Marty_d

Just fly in a wetsuit. It will be anyway, afterwards.

I think it's the ones who are awake and flashing you have to watch out for.

I like it, but wouldn't be registerable in Australia - that pointy spinner wouldn't be great for pedestrians...

Mark, I will be very pissed off if you finish 3 planes before I finish my first!

Bit by bit I've been ordering bits from evilbay and putting together the fuel system. Manifold has the limiters tapped and loctited in the rear two outlets, starboard is return line to wing tank, 1/4 ally line going thru gland in the firewall, thru corner of dash, up beside the cabin tube and into the sill above the door and thence out to a quick release to the wing tank. Port tune snakes around and thru the firewall above the passenger throttle rod, I have a barb fitted to the gauge so short rubber connection there too. 1/4 rubber lines are sheathed in fireproof cover, I have a bit left over so will cover as much as I can of the return / pressure gauge lines too when the next shipment of hose clamps arrives.

Has your wife made you a massive list of everything she wants done now that you have all this "spare time"?

Why on earth does your Google Maps location think that Frankston 3199 is in the UK?

At 60 litres of fuel and 9 litres of oil per hour... expensive to run!

Jeez they've used that airframe for some interesting tests...

I thought jets were more efficient at higher speeds, is all. For that design you could put a Rotax under the pilot, have the radiator where the "chest intake" is, then a long prop shaft forward above it to clear the pilot and a pointy yellow spinner at the front. Then it'd look like he was riding a goose.

I don't mind the look of it, kind of like riding an albatross. One without a head maybe.

Is it just me, or is there something weird about having a jet engine on something with "Max speed: 70km/h"?

That wasn't a great advertisement for them. Where did he get the time though - built 2 planes then had to rebuild them both - I'm having trouble completing 1!!

I notice when you click on that link that Repco also sell "Demineralised" water. Is it necessary to use that as a mixer or is normal filtered water usable?

One of the complicated bits is the power crossover system. If I recall correctly it's a driveshaft system which transfers power from a working engine to the opposite rotor should that engine fail.

I always thought the Osprey had more than its fair share of crashes, but I listened to an expert on RN today say that for US forces, the number of Osprey crashes were not markedly different from the Chinook over the same period. (3 per 100,000 hours?) Just goes to show that anything with rotors is suspect...

Nev is right - it's built like a brick sh*thouse, the thickness of some of those parts is impressive.

250m is pocket change to some venture capital firms, but would buy a fair chunk of the ongoing revenue if their Arc reaction motor becomes a reality. I have to laugh at their Slipstream Elite design, is it pure coincidence that the "grille" looks like the Bugatti Veyron and the body shape like early 70s muscle cars?

The fact that there are no intakes for the engines, but more seriously the CG must be about a metre behind the TE, are giveaways...

Looks like a Photoshop job to me. Reversed Gripen perhaps.

Very good point.

I thought NCC-1701 was the number of the USS Enterprise.

Hmm - just noticed the runway numbers on the aircraft carrier. That's a bit odd (presumably they just steam into the wind no matter what compass direction it's coming from!)

Nope - going to just use a good quality normal hose clamp on that one (bolt style, EFI type if I can get it in that size). Two evenings wasted on it is enough.

Well, I think it's going to be Nev' s solution, another type of clamp for that 1 elbow. Not sure why Rotax didn't just extend the elbow so you had clear space to put the hose on, everyone has to do this every 5 years so seems like a design flaw to me.