onetrack

I would think the SAAA advice below, probably contains all that you need to know, about approvals for flight over populous areas. https://saaa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IPM-FO-002-002-Flight-over-populous-areas.pdf

We need more Duramold construction aircraft? And here was me, thinking that Duramold had been made obsolete by carbon fibre and Kevlar?

I was under the impression that aircraft and parts are duty-free? However, after searching, I find it only applies to certified parts and certified aircraft. GST is payable on all overseas purchases. Make SURE you acquire and keep ALL records relating to the purchase, otherwise the tax collectors will simply calculate the tax on their estimations - which may or may not be favourable to you! They will also tax any costs incurred in acquiring the goods. https://www.abf.gov.au/trade-and-goods-compliance-subsite/files/fact-sheets/item-34-fs.pdf https://www.abf.gov.au/importing-exporting-and-manufacturing/importing/cost-of-importing-goods/gst-and-other-taxes#:~:text=GST is payable on imported,as customs duty is paid.

And this is where the automotive/snowmobile/whatever-your-engine-selection conversion method is, is a dead-end. Not one of these converted engines lasts any more than a few years before it's superseded by a "new, totally redesigned" engine - thus leaving the conversion gurus out on the proverbial limb being sawed, and on the wrong side of the saw.

Ingersoll Rand must have manufactured quite a few units of the Spot-Air, because they're not all that hard to find for sale.

The Ingersoll Rand Spot-Air is perhaps what Nev was referring to. 6 cyl vertical radial with 3 cylinders driving and 3 cylinders compressing. You even started them with a rope wrapped around a pulley! - because they weren't fitted with a starter. The railways used them for tamping ballast.

Because a motorcycle or snowmobile engine doesn't face the same constant heavy engine load as an aircraft engine does. There's subtle changes in engine stress loads between loads that ease off for a period, before coming back on again - as compared to constant heavy load with no letup. Caterpillar thought they could get into the rail loco business by installing their engines in locos. After all, they'd been building heavy duty tractor and construction diesel engines since 1931, so why not get into the loco business, it's just another engine-driven machine, isn't it? Cat produced a number of diesel locos using their heavy duty construction engines, and they were an unmitigated disaster. Their unreliability was legend. Cat engineers failed to understand that loco engines require extremely heavy duty build, as the load on them is huge and almost constant and unrelenting. And on long railway grades with a huge tonnage behind them, the stress buildup on loco engines producing maximum power on a constant basis for long periods, soon sorts the men from the boys. Cat gave up on their foray into loco-building and left it to the people who knew what kind of build strength was needed for loco engines. Then Cat decided they really needed to get a slice of the loco market - so they simply bought EMD, a long-established manufacturer of locos. They just renamed EMD to "Progress Rail", the supplier of "Caterpillar" rail products.

I'd suggest dragging a caravan from Melbourne to Cairns is one of the stupidest ideas out and the economics don't stack up. These people pay $100K for a van, $100K for a massively overpowered 4WD to haul it, pay out $300 a day in fuel costs for dragging their hated highway clogger the 3000kms to get there - and when they get there, the school holidays are half over, they get a few days in Cairns, then have to depart again and clog the highways on the way back. I've owned plenty of vans for work purposes and they're a constant PIA, with high maintenance costs, insurance, licencing, tyres - and plenty of them are poorly built as caravan manufacturers pop up everywhere, trying to get a share of the RV dollar. Caravan parts are always half the size and twice the cost. My holidays involve no $100K van, no $100K fuel-hogging 4WD, and no clogged highways stress. Airline fares are the cheapest method of going long distances, accommodation is available in most places, and hire cars are cheap, and always the latest model with good reliability. It's about time people woke up to the idiotic "RV dream", it's not a dream, it's an expensive nightmare, and it means stress-filled holidaying.

Nuclear power stations come at mind-boggling cost to build. They need to be earthquake-proof, flood proof, fire-proof, and have triple redundancy built into every system. They consume tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete and thousands of tonnes of lead shielding. They must be be made 100% foolproof, and breakdown proof, and this costs a fortune. There has to be millions of tonnes of water available at all times for cooling. The cooling systems have to be mind-boggling in size and complexity. There have been multiple nuclear power station accidents, of which 3 Mile Island was the worst in the U.S. We all know about Chernobyl. It only takes a pump to break down or a valve to become stuck - and no-one notices - and there's your nuclear power station accident. Few countries are going ahead with major nuclear power station development, and the reasons are, it's the cost as well as the nuclear waste generated - which non-one wants. We could build a few big solar power stations in the interior and they would take over from our coal-generated power. All that's needed is storage - and pumped hydro appears to be the best response for that requirement.

It was actually $2 a day - but it wasn't that she reckoned $2 a day was good enough for Australian employees - she actually said that Australian workers had to learn to compete with African workers, who got $2 a day. Of course, many people presumed she was obliquely referring to her employees. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-05/rinehart-says-aussie-workers-overpaid-unproductive/4243866

You could be waiting a long time to acquire a Yammy sled engine for your aircraft. They can't supply the demand for sled orders, and they can't build in decent quantities because of a lack of parts. COVID supply chain difficulties are still hitting them. https://sledmagazine.com/what-does-yamaha-have-in-store-for-2023-deniss-predictions/

The article is nearly 7 years old! The engine has probably already been made obsolete by Yamaha!

......whether they could call themselves genderless, and to rule that two heads wasn't an unfair advantage in their games. After all, they argued, with the T&IT's all possessing two heads, in common with many Taswegians, it was simply twice as many heads for their opponents to elbow or kick, as compared to any other team. The learned judges retired to their chambers to weigh up the potential team gains of having two heads, as compared to having single-headed players, and whether that feature outweighed the oppositions gains in having twice as many T&IT heads to kick. After 29 weeks of deliberation and a 1786 page judgement that took 18 days to read - let alone understand - the judgement was delivered in a 4 hr 50min speech by the Chief Justice, which speech was punctuated with.........

I hate to think how many rich idiots will buy one of these things and ignore any aviation laws and regulatory requirements, and just take to the air with gay abandon when they feel like a flight. No flight planning, no understanding of aviation requirements, and little flight and piloting training.

WSI is the IATA code for the new Western Sydney Airport. There is no ICAO code for WSI at this point in time.

I would imagine there may be a very small number of operators who are prepared to take a gamble with their lives and other people lives with hour meter disconnection, but the ultimate penalties are more than just financial. There was one previous operator of a Robinson in the North of W.A. who did carry out regular hour meter disconnection - but he paid the ultimate price, he was killed when the rotor on his Robinson disintegrated. The rotor had a manufacturers lifespan of 1200 hrs, when it was required to be replaced. The owner ignored this requirement, disconnected the hour meter and continued flying. The rotor failed at approximately 2000hrs. The ATSB investigated at length and went through the owners fuel useage records, which showed a major discrepancy against the Robinsons hours showing on the meter. The ATSB calculated from the fuel records, the Robinson had done at least 2000hrs, not the substantially lower figure shown by the hour meter. It was fortunate the owner was the only one on the Robinson when it went down.

Well, the backgrounding must be pretty poor, what with the number of ASIC holders - both flight crew and ground staff - who have been arrested and charged with high-level offences, in recent years. There were 5 ground staff arrested just recently for being involved in the importation of a huge amount of drugs and for being part of a criminal network. And there have been multiple numbers of flight crew in recent years arrested and charged and found guilty of a range of offences - and I believe at least one pilot is on trial for a double murder. None of this is to say that all those ASIC holders who are indulging in criminality, have all been caught. So I think your opinion of the quality of the backgrounding is seriously misplaced.

The cause of this R44 helicopter crash that killed egg collector Chris Wilson has been determined by the ATSB investigation to be fuel exhaustion. This, despite the pilot giving evidence that he had refuelled shortly before the crash. Matt Wright, in his regular style has hit back at the revelations in the ATSB report, trying to minimise his responsibilities. Unfortunately, the ATSB report is not the end of the issue, there are a multitude of charges yet to be faced by numerous defendants in the case, so I will not comment further until those cases are heard and finalised. It is interesting that the ATSB was given numerous conflicting crash evidence reports, and no doubt the courts will eventually determine who was telling the truth, and who wasn't. The ATSB reports that the cocaine traces in the pilots system may have increased the likelihood of fatigue, depression and inattention, but ultimately determined that the cocaine effects did not contribute to the crash. In the same vein, the investigation found that there were overruns in maintenance, overhaul and inspection periods - but that these only increased the crash risk, they did not directly contribute to the crash. CASA also came in for a serve, for authorising the slinging of a person below the R44 for egg collecting, but did so without initiating "an effective process" for doing so, to ensure that aviation safety levels were not affected. The ATSB found that when the R44 engine started to fail, the pilot released the sling holding the egg collector at a height that was unsurvivable. https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/news-items/2023/atsb-releases-king-river-crocodile-egg-collection-helicopter-accident-investigation-report#:~:text=The ATSB investigation determined that,egg collector beneath the helicopter. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-22/atsb-final-report-fatal-helicopter-crash-nt-chris-wilson-death/103131088 https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/matt-wright-responds-to-safety-report-into-helicopter-crash-that-killed-costar-chris-willow-wilson/news-story/578478d8671707ab2fb91e952586c8fb

There's constant reference to "flight crew", but nothing referring to individual GA or RA pilots. To me, the definition of "flight crew" pertains only to people involved in RPT.

Kevin, I think you missed the sarcasm in Area-51's post.

......famous piloting jacket (which you must have one of in Tasmania, or you'll freeze into an iceblock in the cabin at anything over 250 feet), but bull had kicked up such a commotion at someone trying to filch his famous jacket, that the cops arrived in force, and the melee subsided, as several well-known members of the NES were arrested for affray. However, no-one had yet noticed that OT was throttling the judge at this point. OT was very possessive of his bulldozer business, and nothing made him angrier than seeing it all handed over to useless Indigenes, who OT knew full well, would simply wreck his Cats and then abandon them. Meantimes, as OT vented his fury about his Cats being simply used and abandoned, a member of the public asked a question loudly, "What about Turbos used and abandoned cats? He's abandoned more cats than any Indigenous tribe would in a 100 years!" The room turned silent and OT stopped throttling the judge, who beat a hasty retreat to his chambers and who locked his doors. The silence was deafening as all eyes fell on Turbo, who was starting to turn the colour the judge was turning, after 2 minutes of OT's grip on his throat. Turbo cleared his throat and started to speak, "Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ears! - and here's a bag to put them in. I know you all feel aggrieved, angry, affronted, annoyed, anxious, acrimonious and alienated, but let me tell you......

Hasn't this already been discussed at length? - just last year? The utter stupidity of the security cards fiasco comes, when you read the CASA website and it states categorically that ALL pilots must hold an ASIC or AVID card. https://www.casa.gov.au/operations-safety-and-travel/aviation-safety-and-security-pilots/security-requirements-pilots#ApplyingforanASIC But then it only points to the Border Security/Home Affairs website, which has nothing referring to any such law. What Home Affairs DOES have, is a form titled "Airport Operator TSP guidance". This document clearly points out that there are "security controlled airports" and airports/aerodromes/runways that are NOT security controlled, because they haven't been declared SCA's. Right there is the fiasco in the ASIC card. It's all about TRANSPORT security - not airport security. We've got probably a thousand airstrips and runways where no-one cares what you do, when you arrive there - they are not security controlled airports. It's pretty obvious the expectation of CASA is that once you acquire a pilots licence or certificate, you'll be visiting security-controlled airports. But I reckon you could fly with a licence or certificate for a long time, without ever having to go near a security-controlled airport. https://www.cisc.gov.au/reporting-and-compliance-subsite/Documents/airport-operator-tsp-guidance.pdf

I used to hire 55cfm trailer-mounted Atlas-Copco air compressors, to operate jackhammers on rock drilling, that used a VW engine (I STR they called them VolksAir) - with two cylinders altered to pump air, while the remaining two cylinders ran as normal to drive the other two. I cannot ever remember an engine so rough-running and unbalanced, I'm still amazed today, that the engines didn't fall out the trailers, they were that rough. And they were pri**s of things to start, too!

Brake seals should not expand from contact with brake fluid. If they are expanding, I'd suggest it's a sign they're adversely reacting to the mineral-based brake fluid. Did you actually check with the brake components manufacturer as to whether the seals and other rubberised braking components are compatible with mineral-based fluid?

A little thread drift - but re the Ford Ranger diesel injectors - the latest common rail injectors utilise what they call DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) coating. This is a super-hard coating designed to resist and reduce wear between close-fitting components that move against each other - such as injector pintle valves in injector bodies. Many modern injectors are going over to disc-type injector valves rather than pintle style - but regardless, all these components do suffer wear after 120,000 - 150,000kms - even despite DLC coatings. Disc holes become enlarged with extremely high injection pressures and pintle seats wear in a similar fashion, all aided by the fact that clearances between injector components have halved with common rail systems - typically down to 0.01mm as against 0.02mm previously. It's all made worse by tiny rust and dirt particles (yes they do get through filters, albeit in tiny dimensions), and tiny amounts of water, making the high-pressure injected diesel, abrasive. Toyota and Isuzu actually recommend injector replacement at 100,000kms. I think that's a worse case scenario, but in my experience, diesel injectors in CR systems really do decline in performance in a noticeable manner after 160,000 - 180,000kms. There are two choices when you can't stomach Ford pricing on injectors. They're virtually all made by Bosch anyway, so you find an aftermarket source for Bosch injectors to suit Ford. eBay is usually worth a look for Bosch injectors, you can even find NOS injectors on there. I've sold NOS injectors for Nissan on eBay, I picked them up as mining company surplus, brand new in original boxes. It's important to ensure you have the correct part number or cross-reference for your injectors though, because there are often many variations in part numbers and fitment - and then there are "upgraded" injector part numbers too, as improvements are made. The second choice is to install low km injectors from a wrecked vehicle. These are commonly available from diesel injection specialists, and are normally guaranteed for 3 mths and usually cost about $200 - $250 each. There is one more important item in a diesel CR system - there is a relief valve on the rear of the rail that holds the high pressure in the rail when the engine is both stopped and running. When this relief valve starts to fail (and yes, they fail with age, and corrosion), the pressure in the rail drops quickly after engine shutdown, then when you go to start the engine again, the high pressure fuel pump has to generate the required pressure to get the injectors to fire up. This rail fuel pressure loss can take up to 10-15 seconds of cranking to get up to the required pressure level, and this is not only annoying, it is hard on starters and batteries. The relief valve, once again, is a Bosch item, readily available new from eBay and at a cost of normally around $75 - $80. It normally takes all of 10 mins to fit this relief valve, it's easy enough to access, as it's mounted high on the engine and doesn't require major component dismantling. There's plenty of videos on YooToob that offer good explanations and trouble-shooting on Ranger fuel injection - none of it is rocket science, but it's just a bit more complex than the simple old mechanical fuel injection.