Moneybox

I've got these couple of Pending leases at Reedy. Just fighting Native Title and Aboriginal Heritage at present. But it was that airstrip that go me interested. Pop up there in the morning, dig a few nuggets and fly home (as long as I'm not over weight) 😉

Yeah "Murphy's Law" tends to kick in.

I'm retired so gold prospecting is just a hobby. Mrs M would like me to be a bit more serious about it but there comes a time in life when you realise doing the things you love are much more important than the cost or payment in monetary value. This is Mrs M with our haul from a few months out and about. Right now I'm more interested in getting the plane in the air but with gold at over $4000 an ounce it's tempting to put a bit more energy into it.

Mrs M wants me to run the detector over it all. I'd be there for weeks but I might check out a few really good looking spots. Most of this ground has/had gold. It's a gold mining lease with another nine years to run. I have no doubt the dryblower would pay well but I've sold that and I haven't got the wet plant up and running yet. There's always the risk of some idiot digging holes in the airstrip.

Yeah Nev, I know what you mean. I'm told there are annual fees to park a plane at the local airstrip so I'm looking for another option. Home Airstrip.mp4 My plane is still sitting in the back yard. It seems ever since covid struck everything takes twice as long to be supplied from just about anywhere.

Yeah I have days like that. I head out to do something, then realise I forgot to take something I needed so head back again. Once getting to my starting point I wonder what it was I needed so I head back out only to remember once I get back to where I got to the first time but I've never had the desire to head to North America.

Crocks used to be scared of us. We spent weeks in the Territory fishing and camping by the streams in the mid-70's and never saw a salty. You'd just hear them hit the water. No doubt we were a little careless with fillets of queenfish hanging from the sides of the 12x12 marquee tent to dry and walking across the creek in waist deep water to get to the other side. There are always more fish to be caught off the other bank. My brother and I made a raft from tying bamboo together with rope so that we could fish the South Alligator River. It fell apart mid-stream so we had to swim to shore while Mum stood on the bank laughing her head off and taking photos. These days there'd be some idiot just up stream hanging a chicken from a string teaching the crocks that we're good for a meal. I think they should be harvested for their skins and meat. (not the people, just the crocks) Each time we visit now a snorkel at Berry Springs is on the agenda 🙃

Most of us eat dead stuff, perhaps we tase like $#!t too....

Don't we still have sea freight? Surely it would work out less expensive.

You can be sure it won't be there after this and there might be a few others taking a look at what they might hit if the same thing occurred on their patch. It's a bit like those safety ramps for heavy vehicles on our steep declines. Some of those use beds of pea gravel or similar so that the vehicle penetrates the surface and bogs down reducing its momentum rapidly. Perhaps something like that could be implemented beyond our airport runways. I remember racing at Mount Cotton hill climb back in the 70's. If you fell off the track at the hirpin turn you ended up buried in Macadamia nut shells and no damage done.

I think if I visited a Fulfilment Centre I'd expect a bit more than an Amazon parcel.

Looked like a very gentle landing. You'd be thinking you were pretty safe at that point but they carried their speed for a very long way as if it was assisted by the engines. If only they'd had the room to slide on the soil it might have stopped without much damage and perhaps no fire at all.

It was on the second landing attempt and they only touched down halfway down the runway? It certainly seemed to be scooting along with very little reduction in speed. I think there might have been more than a landing gear problem. Was it still under power?

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All done waiting for their end to be switched on.

Now I've got to get back up there and run the GPS wire that I forgot about 😒

Looks like I'll be busy tonight after the sun goes down. There's no post to stand it on so I'll have to do something to elevate it a bit but it's too hot to go up there now.

I've enjoyed a quick read through the development of the project. It's a great idea that I'd love o see come to fruit but..... I've spent a lifetime in design, engineering, drawing and building. I'm still enjoy building things, rarely following others and usually come out with a successful article in the end. At 71 years of age now I've learned a few things along the way that would have be advantageous had I known about them before starting out but I'm not a person to easily accept advice. Just to add my two bobs worth, some people have a great brain for concept, others design, some people are masters of fabrication and too many get carried away with technical know-it-all. Very few people can take a successful marketable project from concept to completion in a reasonable time. I believe if you have a fabulous concept such as this you would most likely get to the climax a lot easier, cheaper and better to have various good capable people working together. One difficulty is keeping it under control if several minds wander off on their own agender but building something as complex as an aircraft needs specialists in a range of fields and very few people have to ability to achieve it alone. A lot of good ideas die with the passage of time. If you want to get it in the air do it NOW. Pool a bit of money, get some great minds together and use people with good trade skills to build the components. Too many try to go it alone, me included, and we are usually stifled by lack of experience, time and money.

If fitted do any of these type of safety devices give a audible warning of other traffic in close proximity?

My wife would say "Can you do that again for the camera?"

Skippy has just explained the procedure so I can handle the pitch adjustment but I've just found a fault in the exhaust so until I've invested another few thousand in noise control I can't fiddle with the prop.

I hope it comes with a ride on mower 😉

It was nice of the Czechoslovakians to hold off and deliver my engine mounts for Christmas 😁

Insurance companies thrive on our fear. We don't even have home insurance because they wanted more than it was worth if we included our prospecting gear and that's most likely the only items likely to go missing. How often over your lifetime have you had a successful insurance claim of any kind and how much have you spent on insurance? We used a broker for many years while we were in business. We had a registered car yard so that we could plate and register our imports. We had the broker down to be sure we were covered for our stock, buildings, vehicles etc. The first claim was for a tandem rental trailer that was stolen. That claim failed because being a vehicle each individual vehicle had to be covered our policy didn't do that. The second claim was for the huge plate glass showroom front. That claim failed because glass had to be covered separately. I cancelled both policies and carried the risk.

Insurance companies will avoid payouts wherever possible. If you have two policies for the same claim only one will pay out if anybody does.