Moneybox

Perhaps too late, never got over the attraction and feel....

After a quick trip out to the station I started on the van work. The vinyl job was stuck well but left nice shiny paint underneath. It's a long way from finished the 38°C day helped soften the plastic wrap.

Yes thank you. We’ve done quite a few signs. Mrs M’s van is ex-RAC and my old one was our Toll van. She already told me it’s my job before I bought it.

Something to do with the weather or the season, no more than a dozen bugs hit the screen on the trip home. Got two birds unfortunately. The wife warned me to not hit on any birds while I was away.

I did take a peek under the bonnet before I strapped it down. Pumped the tyres to 50psi while hot too. It ran so well no more checks were necessary for the rest of the trip. The windscreen sticker said it was due for a service as I left, it’ll get one now.

It’s a very long way from Caiguna to Cue but I’m home.

The racks don’t slow it down but they help chew the fuel, 11.5 L/100km. Another milestone. A poor unlucky bustard so it was time to look for a camp. I at Caiguna Blowhole waiting for sunrise.

I’m halfway, just 2/3rd to go. With 2340km left I should get there just after Rudolph.

Well you don’t have to worry now. I did a quick rebuild in Bunnings car park. I had prepared well but after dropping a few kilograms to meet to Jetstar requirements I turned up a little short of bits and pieces. The hand luggage police were out, she grabbed my little suit case as I whipped the little tablet out to save some weight. It weighed 8.3kg “It’s a little heavy but you’ve only got one so we’ll let it go”. So I checked my suit case in and entered security, enjoyed the usual frisk of my upper left leg and made it through to the mini restaurant where I ordered a toasted sandwich. While I’m waiting for that I hear my name called so back out again to the service desk. “Mr Box you have a lamp with a lithium battery in your checked baggage”. “No, that’s my Hyundai headlamp without any battery”. “Well you’d better take it back to the oversize guy so he can take another look”. I looked around for some big bugger before I woke up to what she was on about. Anyhow the oversize guy was adamant I had a lithium battery so I had to open up. Sure enough I had a little camp lamp in there so it had to come out and into my carry-on bag. That problem was solved but then I had to go back for another upper leg frisk. Not only that but they spotted the camp lamp in my carry-on. Eventually they gave up and sent me on my way. The Hyundai is shooting along fine apart from a damaged cruise control switch. I might try to do something with that in the morning. Right now I’m camped in a little parking bay at Wail. This lousy Victorian weather makes it near impossible to boil the kettle. Yes I know I’m using old technology, lithium is much preferred as a heating source with instant ignition and being almost impossible to extinguish it takes a lot of beating.

We’re off to Perth in the morning to fly out to Melbourne. I should land there 6:15am Sunday. My first mistake was booking a flight on Jetstar, Virgin allow an extra 15kg of luggage, that helps when you have to pack tools and car parts. That meant I had to go down to the shed for a carry-on sized bag. We got caught in the rain so we dived into an old boiler until the worst passed. There’s been a storm brewing ever since I bought this van from the auction. Hopefully, it’ll settle down soon, it’s a very long way to Melbourne and back.

I learned many years ago, if you take it you won't need it, if you need it you won't have it so now I don't carry spares but I usually have a good tool kit. This time I'm taking the only part I'm quite sure I need. I just have to find a big enough suitcase.

I won't be stopping for these guys. I fly out on Virgin Saturday night landing in Melbourne 6:15am Sunday. If my friend has his Mercedes and trailer ready then I'll be driving that towing the Hyundai. If not I'll drive the Hyundai home. It has a smashed RH headlight so I might have a spare in my baggage.

Now there's an opportunity. I could leave here with a trailer, pick him up on the way through and then get mine from Ballarat where it landed this morning and bring it home.

It worked out lucky for me. About fifteen years back I came across a Hummer H1 broken down on the Nullarbor. I was the Train the Trainer for AM-General Corporation. I trained the Hummer service crews for all of Australasia so getting him underway was a five minute fix using a paper clip to short and electrical circuit. When I decided to sell up and retire in 2014 this was the guy who opened his cheque book. A good deed never goes unnoticed.

Nev, I've driven the Nullarbor so many times over the last 50 years that I doubt I could possibly account for them all. I'm of the opinion that if a vehicle starts and runs without overheating then it'll cross the Nullarbor. I enjoy the drive but this time it wasn't planned. Before buying the vehicle I had a freight quote of $2000. I failed to account for the extra size created by the glass rack. The rack made it too wide for it to fit onto a regular car carrier. Freight quotes this week range from $6019 to $12,000 and that's just to Kalgoorlie. I look like having a tilt tray take the vehicle to Ballarat and I'll work out how I'm going to move it after that.

Yesterday I bought another Hyundai iLoad from Manheim auctions at Altona. This is to go with the one destroyed by the lithium battery explosion. It had a bit of panel damage but my panels are good. The problem I have is that glass rack makes it too big to fit onto a regular car carrier so now I've got the problem of getting it to WA and I only have three days to move it from the auction house. I'm hoping somebody has a parking space not too far from Altona where I can move it to by tilt-tray if I can't get suitable freight quickly. I have the offer of a spot at Ballarat but I'm hoping for somewhere closer. I'm waiting for a few freight quotes to come in but if not successful I'll be heading for VIC by the end of the week.

After flying in controlled airspace for half of my training I'd consider a radio endorsement the most important requirement.

They are spectacular performance figures. Is it just my ignorance, how can you see the airstrip as you touchdown?

Nah that's just his lithium battery spitting the dummy....

Just ticked another box... 🙃

I started yesterday early because I had to spend about three hours out on Coodardy Station watering the cattle and a few plants. Not every day goes well but this one started by finding my lucky penny. 1952, not exactly new but new to me. Then I headed to Perth and my luck dwindled a bit. A flat on this vehicle is a bit of a pain. I've mounted the spare on the roobar and at 65kg it's not easy to get down and up again. For now the delaminated tyre is in the boot along with two off the tipper that have to be changed. Then I dropped in to the workshop to leave the car trailer and take a look at the Hyundai. Meanwhile this little crack edges its way across my windscreen all the way left to right. It'll be a busy couple of days in the big smoke.

I apologise for keeping this alive but the printed part may be very useful as mould for chemically set plastics such as Kevlar, carbon fibre or fibreglass.

I'm no expert on 3D printing but I think you'll find that in most cases the melting point of the product used is quite low to assist in the welding process.

It seems these pissing competitions have gone on for more than a century. It’s what the legal profession live off. Take the case supplied by Turbo, it’s a great example where totally unrelated subjects are brought into question in the making of a decision in a court of law thus prolonging the suffering of both plaintiff and defendant. The legal precedent that RA pilots, owners, administrators fly under is donaghue v stevenson [1932] ac 562. It starts out of a snail getting into a bottle that is later filled with ginger beer and then sold. It then takes many twists and turns such as a faulty gun being sold, a faulty car repair, a faulty car manufacture etc.etc. A whole lot of unrelated hogwash to eventually get back to the original issue of a snail in a bottle. The cost of the case way back in the early thirties went on for years with references back into the twenties, most of it irrelevant to the final decision.

Coming back to the original cause of the accident, somebody designed a very nice looking air duct. They obviously had the skills to draw it in 3D, so better than most of us can do however they may not have had the skills to understand the properties of the material used. I spent many years doing things like this, not aeronautical but automotive. I designed and build all components for LH to RH conversion, steering boxes, pitman arms, idler arms, pedals etc. I also made the airconditioning/heater and dash components. Perhaps the difference was I started out as a motor mechanic and then studied mechanical engineering before designing and building components for sale. Whoever designed this air duct may have had sufficient skills to develop the component but insufficient skills to engineer it suitable for it's intended use. I think it's ok to build something like this for your own use but perhaps this item should never have been sold?