Geoff_H

In the early 70's it was great to get an aircraft that had a cheap VW engine, open canopy absolute minimum instruments and a cruise speed of around 70 knots. Now we want a full panel enclosed canopy long range 100kt cruise speed. Leather interior etc etc. I think that the Corby starlet is one of the best minimum cost aircraft around.

I guess that a new chip would increase the output. But the Bosch engine control module must be encoded some difficult way. There are several kits to add the 60hp max increase at the moment. From what I can see all halve the manifold pressure to the Bosch unit, it then increases the boost. Mmmmmmm. But what a trick BMW is doing.

The intent is to only use the brakes for taxing and holding the aircraft during starting the engines. No starter motors. Virtually no electric system. Batteries in hand held radio fitted with remote headset, signals for tachos and kill switches. EFIS in phone. Nothing in the aircraft that doesn't have to be there.

The discs are 15mm larger than the rim. With two side walls and tread roughly calculated at 15mm the discs may touch the ground but only just. The calipers are very small and fully floating. I did some tests some time ago and the discs were extremely difficult to twist. The craft AUW is 200kg.

More pics

For some years I have been trying to make an aircraft for less than $10k. First attempt was scrapped as it was far too heavy. The idea was to make moulds and loan them out, really not feasible, too easy to damage the moulds. I am on second attempt now. Engines $4k, leaves $6k for fuselage etc. Use phone efis, may work. Hand held radio. Probably on target but making many parts in my lathe and milling machine. I expect that I will achieve the end result. The aircraft is small and I am using quad bike braking system. I machined wheels from single blocks of aluminium. Canopy will blowv$10

The power curve of the BMW 2 litre engine. I have often thought that this engine would be good for aircraft. What do you think about the odd power vs rpm curve? BMW are limiting output to increase as models evolve. I have found how to add 60hp to output very simply.

We will have blackouts. Liddell was commissioned in 1971 designed for 20 life. In 1988 I led a team to work out what we needed to do to extend life to 2004. Most was done. But I am surprised that it is running at all. But when it comes to an end the price of electricity will increase. Gas will fill the hole. When coal plant keeps falling over and all the gas plant is operating then any system failure will result in blackouts. Look at the formation of the electricity commission of NSW history. We are back to where it was in mid 1950's. I have just overhauled my little generator.

I worked for the electricity commission of NSW and in the early 1970' we looked into going nuclear with a power station built on federal land in Jervis bay. It was not economic then. The cost of a power station consists of the cost of money to build it, the cost of fuel and the cost of labour to maintain it. Coal is medium for interest low for fuel and medium for labour. Nuclear costs at least 10x a coal station. With 70's interest rates far from low interest was enormous, fuel is quite low and labour was high. Just not worth building. These days interest is low. We should do it. T

Say that to an engineer at Eraring or Bayswater power stations. They have been designed to come on Quickly and go up in very fast time. I commissioned one of the systems. There is so much BS out there that is put out with a political agenda. Greatest of all is the two most CO2 emitting countries are Indonesia and Brazil. Land clearing! In 2008 when I had a contract with a big mining company to investigate renewable energy I discovered this. One eyed climate change obsessed people usually deny it. Politically impossible to change those emissions. In 2008 land clearing emitted mor

I will have to look it up again. I will get back to you. It is a government site on power and emissions in Australia. It is interesting that the 2019 average nbulk purchase price of electricity was $0.14/kWh. I pay a lot more than that to get it into my house.y

People will say that they have solar cells that charge their Tesla so they don't cause any emissions. One 300watt solar panel will generate, on a sunny day, enough energy for a Tesla to travel 4km. So your Tesla has to be in your garage or you need storage batteries at your house to transfer the energy. These batteries and inverters are expensive. But even if you do charge your Tesla using solar cells you only reduce the emissions of CO2 if the solar cells are dedicated to your car. If you are using solar cells that are connected to the grid then while you are charging your Tesla the power

My petrol fuelled BMW 330i creates less CO2 emissions than a Model S Tesla. I expect that this is also true for petrol engined vehicles that have dual cycle engines, many vehicles for sale today. Tesla charge with power from the eastern Australian grid. The grid hass a high emissions per kilowatt hour generated. Basically owing to the use of coal for power generation. The Tesla in NSW generates 0.164kg/km of CO2, the BMW generates 0.147kg/km of CO2. If this is so then why are Tesla's so successful around the world? As an example I examined the New York grid. It is approximately the sa

Please quote your source of both figures. Particularly the coal cost does not correlate with delivered cost of retail supply costs according to the official website

What happened was that he glued the fabric to the timber. Unfortunately most of the glue soaked into the timber leaving a very small amount of glue holding the fabric. The fabric parted from the timber and all aerodynamic shape was lost. I now paint any timber with epoxy, let that cure, sand timber back to smooth then glue attachment to the timber.