Methusala

I was returning to Aus from Zurich and as we taxied out I saw the Brietling Connie taxi in. Must have been one of its last flights as it was withdrawn from service in 2016 because of corrosion in the spars.

Only have to cross the Tasman Sea now to see the last flying Connie in the world!

Oil was $US14-15/bbl...HaHaHa!

a friend inadvertently replaced one of his tank caps with the vent holes facing aft. Sucked a lot of fuel out on a short flight. Don't do this!

Here we go again. Can the cognicenti please not make it difficult for us dumb c...s by avoiding opaque acronyms. I could not get a workable expansion of this from Google. Thanks in advance, Don

Check out Grand Rapids Technologies Engine Information System. 2x cht, 2x egt, RPM, Total engine hrs, Volts, OAT; all with selectable limit alarms. Good value for less than $800 I believe. (Or go with T88 - good engines and reliable.)

30+ years ago. I had a spar failure in a Pteradactyl on take off. (Yes, in those days safety reports were written on such events, look it up!) Anyway, my point is that the local commercial radio station, obviously through monitoring emergency vehicle frequencies, had reported an ultralight aircraft crash had killed the pilot. Thus my family were aware of my premature death before I was. Don't trust the media! Don

I hope that the pilots will wear AC/DC singlets in the summer, flannies and hoodies for winter. Thongs for the waitresses?

Nev has stated in this forum that the 737 re-design is basically unsafe and that re- training and software modifications only temper the outstanding design faults. Commercial airliners must be intrinsically airworthy independent of pilot's intervention.

No max 8 for me, I'd rather walk!

Sometimes, even fairly experienced pilots succumb to fixed ideas such as, "Ive taken off many times in this aircraft with no problems", and continue attempting to levitate even as the end of the strip is approaching fast. Having achieved faltering flight in ground effect next one wing hits a low branch which yaws the plane and further degrades the climb. The pilot and passenger are now hapless spectators to the ensuing ground contact. I subscribe to the high density altitude as the best possible explanation. This view has no connection to the real circumstance, just an armchair theory. Don

Maybe but, this should mean they'll be available for very little cost. I don't recall any trouble flying them but we expected to do a little work and had no higher expectations. Holbrook club had Jeeps and a Thruster s/s on line for $42/hr in the '90s with no accidents. A Robinson B1RD as well. Don

Yes, still pride of place on the wall. Best Aero club I've ever. 1957 was still a year before we moved from Cooma East to Sue City. This was an American construction village at the tailrace portal of Tumut 2 underground power station. I remember our scout Akela, Bill Simpson, a carpenter, introducing us to control line models. He was a Tumut resident and early member of TAC. Used to tell us of streamer cutting with Tigers. I'm a year your senior. Cheers Don

Warning! Thread drift) I'm just back from 1 of my frequent sashays to Tumut Aero Club where, once again, I failed to enthuse the membership with my dream of a club owned, 1 seat, Thruster, Jeep, Mustang ultralight for circuit bashing on calm mornings/ evenings. Just think, a simple lighty for pure fun. Oh the dreams...& joy!🤣

When I'm at the Men's shed, I tell them about going out in those really dangerous little planes to do some 'death stalls'. That usually shuts them up.

I flew a VP-2 over an 11 year period, 1995-2006. I had firstly a Revmaster 2180 followed by an Aeropower 2074. The Revmaster suffered a crankcase crack due to my carelessly misaligning the no 3 bearing when closing the case. The aeropower løgged over 400 hrs with no issues. I would climb initially at 3,600 to 300ft agl then cruise climb at 3250. The jugs hung out in the breeze with air scoops to the heads. No issues with cht or oil temps. The Aeropower was set up with Bosch Jetronic D hardware driven through an Haltech F-9 ECU. Starting was to use injector to the throttle body, turn 8 blades with zero throttle then switches on and 1 or 2 hand flicks. No alternate hot air source and never any icing. The Revmaster has been re-built with new Revmaster cases and Maule 94mm barrels and pistons. I have a high opinion of these engines being simple and reliable. Parts are redily available from severaal specialist suppliers in the US.

Glenn, what was that about people in fragile, transparent houses? I know that you recently had a Rotax!

Hey mate, you can buy O2 sensors with digital gauge for about 40 dollars off ebay. Why pay more when you only want it as a diagnostic indicator? Just my 2c worth. Rgds Don. PS. I used one when setting up EFI on a Aeropower vw conversion.

Related to this story of fuel contamination being most likely during manual handling at delivery, I read that jet A is to be supplied to the 2nd Sydney airport by tanker trucks. Does this mean we should suspect the quality of fuel supplied to airlines at this terminal?

Onetrack, I post on this forum when a. I think that my experience can be useful to other readers, and b. when something strikes me as being either false or deliberately misleading. I am used to the mainstream media deliberately misleading and why not? They are after all owned by the rich and powerful. In this case I noted that you gave no attribution for your claim that fuel retailers operated on ridiculously thin margins. The fact that the best information I could find was a year out of date is perhaps not surprising. Who is going to bell the cat. As for quoted info on 'at the depot' pricing , supplied by the industry, that can be easily manipulated if not intentionally misleading. Recently, when traveling to Tumut, I found the pump price for unleaded 91 was 10c below the best price available in Canberra. This shoots down the argument that high volume results in lower margins. I apologise for my fishing comment regarding your possible links to servos. But being obviously busy, keeping up with every topic is very time demanding. No one knows everything, not even (ahem) me! Many fishy things about the fuel industry including the restricted number of major participants. Coles and Woolworths , in particular, are huge retailers but have meant bugger all in terms of discounting grrrr! The fact that increases in prices occur almost instantaneously over an area lead me to believe that fuel is sold on consignment and the majors dictate prices to the stock holders. This leads me to be sceptical on the evidence you quoted of prices 'at the distributors gate'. As on many things we will just have to agree to disagree. But don't be sucked in by mass media sources; seek information widely. Don

Oh no! Oldmate is at it again! Where does he troll his information from? https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/petrol-prices-low-but-gross-margins-at-record-highs The article linked above states the exact opposite of Onetrack's statements quoted above. In fact it states that gross retail margins on fuel have never been higher and that the record fuel prices charged recently have given cover to operators to hike their cut. It states,"Across the five largest cities, annual average GIRDs in 2019-20 were 14.7 cpl, 2.7 cpl higher than last year’s average. Brisbane had the highest annual average GIRDs at 16.8 cpl and Perth had the lowest at 12.3 cpl. Admittedly these figures are from 2019-2020 but anyone with a memory knows that fuel prices are still high and tend to rise rapidly when international oil prices lift but descend slowly as the fall. I think that retailers for a long time have effectively snowed the public with claims that retail margins are around 2-3c/litre . Perhaps Onetrack owns a string of servo's.

I feel that I must add my long held and not very scientific view on this question. It is my belief that the IC engines that we rely on have been engineered such that age effects on fuel does not compromise their performance to an appreciable extent. Most of us have encountered very old fuel and recognise quickly the foul smell and even the dark appearance. We recoil from such a mess. However, I have kept fuel in sealed containers for sometimes over 6 months before use in aviation. It has smelled, appeared and performed in a satisfactory way such that I don't worry greatly over its age. This applies to 2-stroke pre-mix, 95 pump auto petrol and avgas. In fact, I once did a job for a LAME and was paid in avgas that he was required to drain from GA aircraft and I had no problems with it at all. I know that others are convinced to the contrary. Knowing this I have to say that this is merely my opinion and I am not wishing to tread on anyone's toes.

By which time any evidentiary value of the crash site had been completely and irretrievably destroyed. Ergo, any story is as good as another. Hogwash.