decision was confirmed with another pilot also on the ground at Kilcoy, not willing to risk pressing on to Gympie. When I checked my track on Google Earth, my turn around point was about 6 NM south of where the Dragon was found.

Should be just fine

Could it be that the longer you do something, the higher the likelihood that mistakes will eventually be made or things go wrong?

I was going to post the exact opposite......never used one in an aircraft, they aren't good enough for my bikes. Replaced my last one with a SSB AGM battery which has way more power for the same size and have had no more problems.

Some of the 3D printed stuff I saw in the trade marquees at Avalon were amazing. Some stuff like this, almost organic in design. https://www.zeal3dprinting.com.au/services/3d-printing-for-defence-and-aerospace/