Old Koreelah

Lae is on the coast, so why not ship it in?

I once saw a pic of a cow being unloaded in the highlands. The colonials needed to have milk for their tea.

Good to see some people are actually committing aviation!

Totally true. It intriges me how so many swept-wing airliners get used for low, slow water bombing. Designed for a totally different role. I guess the main reason is so many are available cheaply and there are plenty of pilots with experience in them. 

Several purpose-built water bombers have been developed, but we don’t see many of them.

11 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I know Russia used meters for altitude but feet is better as 1,000 feet is a rounded figure and about right for most  vertical separation situations.  Nev

What’s wrong with 300 metres? As our instruments get more accurate, we might be able to standardise on 200m vertical separation. Pilots’ brains have enough to do without constantly switching between two systems for vertical and horizontal measurement. Add that load to the many who must communicate in a language they only recently learned (English) and you have a recipe for overload.

Op

34 minutes ago, facthunter said:

The plane was well and truly stalled and that's a high drag situation with the inevitable result if high thrust is not available and perhaps even if it had been. On calm days the HOT air over the end of a sealed runway makes planes fallout of the sky somewhat. The sort of oxygen depleted hot air near bushfires is a real challenge for lift and power as well as turbulence..  Nev

I’ve watched local water bombers working a fire on a ridge above us while listened to their radio exchanges.

Bluddy dangerous work; they get hammered and so do the airframes. Not a good place to be low and slow.

26 minutes ago, old man emu said:

I can't handle altitude in metres, not tyre pressure in anything but psi. But that's just my two bobs' worth.

Every time I top up my tyres I have to reset the servo’s unit from PSI to kpa.

Australia metricated thirty-odd years ago and we STILL can’t use the simplest, most sensible system ever conceived. 

Every vehicle has a recommended tyre pressure placard, usually next to the driver’ door. They are all in kPa, a very simple system, used EVERYWHERE, except backward countries.
What the hell is a PSI? What’s a pound? A square inch? 

One Pascal is the pressure exerted by 10grams (two teaspoons of water) sitting on one square centimetre (a fingernail). Standard air pressure is 1 Atmosphere, almost exactly 100 kPa, so if you put two Atm in your tyre, it’s about 200 kPa.

Can we please throw out those ancient, inefficient measurements?

1 hour ago, Carbon Canary said:

I recall having to put the butane canister inside my sleeping bag while camping in Kosciusko NP in winter..

I’ve kept my plane’s tiny little Pdacid battery in my sleeping bag on winter nights or the plurry thing would never start the next morning!

2 hours ago, BrendAn said:

what motor powered it, it looks like 12 exhaust outlets. did an inline 12 ever exist

Dual exhaust ports?

8 hours ago, facthunter said:

Near empty volatile liquid containers will collapse with a tight lid on a cold night. With only a small airspace that cannot happen.   Nev

I have a couple of old sealed 44s next to my shed that go bang at predictable times of the day and night.

Thanks OME, I hope you Rally goes well.

13 hours ago, facthunter said:

The wankels use a bit less than a two stroke. does. They'd suit a sports/ aerobatic  plane. They keep most of their bit's inside them. Noisy though especially when supercharged.  Nev

I saved up to buy a brand new bike in ‘75 and almost bought a Suzuki rotary.

When idling the big single rotor was noisy and vibrating like a Brit single, but as you twisted the throttle it became dead smooth. I was mostly put off by it’s large size and crazy styling.

After looking forward to this rally, I won’t be able to go. 

Just heard that hometown is holding a campdraught that weekend, with one event in memory of my little brother; it will be the first anniversary of his death.

I’ve seen a few evolutionary dead ends.

2 hours ago, turboplanner said:

Self Insurance on the aircraft I can understand, but what about Public Liability where a claim can go to about $13 million for a quadruplegic?

 

I hear you Turbs, but we’ve had this discussion before. The Public Liability included in my RAA certificate gives some peace of mind, but how much would they pay? It was suggested that they’d be wise to not publicise a figure, for fear of larger claims.

All my efforts to buy an extension to the basic RAA cover have come to nothing; few interested, quotes exorbitant.

On 7/4/2023 at 12:51 PM, old man emu said:

Copy of the CASA Instrument of Approval.

 

If your insurer questions whether CASA has approved this event, contact me and I will send you a copy of the Instrument of Approval.

What about those of us with NO insurer? 
My aircraft is not insured.
The only insurance I carry is the cover inherent in my RAAus pilot certificate. Is that what you mean? If so, perhaps we can get a group endorsement from RAAus?

Good training is to sit in the cockpit and go though what you’d do in all the emergency scenarious.

Putting hands on the lever, valve, switch as part of that might save a few precious moments when the proverbial happens.

3 hours ago, turboplanner said:

I have a modern engine, a Kohler 17 bhp in my John Deere ride on mower…

If you were looking at manufacturing an aircraft engine, this would be one of the closest, Constant Power, applications...

On American forums there is plenty of discussion about converting these V-twins to aircraft use. 

14 hours ago, aro said:

It's interesting to read about the durability testing they do on new auto engines. They need to know if there is anything that will break, before they build a million of them...

Fifteen years ago, when lots of us on the Jodel Forum were talking about installing diesel engines, one member claimed the PSA engine (used in Peugeots, Citroens, Fords, GM, etc.) had a TBO of 10,000 hours!

When challenged, he said they’d tested a batch of these diesels to destruction. The first failed at 12,700 hrs with a dropped exhaust valve.

Over 3,000 of those engines were build every day. 

Can’t answer that one, BC. My stick grip is wound with roo rawhide; my wife’s dad used to earn good money cutting roo hides into lace-sized strips.

28 minutes ago, BC0979 said:

…Not having kangaroo hide here in Florida I will more than likely use something else.

We could send you some. Australia has an industry exporting roo products from the million or so humanely culled by professional shooters each year. Unfortunately, misinformed animal libbers in North America are trying to stop that small trade, which poses no danger to our enormous population of roos.

Their numbers are also hardly dented by the thousands killed on our roads every night. Their carcases are left for wildlife to pick over. 

I’m relocating my LiFePO4 battery, so the extra metre of cable needs to be lightweight.
Until recently all my research had convinced me it was safe as houses, then a powered sailplane pilot reported his Li battery had been cooked from over voltage, due to the regulator failing. 
Mine will now sit under a fire-proof box in my forward floor window bay, so it can be ejected if it plays up. 

I have Al power cable, strands about 3mm.

How to prevent corrosion at the join? Seal completely in silastic to exclude air and water?

Ian used to have a calendah on here, which I ran for a time.

It’s a service we all need if you can manage it.

3 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

As far as I know it only happens for single seat BFRs.

Yep, I’ve been offered those; easy to do a BFR in my familiar little one-seater, but I’ll learn more in a new aeroplane with a new instructor each time.

I have a couple of good jackets that I like to wear; one is the ideal leather airman’s jacket, but I’d never wear it in my cramped cockpit with lots of things for it to catch on.

I religiously wear a wool jumper- warm, fire resistant and it will tear if it gets caught on something while I’m trying to clamber out of a wrecked aeroplane.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-18/roadkill-movie-to-premiere-after-plane-crash-during-filming/102230602