Moneybox

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?

I agree with Duty of Care in the context that we should not intentionally injure others however I believe our lawyers and law as it’s interpreted use it as a big money spinner. SAFETY in this country costs industry and individuals a fortune in implementing THE RULES that are put in place by a few without due consideration for the community as a whole. Many of the RULES regarding SAFETY are ridiculously expensive to implement with very little gain in risk management.

Skippy, I'm not familiar with a speaker type indicator. Flasher relays used to have the clicker built in. To make it more easily heard it needs to be mounted onto a metallic surface that will transmit the vibration. Have you ever had one of those styrene lunch boxes we used to get and had it touch the gearstick. It sounds like your gearbox is dragging on the ground.

We've only considered start batteries. What about the battery in your watch, phone, tablet, adsb, instruments with battery backup etc, etc. Anything with a lithium battery is more risky than having a jerry can of fuel in the passenger seat.

What an unusual name...

My friend in Echuca allows his Ottopilot to take over the Jabiru controls on long trips. Otto is in the right seat, is he still the Pilot or just an over inflated driver?

Will my Bose A20 Bluetooth headphones do the same thing?

I haven’t seen the vehicle yet but the only flammable item close is/was a portapotty and I doubt it exploded first.

Yes quite possibly an electrical fault even though the vehicle had been stationary for a week but it’s the result that is more important.

Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4) vs Lithium-ion Batteries The term “Lithium Batteries” is used interchangeably in the media when describing Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePO4) and Lithium-ion batteries. LiFePO4 batteries and Lithium-ion batteries each have different characteristics, such as energy density, voltage, and operating temperature, and because of this they are used differently. Lithium-ion batteries are typically used in electric vehicles and scooters. LiFePO4 batteries are the most common type of batteries used for off-grid mobile applications. But the key difference between the two types is safety. LiFePO4 batteries are significantly safer to use due their chemical structure. They are more chemically stable, resistant to damage from over charging or discharging, and perform excellently in a wide range of conditions. These characteristics, along with the additional protection of the Battery Management System (BMS), make them a perfect solution for a those seeking a safe, high performance battery. My batteries were LiFePO4, safe.... They'll tell you anything to promote their product however you just have to look at the statistics and make your own judgements. Your life may depend on it. Is a 2kg weight saving on a small aircraft battery worth the risk?

From that article "The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said almost a third of the fires in WA involved batteries which ignited when they were not charging. " My batteries were not part of a cheap electrical appliance they were purchased here from Access 12 Volt Warehouse in Osborne Park Western Australia. They also have a battery management device that is supposed to protect the battery from overcharging.

Sometime within the last month Mrs M got the insurance renewal notice. She said "Do you still want comprehensive on this one?" I said "No it's not worth it", so there won't be any arguments with the insurance company. Come to think of it, it may still be covered because we always pay bills as they come in. Anyway it was not insured as a modified vehicle so the chance of a successful claim is about zero considering the lithium batteries are part of the camper conversion.

I'm told these LiFePO4 batteries are as safe as they get. They don't come cheap but then what does when you are after quality? Luckily I wasn't flying along when this happened. This is my Hyundai camper. Fortunately it was parked and fully closed at the time so the fire could only exist until all the internal oxygen had been consumed. The tempered glass survived the inferno but not much inside did. There was virtually nothing close to the two Solar King batteries to support combustion but the intense heat reached to roof that has thermal insulation. Do you really want to share your confined space with these type of batteries when several thousand feet above the earth. Even your parachute may have gone up in the inferno. My camper had been parked outside the mechanical workshop near Wongan Hills for the last week. If I'd been sleeping in there I most likely wouldn't be discussing this now.

Too late for this year....

The Harmony is exactly the same airframe as my Sportstar, slow compared to Skippy's but a low stall, take-off and landing distance as well. I have an inflight adjustable propeller so I'm hoping that'll give it a little more top end.

Yes, certainly need consistency. I hadn't flown since the Thursday before easter and it took me a full two days to get back to where I left off. That's why I started out by getting the plane, I wanted to get my RPC and then keep it up until I actually feel comfortable jump into the plane and scoot off anywhere. It looks like I should get the Sportstar up here within a week or two. I started out training in the Evektor Harmony because it is basically the same but I ended up in the Jabiru J160 and J170. The first J160 scared me when it came to practising stalls but the one I had last week was as good as you can get, it would just stall and fall, rarely dropped a wing at all and if it did it started out as a steady roll that was easy to arrest. I'm back on Coodardy for a couple of hours morning and afternoon from 27th until 9th December. I'm hoping to have the Sportstar here for some of that time. The station owner invited me to fly in whenever I want to.

Twice the time I planned on. When I turned 70 I planned to learn to fly. It took me a couple of months to sell sufficient assets to finance the entire project and another three months to come up with a plane. About six months the commence lessons and bring the plane home from Queensland and then it all dragged on with delays for various reasons. My biggest delays has been dealing with very poorly organised flying instructors. For a project where I'd raised the money prior to starting out it should have been reasonable straight sailing but I didn't count on having to deal with other people. When I want something I want it NOW. I turn 72 on Friday and I still have to get the plane here, get my prop endorsement and do my navigation. I feel it should have all been done a year ago.

I'm back home after a good and bad few days down Northam way. I got my RPC so that's one hurdle I've managed to clear but somebody is running ahead stacking a few more up. The Sportstar has been getting hard to start so I dropped the old fuel and replaced it with new 98. When I tried to start it I found I'd left the Master on for more than a week so my nice new Odyssey battery was dead as a doornail. I managed to get enough charge into it by running a battery charger off the Hyundai but it never fully charged. At least the fresh fuel sorted out the Riotax starting problem. I hear plenty of people knocking RAAus but I've had nothing but polite friendly and prompt service. I worked my but off on Saturday getting through my test flight and numerous questions. I passed but he was probably a little generous with some of my answers however he knows I'll continue to work hard to become a better. My instructor processed my application late on Saturday but he had a prior arrangement to have my application dealt with quickly so that I could get my variable pitch propeller endorsement done Sunday. I checked Saturday evening and the application had been processed but with an error showing that I was still a student pilot. I called my instructor and he said "No problems I'll call him in the morning and get it sorted out in time". Sure enough Sunday morning the corrections were made. It now shows Recreational Pilot Certificate. How's that for service? Sunday the CFI who was due cancelled due to weather conditions however it was dead calm from when I got up at 4:45 until about 10am. Anyway I had other problems. I left home with the little Mercedes Vito towing the car trailer. My plan was to tow the sick Hyundai from Northam 106km up to Wongan Hills to have the rattle diagnosed and repaired. I would normally do the repairs but I'm trying to learn to farm work out. I may as well be doing what I enjoy, digging a bit of gold to pay for it. When I tried to load the Hyundai onto the trailer it just lifted the Vito of the ground and each time it just ran away. I ended up hooking the trailer onto the back of the Hyundai and then loaded the Vito onto the trailer. That meant driving the Hyundai heavily loaded for another 106km. It was not the best thing to do because it was obviously sick but it did make the fault diagnosis easier. Even though it hasn't been pulled down it appears to have a collapsed piston. It's done about 440,000 so I think I'll be opening a can of worms so my best option is likely to be a replacement engine. Too much to deal with right now so it's just another job that has to wait a while. Right now I'm waiting to see if my LAME can test fly the Sportstar and deliver it to Cue.

If you slam into the ground to hard and fast your apple watch will call the emergency services. That's got to be worth something 😊

I didn't track my whole day because it was just more of the same. The purple is my Test Flight..... and I passed. 😇 The morning started out dead calm with take-off and landing from runway 14. I got told off for not doing a flyover on my solo return from the training area. The wind was up and had reversed so I actually landed down-wind. I had been away for an hour and never checked the windsock. By the time I got to my test there was a strong varying crosswind so my landings were a little less than smooth but I think I was given a bit of a concession for the gusty conditions. Tomorrow was meant to be the Sportstar test flight and my variable pitch propeller endorsement but the weather is likely to put a stop to that.