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Spin

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Everything posted by Spin

  1. Probably true at one time, in relation to annual sales, but I'd be surprised if even their most popular model (MX probably) came close in total production.
  2. Thanks Willie, there are a couple there that I would not have come close to guessing eg FW-190 coming within 300 of all marks of Spitfire. As for the Mig-15 and the DC-3, wow.
  3. Looks like a crocodile and whilst I'm no aerodynamicist, those intakes are going to be a joy to get working in a high alpha situation, something all the other modern jets excel at. Smoke and mirrors I say.
  4. Thanks for that, very interesting.
  5. Mods perhaps the article could be moved to the correct thread, it is well worth discussing - I'd give the link if I could find it! Good piece about a difficult issue. I was involved in something similar before I even started flying - was invited along for a Sunday morning jolly by a friend, along with 2 other relatively husky young blokes as it turned out. The appointed steed was a Cherokee 140 with what turned out to be 3/4+ tanks of fuel. I knew no better and was quite prepared to climb aboard when another, much more experienced friend drifted down from the clubhouse and had a few quiet words with the pilot. Things got a bit heated with the pilot apparently not wanting to back down. 2nd friend bluntly advised us would be passengers that the aircraft was in his opinion, overweight and he did not advise that we took off. In retrospect a pretty courageous move and one that I hope I would have the guts to emulate, because it caused a great deal of ill feeling between the two of them. I backed out of the flight, which similarly didn't go down well, but was consoled when an identical aircraft went down in a backyard about 6 months later, carrying a similar load and having failed to gain altitude after take off. All survived, but the pilot's wallet took a beating when insurers did the weight and balance calcs and walked away from the claim.
  6. mnewbery, are you sure you have posted this in the correct thread? I suspect you intended it to refer to the accident where a trike departed at or shortly before dark and subsequently crashed killing pilot and passenger?
  7. I didn't grow up in Aus, but sounds as though some things were pretty similar; - Milk delivered in glass bottles - we would put the empty ones out with the correct change inside to pay for the day's delivery. Later on we got the modern innovation of plastic tokens AND orange juice in similar bottles. - Going to the drive in, in Dad's new Ford Fairmont (XY Falcon in Aus), or Valiant with manual column shift and front bench seat. - Scalextric set up on the lounge room floor on Sunday nights - Only the corner cafe opened on a Sunday, no shops, no movie theatres. - Listening to the radio or reading of an evening - no TV until I was a teenager - Going to the coast on holiday, towing the caravan, kids riding in the back of the Chev El Camino (Holden ute) - 8mm movie camera, clockwork powered, waiting weeks for the processed film to be returned. - Waiting to finish the film so that you could see your holiday slides. - Smoking in a movie theatre / aircraft - Kero fridge and having to go out to start (and stop) the generator at night. - Going to boarding school and only communicating home by letter, written with a fountain pen. (There were only 5 telephone lines for 450 boys and 100 odd staff, all running through a manual exchange ie you physically connected the call via a large plug. Telephone calls were thus for emergencies or urgent matters only) - Pocket knives, carried by just about every male beyond the age of 8 or so. Ok, some things I don't miss, but we do seem to have lost a lot too in our striving for individual rights, cocooning kids and ever growing collection of gadgetry.
  8. Mate from overseas sent me these and a brief explanation. You know you're having a bad day when you have issues - for apparently unrelated reasons, on both engines in a twin! "According to the pilot the aircraft came out of maint. yesterday After taking off Runway 17, the pilot noticed a drop in the left engine's oil pressure and an increase in the oil temperature. While trying to conserve the left engine, he noticed that the right engine was on fire. The pilot then decided to return to the field, but had to land her before reaching the runway due to the rapidly spreading fire." I believe the aircraft had been a bit of a hangar queen for several years due to an owner doing a runner, but had recently had quite a bit of cash spent to bring her up to scratch. Pilot bailed as soon as she stopped on the ground but on board fire extinguisher was not sufficient. [ATTACH]18285[/ATTACH]
  9. Spin

    Ra Aus Agm

    Blackrod I'm not going to plough through the verbiage and return the compliment of cherry picking comments to make my point. What I do wish to say is that I don't like underhand behaviour and found your manoeuvring to change the constitution and immediately attempt to call another general meeting, distasteful. Yes RA Aus needs to improve and further changes are required but forcing the board into siege mode and bailing them up with personal attacks is not the way to do it, it merely ties up their time and is more likely to entrench the status quo. Furthermore what came out of the meeting was that widely circulated claims about the insurance cover, misrepresented the true position. I would hope that this is a case of being poorly advised, as poorly advised as taking on a board position without carrying your own insurance cover for potential liabilities. Frankly words fail me!
  10. Been and gone - frankly there are many more enjoyable ways of spending 6 hours of my life, but with it being on my doorstep so to speak, I felt I should show my face this once. General impressions: - I don't think either side came out of it particularly well; the board looked a little under-prepared and were caught flat footed by a couple of questions, the "anti's" or government in exile as they seem to be styling themselves came across as overwhelmingly negative and dogmatic and I don't think they did their cause a great deal of good. More on this later.... - I'm not sure that we will ever get right to the bottom of what exactly was done by the supposed anti-christ duo, Tizzard and Runciman, in relation to the junior members and the Lismore inquest. That said, I gained the general impression that whilst the procedure may have left something to be desired, their actions were not the sinister conspiracy others have tried to paint them as. - I would like to have heard more about the bogey man lurking in the undergrowth ie. the current legal case which has apparently exhausted our insurance cover (for this aspect only). I am familiar with the concept of sub judice and whilst it wouldn't have been right to discuss detail or merits, a broad factual outline of what is at issue would not come close to offending. - Notwithstanding some of the horse$#!% being spouted elsewhere, there is no financial risk to ordinary members of an incorporated entity, such as RA Aus. I am constantly amazed at the "wisdom" of the bush lawyers, who are prepared to offer an opinion on just about any technical, legal subject off the cuff. Officers of the organisation are a different matter, but even there people would do well to educate themselves before spouting some of the drivel I heard. - If the numbers of attendees are to be repeated, a more formal procedure for verifying voting rights would be a good idea. - The host club, GCSFC did a sterling job of catering for what turned out to be a much bigger event than had been anticipated. I thought it was 150 plus, ie multiples of previous years. So the amendments all got up; I was a little iffy on the change to the numbers required to call an extraordinary general meeting and had my suspicions about motivation confirmed, when an attempt was made to get a petition for yet another general meeting, at the close of the AGM. That makes for a minimum of 3 talkfests within a year, seeing as the Natfly meeting has also been agreed to! IMO if you want to run the organisation, get on board and do your bit within the constitution- the current fashion of coup d'etat and extra parliamentary politics sets my teeth on edge. Michael Coates probably described it best when he said he was embarrassed for the board, having had to sit through the attacks made on them. Interesting times in the Confucian sense, but I see no reason to flap about in circles a la Henny Penny, screeching that the sky is about to fall in....
  11. Ah, knew I had a pic somewhere, taken back when the PC7Mk11's (Astra) were new.
  12. I was sent the attached link via email; apparently the South African Airforce are having another of their toy sales, this time for the remainder of their C185's and a dozen PC7's. There are probably any number of practical and financial obstacles to actually getting one on the Aus register, but I'll have one of each thanks! http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/former-saaf-aircraft-and-other-equipment-on-sale-at-air-show-2012-09-19 Image is of the Silver Falcons formation team - standard PC7s are white upper, red lower half of fueselage, red tail and wing tips
  13. Bear in mind that Matekane is also at around 8,000' amsl, enough to make any non turbo aircraft feel a wee bit lethargic:eek:
  14. Yeah cfi, pray tell....? Only one I ever heard of, turned out to be a mock up put together by some over enthusiastic outback mechanic - I have a photo somewhere in my archives, will see if I can find it. From memory the story was thrashed out on the prune quite some time ago.
  15. Spin

    Forced-landing

    Glad it all turned out ok mate, one way to get your adrenalin jolt for the year though! Amazing how what was drilled into you does come back when it's needed. Well done! Dex has good advice having been through something similar, albeit with a less favourable outcome for his plane. Take a couple of deep breaths, be thankful for the positive outcome and move right along - nothing good ever came of getting to mired down with the what ifs and second guessing yourself, especially in a pastime like ours.
  16. Another one courtesy of my email buddies, link to an interesting collection of wartime photos;
  17. Cheers Dexter, I'd forgotten about the website, will go have a look.
  18. Have to agree on the padding comment, but overall enjoyed seeing it from a slightly different perspective. That Hudson(?) footage was horrifying, geez it went in hard - more or less an instant conversion into shrapnel. Unfortunately I missed the original program Dexter wrote about, I really must get into the habit of checking the schedule at the beginning of the week and highlighting the good bits - I've been saved from disappointment more than once by warnings on here of forthcoming attractions.
  19. http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=93734&start=75 Link I was sent of photos of a recent airshow in SA, including some good ones of the remaining Thunder City Buccaneer.
  20. Rather late I know, but anyone going? I'm tied to a desk most of today, but will take a run up tomorrow if the wx does as promised. I understand it is a fund raiser for Angel Flight, a good enough reason to put in an appearance.
  21. Spin

    Harrier

    Another one from my email contacts, don't recall having seen it here before. Apologies in advance for the varying font, I wasn't able to correct it. Some of the photos are attached at the end. Meet the man who loved Harrier jump jets so much he bought his own and lovingly restored it to working orderArt Nalls has bought the ultimate boys’ toy: he’s the only private owner of a Royal Navy Sea Harrier, which he rebuilt with a little help from a 400,000-page manual The paint may be peeling in places and it has clearly seen better days, but to its proud owner, the gunmetal-grey Sea Harrier remains a thing of beauty.The British-built jet, once a potent symbol of this country’s technological prowess, now startles the neighbours and the local Cessna pilots whenever it emerges from its hangar at the tiny St Mary’s County Regional Airport in Maryland, some 50 miles south-east of Washington, DC.‘When people see it in flight it inspires awe,’ booms Art Nalls, the only person in the world to privately own a working Harrier jump jet. ‘People can’t believe ten tons of aluminium can float motionless on a sea of noise. I get a kick out of watching the crowds at air shows. 'As soon as I gun the engine, people put down their hot dogs and look upwards with their mouths wide open, like a bunch of baby birds waiting to be fed.'You don’t get the same kick looking at a jet sitting on the ground in a museum. She’s like having a mistress – only more fun and way more expensive.’ It’s 30 years since the Harrier’s finest hour, when it helped us win the Falklands War. The aircraft entered service in 1969, but it was in the South Atlantic in 1982 that it came into its own. The Argentines nicknamed it La Muerte Negra – the Black Death. During the conflict Harriers shot down at least 20 Argentine planes without a single loss in aerial combat (ten were lost to ground fire, accidents or mechanical failure). With its superior manoeuvrability and armaments – including the latest AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles and Blue Fox radar – the British jet outclassed the enemy Mirage III and Dagger aircraft, even though the Argentine planes were considerably faster.It went on to see action in both the Gulf War and the Iraq War, as well as in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. But since then its star has faded. The UK Government caused widespread outrage in October 2010 when it announced it was axing our remaining Harriers as part of the Strategic Defence Review. ‘Betrayal – that is the only word to describe our emotions,’ remarked one pilot at the time. The entire fleet of 74 aircraft (minus two allocated to museums) has since been bought by the U.S. – whose Marines still fly the Harrier regularly in Afghanistan – in a deal worth around £115 million. Admiral Lord West, who was head of the Navy from 2002 to 2006, spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign begging the Prime Minister to reconsider his ‘bonkers’ decision to scrap the iconic aircraft. In an open letter to David Cameron, he wrote that the PM was a ‘victim of bad and biased briefing’. What most angered the Harrier pilots was the belief that their aircraft was better suited to combat operations in Afghanistan than the Tornado, which is almost as old yet has survived the defence cuts relatively unscathed. Following the Government’s announcement, one senior Harrier pilot said, ‘We have been under relentless pressure from an Air Force system that simply wanted us to fail. 'There is absolutely no doubt that the RAF has been working against us from the start of the whole process. This is all about service politics rather than making decisions based on the suitability of the aircraft for this particular combat environment. 'The Harrier was doing a brilliant job in Afghanistan and then suddenly it was withdrawn so that the RAF could deploy their Tornados, simply so that the RAF could justify their existence… You need three Tornados to do the same work as one Harrier in Afghanistan. Where’s the sense in that?’ It was an ignoble end for an aircraft that was once the pride of Britain’s armed forces, and one which has left Nalls, a retired U.S. Marine colonel, as the self-described ‘defender’ of the Harrier’s legacy. The irony isn’t lost on the patriotic American.‘It’s a travesty that the UK Government scrapped the Harrier fleet. I will keep my Harrier airworthy for as long as I’m physically capable of flying her.’ Nalls, who lives in Virginia, won’t divulge exactly what he paid for his ‘bird’, but says reports of £2.5 million ‘are not wide of the mark’. Staggeringly, it costs £150 a minute to fly.‘It’s the ultimate boys’ toy,’ says Nalls, who made his fortune in property development after retiring from the Marines due to an ear injury.‘What makes the Harrier unique is its ability to take off vertically, hover on a dime, fly backwards and pirouette like a dancer in the air. That made it deadly in combat and thrilling to watch. 'When the British do it right, they do it best. The Harrier is the greatest flying machine ever. Technology-wise, it pushed back the boundaries of science. I dreamed of owning my own Harrier. When it came on the market I snapped it up.’ Nalls’s love affair with the plane began during his days as a Marine pilot.‘I flew 65 different types of aircraft. I was less than enthused when I was chosen to fly the AV-8A Harrier. It had a horrible reputation as a difficult and busy aircraft.'I was apprehensive, but that all changed when I took one up for the first time. I strapped in and everything after that was a blur. The Harrier accelerated forward like a rifle shot, and by the time I’d reached the end of the runway I was going 450 knots. I was amazed at what this plane could do. I was hooked!’He went on to work as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, where one of his jobs was to take Harriers to 45,000ft and shut down the engine. ‘I have more than six hours of flight time in single-engine jets without the engine running,’ he grins. ‘At 45,000ft I’d shut everything down, glide down to 25,000ft and then restart. Thankfully for me the Harriers always restarted.’ After retiring in 1989 due to an injury sustained when he broke up a bar-room brawl, Nalls began investing in property and built a multimillion-pound empire.He started buying planes – a Russian Yak-3 fighter and a Czech L-39 Albatros. Then in 2006 he learned that the RAF was selling an FA2 Sea Harrier (or SHAR) via an aviation broker near Ipswich, Everett Aero. ‘The plane was due to be retired. She never flew in combat; she was used to train pilots. I think the broker expected her to end up in a museum. Owning a Sea Harrier was one of my life’s dreams. 'When I heard about her being for sale through a trade publication, I immediately flew to England and went to RAF Bentwaters airbase in Suffolk. When I saw her sitting there in the hangar, it was love at first sight. I got straight on the phone to my bank and arranged payment the next day.’ Once he’d obtained clearance from the authorities, the Harrier was transported to Maryland by sea.‘I had to go through a mountain of red tape to get her over to the U.S, and she arrived in pieces. 'When I asked the RAF for manuals to help me rebuild her, they ran security checks. I guess they didn’t want a Harrier falling into the hands of some tinpot dictator. Then they finally sent me the manuals; they ran to 400,000 pages – no kidding.’Then began the arduous process of making the plane airworthy again. ‘The weapons systems had been removed and we replaced some of the heavy radio equipment and wiring. It was a labour of love. I had a team of volunteers and we worked around the clock for two years before I took her up in the air for the first time. 'Every time I needed a part I either had to find someone to make it for me or I had to scour the internet. There were many times I’d lie awake in bed at night wondering if I’d bought myself an expensive toy that would never leave the hangar.’ The lowest point came after the plane had been reassembled, at the end of its second flight. ‘The nose landing gear dropped but unknown to me it failed to lock. The nose was crushed on landing. That set us back months.’ But Nalls says the effort was worth it. ‘The first time I took her up was magical. There is something poetic about the quality of the engineering. This plane can roll, climb, dive and turn, but what’s staggering is how you can go from travelling through the air at 600mph to hovering at a standstill in a matter of seconds. 'Once you’ve flown one it’s like a drug. You’re hooked.’It’s an expensive habit, though. Nalls has spent more than £1 million getting the plane back in the air – and its Rolls-Royce engine guzzles one gallon of fuel every six seconds. ‘I use up 50 gallons of fuel just getting from the hangar to the runway. At the beginning I was fuelling up so often the local aviation authorities got on to me wanting to know why I required so much jet fuel. When I told them it was for my Harrier, there was silence at the end of the phone. ‘I’ve had her long enough now that word has got around. The world of air shows and those of us who own private jets is pretty small, and once I got the SHAR the news spread like wildfire.'It’s the ultimate in bragging rights. Other pilots come up to me constantly wanting to know about her.’The jet’s controls include a conventional centre stick and left-hand throttle, but with the addition of a lever for controlling the four vectoring nozzles – pointed backwards for horizontal flight and downwards for vertical take-offs and landings. Otherwise, the cockpit is unremarkable.‘There are no mod cons in the aircraft – no cup-holders in the SHAR! This is a performance plane,’ says Nalls proudly.‘I’m the only guy in the world with my own Harrier, and I intend to enjoy it just as long as I can. I would love to bring her back to the UK in 2012 to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War. 'The Smithsonian has expressed interest in buying it, but I believe this is a plane which deserves to keep flying – even if the British Government doesn’t.
  22. Some interesting footage and photos and although not Aussie produced, the sentiment is pretty appropriate in the run up to ANZAC Day.
  23. I look forward to reading more - always interesting to see what was considered so dangerous that it had to be suppressed back then.
  24. Received this via email from a friend overseas, it has a fairly narrow focus, SpaceX, but still interesting to see a example of the adapted business model in operation. I guess that spells the end of the infamous "$10,000 toilet seat" and other extreme examples of waste that NASA has been accused of. The Daily Maverick - 20 April 2012: As Nasa continues to mothball its moribund space shuttles, ferrying them hither and thon to sundry museums, they are also putting 60 years of space exploration to sleep. SpaceX hopes to be the first private company to monetise space transport. On 30 April, we’ll find out if that’s possible. By RICHARD POPLAK. Full disclosure: this publication has, on two occasions, rung the death knell for space exploration. That’s because we were sad, petulantly so, about the end of the space shuttle programme. We loved them. And we were hoping for something big and rocket-y in its place; pronouncements of a mission to Mars, or a moon landing, or some damn thing. But in a downward spiralling economy and in an era bereft of daring leadership – or any leadership at all – such pronouncements were not forthcoming. The closest that Barack Obama is planning to get to space is a couple of trips to Starbucks. So it comes as something of a relief that a company called SpaceX is jumping into the fray. They’re not taking us to Mars any time soon, but think of them as the universe’s most innovative trucking company. In 2010, California-based Space Exploration Technologies became the first private company to successfully orbit and recover a space vehicle. It also became the first Western private company to baffle the Chinese with regard to how low their costs are. At the recent National Space Symposium, as quoted in Aviation Week, “Chinese officials say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with US components in them.” SpaceX was quick to reply, and in ever-so-slightly jingoistic terms: “SpaceX currently has the best launch prices in the world and they don’t believe they can be beaten. This is a clear case of American innovation trumping lower overseas labour rates,” writes Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, formerly PayPal’s main brain, and born, of course, in Pretoria. “For the first time in more than three decades, America last year began taking back international market-share in commercial satellite launch. This remarkable turn-around was sparked by a small investment Nasa made in SpaceX in 2006 as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. A unique public-private partnership, COTS has proven that under the right conditions, a properly incentivized contractor – even an all-American one – can develop extremely complex systems on rapid timelines and a fixed-price basis, significantly beating historical industry-standard costs. “China has the fastest growing economy in the world. But the American free enterprise system, which allows anyone with a better mouse-trap to compete, is what will ensure that the United States remains the world’s greatest superpower of innovation.” Ouch. On paper, SpaceX’s achievements look stratospherically remarkable. When they successfully launched their Falcon-9 rocket and Dragon capsule, recovering the latter – a first for a private company – they did something unprecedented. With all the resources an authoritarian nightmare state can muster, the North Koreans can’t put a satellite in orbit, a much easier gambit. As a private company, having spent $800 million in development costs to date, SpaceX have had one flawless capsule launch, and are prepared for another on April 30. What’s more, SpaceX have guaranteed contracts from Nasa, amounting to about $1,6-billion. In other words, they’re already profitable and are hitting all their delivery targets. Should everything go according to plan on the 30th, it looks like SpaceX and Nasa may prove that private/public is the way to go. Within the year, the Dragon capsules will be docking at the International Space Station, ferrying cargo back and forth, at about a third of the cost of the Russian Soyuz, a ride that Nasa is currently, and expensively, hitching. The Falcon 9/Dragon system can be upgraded to hold seven cosmonauts, double the Soyuz’s capacity. Oh, and the Bose surround sound Blu-Ray system is, apparently, dope. That said, for those of us who have seen the Alien franchise, we know what a profit-bound, corporate model can mean for space exploration. It means slimy things nesting in chest cavities, leaping forth with the intent of severely impacting humanity’s lifestyle. For those of us who don’t want the Apple logo embossed on the moon, Nasa (and government-run space programmes) seems like the best bet. Then again, planting the Old Glory in the Sea of Tranquility is just another form of branding, no less malevolent. Musk’s zeal – his stated reasoning for SpaceX’s attempt to reduce the cost of space travel by a factor of 100 – can sound a little missionary, as befits someone from Pretoria. "An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last 60 years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball – or go extinct." So, if there’s a less bad way to get to space, SpaceX looks like the answer. As they get better at what they do, their costs will drop, a fact that Musk points out in order to make the Chinese feel even worse. (Does Nasa pay for contracts on PayPal? Just asking.) From zero to heroes in a mere 10 years, they are about to send the Falcon 9/Dragon combo to the space station, to test its docking capabilities. If all works out, then the future of space exploration is public/private. All I’m saying is, let’s make sure we have Sigourney Weaver on speed dial, just in case. DM
  25. I'm an old junk yard dog from way back, those pics are enough to make my palms itch! A few of my favourites; [ATTACH]18183[/ATTACH]
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