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nomadpete

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Everything posted by nomadpete

  1. nomadpete
    Risk takers........ My tale is not of an accident. Rather its about an accident looking for somewhere to happen. So maybe it does qualify as 'hooning'. I live on a hill half a kilometer from a river. My front deck is 700' ASML, but our driveway is along a narrow valley which rises to an end behind our house, at about 1000'AMSL. So, when I heard what sounded like a Rotax coming up our little valley, I started scanning to see the aircraft. I spotted it through the tree trunks, still below me, and it was heading up our narrow dead end valley. As it went past the last possible U-turn point, couldn't believe there could be a reason to drive into narrow rising ground. I heard the throttle open up. I lost sight of it and started listening for the sound of breaking trees. The pilot managed slightly more than a 90 degree turn on full climb and just cleared the hundred foot gumtrees behind our house. It had my adrenaline going. It looked like maybe a Foxbat. Human factors? Showing off? Poor training? If I had my camera, I would have identified the aircraft and made a complaint to RAA because, apart from flying at less than 500' over houses, it looked like reckless behaviour of the sort that gives us all a bad name. I hope there wasn't any passenger.
  2. nomadpete
    Just picking up on the Discourse on Victoria's proposed mileage tax for electric vehicles..... As proposed, it is a clear disincentive to EV users. If they want to implement this tax in its present proposed form, they will cop a beating. If they want to revise vehicle registration costs wholesale, and I suggest it is a good idea to do so, all they have to do to gain acceptance, is to charge ALL vehicles a tax per kilometer (relative also to GVM). It should fit in with the right wing concept of 'user pays'. Why should my mother-in-law pay the same car registration as me, when she only does a few thousand k per year but I do 30,000k per year? Clearly she shouldn't have to shoulder as much expense toward road maintenance as me?
  3. nomadpete
    BTW, I don't really think NRMA sponsors electric rag'n'tube aircraft either. Back to topic?
  4. nomadpete
    Did I hear talk of Joe Blakes? Ever since my pet tiger snake came to guard my shed door, I haven't seen a single taipan, death adder nor red belly.
  5. nomadpete
    Don't forget - Eve was Adam's second wife. The first one fell out of favor by demanding equality. After that, god made a supposedly more compliant woman out of leftovers. I don't think this worked out so very well for the rest of us. If it was up to me, I'd prefer Adam's first. I don't think she promoted fruit.
  6. nomadpete
    Its just low speed data that lacks justification and error correction
  7. nomadpete
    I blame Noah. Did he really have to put a pair of fleas on his ark?
  8. nomadpete
    Happy Anniversary to you and the missus, Spacesailor
  9. nomadpete
    Let me know and I'll catch up for a coffee and a gossip about all things aviation.
  10. nomadpete
    Drat. I was meaning to follow Gareth's visit up. Sorry Gareth. Good intentions and all that.
  11. nomadpete
    Good to see you are posting ok now Phil
  12. nomadpete
    Linux has never let me down but Window$ sure has a habit of doing constant updates and security patches. And then more patches to fix bugs that the previous patches cause.
  13. nomadpete
    Aaah the war wounds! Mine are fading now, too. My darling wife keeps trying to mother me. Recently during a break between the neighbours trefelling activities I grabbed my chainsaw to deal with a couple of saplings. Her good self, ever watchful, screamed out "Put that f........en chainsaw away!". Of course, cowed, I put it away. So did the other bloke half a mile up our valley! Take care, Bex, that's the only body you get to live in, so make it last a lifetime (well, as far as we know. And that's when the fight started)
  14. nomadpete
    Well, Kyle, thanks for that info. Neither my surgeon nor my cardiologist told me that about the sternum. When I saw the x-rays, I thought to myself 'why do they leave the wire in forever?'. (Now I know). Then I thought 'gee I'd be ashamed to do messy lock wiring like that!'
  15. nomadpete
    Obviously, as Nev said, 'sufficient'.
  16. nomadpete
    I'll bet he left some deep wheel ruts behind.
  17. nomadpete
    An RPT lifeboat?
  18. nomadpete
    Sorry guys. Out of date article. I should have cross checked the source.
  19. nomadpete
    Here is Something related to Rotax engines that may affect all aspects of Rotax operation.... " Bombardier's daunting debt load looms over company's plans Bombardier is staring down some US$9 billion in debt maturing over the next decade, with that debt load looming large over all business decisions. For more on this, BNN Bloomberg spoke with Karl Moore, professor of business strategy at McGill University." https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/company-news/video/bombardier-s-daunting-debt-load-looms-over-company-s-plans~1894551
  20. nomadpete
    Before we all bag out the failings of chinese industry, have a close look at how the 'west' operates. I reckon the chinese are practicing all the habits of capitalism, and of 'western democracy'. It's just that they exploit it's failings more effectively than us. I'm not saying it's good. Corruption is endemic in our so called democracy too, and as pointed out above, there are sharp operators here, too. For example, just look to how often scandals erupt over the way that building and defence contracts get awarded. Because of all the above, one cannot assume that simply paying more for anything sure doesn't guarantee getting a better end product.
  21. nomadpete
    I seriously doubt that the Chinese military manufacturing industry operates under the same quality control scrutiny as they use for our Australian Bunnings/Kmart orders.
  22. nomadpete
    Marty, just add it to your list of 'not going to try' stuff
  23. nomadpete
    It's not too flat where I live!
  24. nomadpete
    Boating is as expensive as keeping a RAA registered aircraft but has a lot less bureaucratic hassle. (Not none, but definitely less). I've sold my aircraft and bought a sailboat for about the same price. Self maintenance? No problem. Modifications? No problem. MARAP? No problem. Personal risk? Only my own responsibility. And amateur modifications can kill me in my sailboat just as surely as they could in my Lightwing. Third party injury probability with a aircraft is just as small as it is in my Yacht. I'm now free of the RAA bureaucratic machine morphing into the defacto GA bureaucratic machine. I sadly miss my flying but now I am more free to control my own risks and feel better off. To each their own.
  25. nomadpete
    Peel ply sounds great but I've no experience using it. Two questions pop into my head: Does it work with polyester resin? How do you get it wrinkle free on the inside of a compound curve such as the female mould of a cowling?
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