cscotthendry

Brendan: there you go. You're comparing apples to oranges. As I and others have said, aircraft engines operate under completely different conditions to car engines. Car engines are designed to spend their life at 30% throttle OR LESS. Aircraft engines are designed to operate at 75% throttle OR MORE. Comparing mileage done by a car engine to the reliability required for an aircraft engine is a non sequitur. Besides which, the repercussions of engine failure in a car is totally different to an engine failure in an aircraft. Just ask the people this thread is about … oh, tnat's right. You can't because they're dead. If they had been in a car it would have been a completely different outcome.

Yes, modern car engines are built to closer tolerances … and that is a problem for using them in aircraft. Recently there has been a multi-manufacturer spate of auto engine failures due to closer tolerances and resulting lighter weight oils that make these engines very critical of manufacturing debris. They are failing due to debris that requires microscopic inspection to find, that is left as a result of the manufacturing process. These are new engines failing with as little as 30,000 miles in use in cars. But I'll repeat: Car engines are NOT designed with any consideration for use in aircraft and IMO have no business in any airplane. From what I have seen, people use car engines in airplanes to save money. How much is your life (or your passenger's life) worth? Again, just sayin' but if you have to pinch pennies to fly, you can't really afford to own an airplane.

And they benefit from inherent stability with the weight suspended below the wing, so no need for much dihedral for stability. They also benefit from extra ground clearance to the wing, which is very helpful in an outlanding. They also benefit from better view of the ground from aloft. IMO, I can stand on the ground and look up at clouds all day, but to get up high and see the “god's view” of the world is why I fly. Also, I sunburn very quickly here in Oz, so I naturally prefer to have a “roof” over my head. Just my 2¢.

No matter how you look at it, automobile engines and aircraft engines are designed for different purposes. Aircraft engines are designed from the ground up, to operate at 75% throttle (or more) for most of their operational life. Auto engines are designed for 30% throttle (or less) for most of their life. IMO, modifying car engines for flying is painting lipstick on a pig. And comparing the miles done with an engine in a car, to the potential reliability in an aircraft is misguided at best. Additionally, low wing aircraft with bubble canopies are death traps. If you have to put an aircraft down on rough ground, there's a good likelihood it's going to end up on its back. There have been many outlandings where the occupants of these types of planes survived the crash and died in the post-crash fire because the plane was upside down and they couldn't get out. I'm not claiming that's what happened here, but I've never liked that configuration, on safety grounds. Flying is totally unforgiving of failures and mistakes. Why increase your chances of dying, just to save some $$$.

On Monday, I did a lap of Moreton and Straddy. There were these same helis flying out of Tangalooma resort. On at least three occasions, I heard one of the helis step on other radio transmissions. That all occurred within a ten minute period. It was quite clear that the pilot of the heli couldn't hear the other aircraft's transmission, before he keyed up to make his own broadcast. I can tell you that I was keeping a very keen eye and ear on these cowboys as I flew overhead of them.

800 feet is definitely illegal in the UK fo drones. But going by the numbers, the airliner was at 750’ at more than 5 klm from the end of the runway. Can any of the airline pilots here tell me if that's a normal approach?

Thanks for sharing, Gary! And thanks for the plug for our series👍

Hi Keith. Thanks for the invite. I'm currently near Manchester, heading next out to Wales. Eventually we're heading down South and we'll try to engineer a pass through your way. Scott.

G'day UK fliers. I'm touring in the UK and would welcome a catchup if schedules and timing permit. I'm currently in Barnsley heading for Wales and then South to eventually make our way to Reading. Any takers?

I would never attempt something like that, especially in such a busy circuit. But I do regularly communicate with other traffic, in the circuit and elsewhere.

Or a similar situation that happened to me: You key up the transmitter to make your Joining call at the same instant another plane does. Neither of you hear the other's call and you end up at the same point in the circuit. I had joined the circuit at Gympie, made a joining call and heard no other radio calls and neither did my pax who is a commercial pilot. Just as I was about to key the TX for my Base call, I heard "Gympie traffic, Jabiru xxxx turning base for 14." and a second later a Jabiru popped out about 20 feet below me and turned base!

LOL The 146 was four vaccuum cleaners flying in formation. But seriously, I always wondered at the design decision that equipped such a small aircraft with four engines.