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nomadpete

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Everything posted by nomadpete

  1. nomadpete
    Simple. Sleep under the wing. It isn't really that cold at this time of the year.
  2. nomadpete
    I don't think the coronavirus should have much affect our little planes. Don't they help maintain social distancing? But, have anybody been watching Flightradar? I'm in South Tasmania where we only hear jets when they are bombing fires. Just now a jet overflow - it is a Qatar 777 going from Auckland to Doha - not sure why it came so far south. Still plenty of jets in the air in spite of all the gloom about routes being closed.
  3. nomadpete
    And wouldn't it be lovely if that little clip was hammered on commercial TV so all those silly folk might take this issue seriously (and that includes high officials who allow cruise ships to discharge infected people without forced quarantine)
  4. nomadpete
    Wow. They look so neat, they might be hand crafted!
  5. nomadpete
    Not all of them. Only the lonely ones...
  6. nomadpete
    Those wind turbines look safer than some Ferris wheels I've seen near airstrips...... With a little practice you could use them like Tvasis to set your approach on finals.
  7. nomadpete
    Thanks for the updates (both of them). Nice pictures of your new manual Metalcraft skills. I see no pictures of alleged callouses though.... And another thing, when are you going to stop eating bat ribs? Those yanks are always giving the world great advice! Take care and just be thankful for the light traffic on your commute. Great to see your progress. Stay safe.
  8. nomadpete
    I don't know why Bex is complaining. The Co v19 alleged pandemic (I don't do acronyms), is over. Get on with it Bex! The pandemic doesn't get a mention in the news now. So it must be over. Our news is back to a the usual amazing facts about footballer's or royalty love lives (and drugs). Seriously, though, I do get rather annoyed at the short news cycle. Seems that they have milked the hysteria and misinformation and then dropped the story.
  9. nomadpete
    Is it common for a spotter aircraft to fly the drop path? When I watched the aircraft involved in fire drops in Tasmania last Feb, the spotter stayed about 1500 feet above terrain. I never saw it anywhere near terrain or fire It was up to the jet, herc, and helicopters to come over us at low level as they lined up to drop about 5klm past us.
  10. nomadpete
    However you slice it, I'll bet there is one new pilot who will never again fail to perform his preflight checks or fuel management checks. We all have to try our hardest to prevent 'blind spot' memory failures.
  11. nomadpete
    Happy end of year to everyone. And happy new year to you all for the next 364 1/4 days. happy and safe flying happy and safe riding (for those who enjoy two wheels)
  12. nomadpete
    Which bit is the big lie?
  13. nomadpete
    Happy Brian's Day
  14. nomadpete
    More likely the fires will remove the last traces of MDX. The thrust of my questions is this: There is a lot of money spent on metropolitan fire fighting - equipment and professional firefighting personnel. That's fine and is a sensible expense for the protection of the people (and structures). The expense is shared among everyone even though only a minority will ever benefit from it. However, when it comes to the protection of rural, or peri-urban people and assets, (or forests, wildlife, etc), the protection is expected to be done on the cheap. We leave the hazardous work to volunteers, often using 'hand me down' trucks and equipment. The expense is begrudged. That seems somewhat illogical in an environment where bushfires are predicted to become an increasing hazard to life and limb, and to even impact on the cost of food for city dwellers. It would be really nice if the problem could be solved by purchasing a couple of Boeing 737's, but that isn't going to fix things.
  15. nomadpete
    I've seen various numbers of firefighters reportedly actively working the fires. I think 1800 was one report. And still obviously way short of what's required to control the present fires. Since even with our aging population providing a boost to the numbers, what can be done to increase the numbers? I suspect the various governments will promise to throw money at the problem. As far as I can see, the majority of bushfire fighters are retirees, and we are all getting more frail, with fewer and fewer young'uns joining up to replace us. In Tas, there is no rural fire service. there is only The Tasmanian Fire Service. We volunteers turn out for all fires, including house fires and factory fires. At least that removes one layer of bureaucracy, but it sometimes puts 70 year olds up on rooftops, etc.
  16. nomadpete
    Since we are primarily relying on volunteers, and there clearly is a shortage of able bodied volunteers available to fight bushfires, can anyone suggest a solution? It's all very well to bring in some (relatively small numbers but much appreciated) international firefighters, but it still isn't anywhere near the number of boots required on the fire fronts.
  17. nomadpete
    Quote:/ "By your logic only city dwellers deserve fire assistance." No, what I mean, is that City folk very rarely require bushfire fighters. Because they don't live in the bush. Cities rarely lose multiple structures to a single fire, which is a regular outcome of bushfires due to the higher risk posed by locating the buildings too close to very large highly flammable bushland. In this 'user pays'world, why should tree change people avoid proper risk management, and expect others to risk their lives to protect their Greened up tree enclosed (often quite delightful) lifestyle homes? I realise my generalisation doesn't apply to all cases, but there has been a massive number of people moving out to live a better life in more rural settings, and many seem to expect that if there is a sudden danger, that there will always be someone else ready to rush to the rescue. It's the modern mindset.
  18. nomadpete
    In essence, I believe that all those happy 'periurbanites' should realise and accept that their choice of home location MUST come with a caveat -It WILL cost more to make the 'treechange' home SAFELY habitable. Particularly with respect for fire safety.. They should be paying a premium toward fire fighting organisations, they should have tighter fire resistant specifications imposed on homes. They should have regulated safe areas around buildings. They should (eg: a 10,000 ltrs fire tank is required in Tas) have a dedicated minimum amount of water available to defend their buildings. Basically, the home owners should shoulder a large amount of the expense (responsibility), of living in a more hazardous location than would a true urbanite where bushfires do not normally present a hazard.
  19. nomadpete
    By the way, as far as 'leftist, anti-government mouthpieces' go, even our rightwing forumites aren't too trusting of our government's integrity or honesty.
  20. nomadpete
    I'm not sure what your message is, Master Newberry. If you believe that the ABC is just a dubious leftwing propaganda machine, why do you quote then in your second reference, to prove a point? Either you believe them or you don't.
  21. nomadpete
    So, are you saying that we cynics should all swamp the survey with our opinions, or should we all boycott it (which allows the survey to be swamped by spineless yessmen)?
  22. nomadpete
    SOP Our local council roadside slashers and mowers have caused several callouts this year. One fire was quite big and took a lot of work to extinguish. It seems that the inter departmental ignorance problem includes power struggles between councils and fire departments, as well as National Parks and a few others.
  23. nomadpete
    My opinion is that the water bombers have their place in the spectrum of tools used the fight fires. However, I was born sceptical, and then spent the next sixtyseven years honing my cynicism. I think we have a populace that has grown to epect that all nasty things that might happen, can be controlled/prevented by our carers (the government machine). Blame it on the cotton wool upbringing perhaps. Anyway, our government likes to play the 'saviour' role. Even on things that that they can't control. For them it's all about votes and grandstanding. So, rather than investing in long term protection such as better funding for fire prevention and fighting, they opt for grandious action such as spectacular airplane water bombers. I enjoyed the airshow early this year as all the water bombing aircraft lined up over our house (the only clear air for miles). They did have a positive effect, slowing the progress of the fire until the weather changed. I wasn't on the fire front but had been ordered to evacuate. Our local firefighting teams reported that it helped a lot. But there is always a airgap between the policy makers and the workers on the ground. Otherwise we wouldn't be relying on volunteer firefighters to do all the dirty work. (PS, I'm one myself)
  24. nomadpete
    SplitS, The fire bombing has helped us in our recent fires when the advancing front was getting too hot and workers were having to withdraw. (Dense forest) They have been shown to help protect houses in the urban fringe. I agree that I can't see them being much use on grass fires. I agree the water bombing poses a high risk to workers on the ground. We have a policy of falling back from the fire front whilst bombing takes place. The risk is not from the water, so much as the risk of dropped branches. The trees are already drought/heat stressed and the water impact can drop a big branch with fatal results.
  25. nomadpete
    When it comes to bush fire fighting, I see some major bureaucratic problems. One problem is inter departmental conflict. For instance, last summer, we had a big fire. Dry lightning started it in remote rugged country that is 'controlled' by National Parks department. NPWS have their own paid fire fighters. When it started to get a bit big our Tas Fire volunteers got contacted and they had a couple of dozers making a fire break, when the NPWS people announced that it was getting close to knock off time and they had a big drive home, so ordered our guys off site and locked the gate behind them. One dozer driver mentioned that there were still 3hours of daylight left and it would have allowed them to finish the fire break. The fire continued, of course and burned for three months. Nobody has mentioned the resulting cost of fire bombing, etc, and Tas Fire experts claimed they didn't know about the issue at the time. But in a remote site you can't phone the boss to start an argument. But what would we know? We're ONLY volunteers
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