kgwilson

OK I'll be the pedant here. Petrol comes from petroleum, a.k.a crude oil, which comes from the Greek words petra (rock) and oleum (oil). Gasoline though, has no obvious Greek or Latin roots. Not only that, but the gas part of the word is quite confusing, as gasoline is of course a liquid. And it doesn’t help that it’s generally shortened to gas in American English. So Avgas is an American term that has become standard in the Aviation world. Mogas though does not have that standardisation.. Americans don't call it Mogas, it is just Gas or gasoline. There is no rhyme nor reason for why but Americans change things at will and they become common ( except the Gulf of Mexico is not the Gulf of America. Any change made by Trump is just invalid)

BP produced a major study on this some years ago. 98 is generally good for up to 5 weeks in a fuel tank or if in a sealed container with little air gap about 4 months. I had some in my tank for about 7 months after the aerodrome was too wet to get out & I just added 5 litres of fresh 98 & it was fine. That is enough to refresh about 40 litres of old fuel. 98 has a number of light aromatic hydrocarbons ( Xylene, Toluene, Bezine Trymethyl benzine & others) that evaporate off first & this happens quite quickly (within 5 weeks). Interestingly the RON increases a little over that time but then often the engine is hard to start and once running it is prone to overheating which can lead to disastrous results.

This happened in a chainsaw that we had in the SES. It had sat for at least 6 months & someone who was not aware didn't  empty & replace the fuel with fresh as required. It was hard to start & ran till it was empty but refused to start again & there was no compression. The result was it had a hole in the piston, the big end bearing was stuffed & the bore was scored. We got a few spare parts from it though.

If your SE2 has been unused for some time it does take a little while to get a 3D GPS fix. If used regularly it takes very little time. Even if you haven't used it for months it will have easily got a 3D fix by the time you have got the engine started, warmed  up & taxiied out to your run-up spot. In 2024 I coulnt get my aircraft out of the hangar for 6 months as the aerodrome was a quagmire plus I had been ill. It only took 6 or 7 minutes to get a fix when i finally got it out again.

The demand for Avgas has declined considerably over the past few years. There are a number of reasons. There are fewer old aircraft that need Avgas and many of those still flying do not fly as much. The rise of recreational aircraft that do not need Avgas has been very substantial since the 90s. Modern aviation aircraft engines don't need it either. Diesel engines are appearing in ever increasing numbers.

The only reason I ever use Avgas is that it is the only fuel available at many aerodromes when I am away. I have used 95 or 98 petrol in my 3300A engine since new. No more lead deposits or fouled plugs.

World Fuel & IOR have been busy installing self contained Avgas units at many regional aerodromes over the last few years often at no cost to the aerodrome. They need to boost their share of a dwindling market.

13 hours ago, BrendAn said:

show me a 16 ton gvm e truck with  a 1000 km range. i would buy them if they were available but i have never found any.

There is nothing like that in Australia but the Chinese have made huge inroads into electric trucks. Electric including hybrid outsold diesel for the first time in 2025 (54%). Windrose Technologies have an electric truck weighing 49 tonnes fully loaded with a huge 729 kWh battery & 670 KM range. The batteries are designed to be swapped out like the Janus and multiple other smaller trucks.

12 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

?????

 

😈

You can keep your head in the sand and pine for the good old days of smelly oil burners or embrace where technology is going. Plenty of businesses are doing just that. Some will fail but that is how progress happens as we learn from those mistakes.

The fossil fuel industry is behind a huge amount of misinformation like EV production using too much rare and costly materials, batteries lasting only a few years etc and you throw away materials when everything is worn out. All garbage and absolute proof exists. One example is that batteries when completely spent are ground in to black mass & 95-98% of the cobalt, lithium, manganese and other rare material is recycled.

10 hours ago, T510 said:

Sorry but this is completely inaccurate.

 

F1 and Formula E only share one track because the standard race tracks are too long for the Formula E cars.  F1 races for 78 laps around Monaco, whereas Formula E runs for 29 laps around the same circuit.

 

F1 record at Monaco is Lando Norris, 1:09.954, McLaren, 2025 (Qualifying), while the fastest qualifying lap in Formula E in 2023 was Sascha Fenestraz’s 1:28.773.

 

I don't doubt EV's are going to play a huge part in the future but I think Hybrids will prove to be the most useful. 

 

I think Edison are on the right track with their hybrid trucks and pickup conversions. I would love an early F truck with one of their conversions

It is no longer 2023 but 2026. The Gen4 Formula E is all wheel drive, 10 seconds faster in some scenarios, produces 600kW (805HP) with 0 to 100 km/h in 1.5 seconds so is easily quicker to the first corner. F1 currently has the edge in top speed and handling but this will be overcome in the very near future. There is way more money poured in to every facet of F1 than FE

There are B doubles that fully loaded travel from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge. The battery is swapped in less than 15 minutes.

There are automatic battery swap machines for medium size trucks already operating that take less than 5 minutes. Quicker than filling the tank with diesel.

24 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Maaate: 

 

Tax dollars belong to US not the Government - small point that needs to be emphasised. The Gov does not suffer when revenue is forgone. We may, down the track but what needs doing now, is some tangiable response to an emergency situaton, no matter how short that response may be.

 

As for your soap box lecture on EV's /fossil fuels- I see you list quite a range of aircraft under your name - which one is an EV ?

 

My point is simple - until EV's are a true alternative to all our vehicles (not just commuters and the occasional city dweller adventuring down the highway) we will continue to need fossil fuels for land, sea and air vehicles.

 

I am a supporter of EV's and recognise that one day they will be ubiquities in both town & country but not for the immediate future.😈

 Who do you pay your tax to? Not yourself, You pay it to the government. How they choose to spend it depends on their priorities not yours individually.

There is far more development globally in to electric propulsion for aviation than there is in either Jet or ICE powered aircraft. Already electric Vtol taxis operate in China. I prefer to look at the future and not live in the past. My aircraft is ICE powered as electric technology is still evolving and I will probably be dead before it becomes main stream in aviation. Internal combustion was invented in the 19th century. If internal combustion was developed now rather than 150 years ago it would be laughed of the planet. The future is electric and that is well established. Look around you. All your tools are battery powered, E-bikes are everywhere. EVs make up 10% of new vehicles in Australia far less that most other developed countries except the US where the Trump factor has put a large dent in progress there. Formula E motor racing cars leave F1 vehicles in their wake. The government can't tax the sun. My EV costs me nothing to run and I pay nothing to power my house & get a credit for the excess. Sure I have had to make a capital investment but I calculated the benefits and they are paying off handsomely. 

Those who have chosen to change have ignored the massive anti EV and electric change by the fossil fuel industry. They know the writing is on the wall and are doing everything they can to delay it including lobbying governments. Twiggy Forrest is no fool and has invested $4 Billion with Leibherr for more than 360 fully electric dump trucks powered from their own solar farms. BHP & others are doing similar things. They are not stupid and know they need to be in the transition now and not when things turn to custard as they could even now with what the tangerine todler is doing.

16 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Your point??

 

The price of diesel contributes to every aspect of our lives, even to your ambulance rush to the hospital and the carriage of your remains.

Petrol on the other hand only influences the cost of personal travel, mowing the lawn, the time you spend in the air, etc  ie not far off discretionary

A temporary removal of the diesel tax components, would do something tangible to address the fuel shortage and the cost of living rise.

Not a hard concept to grasp.😈

As it does in numerous other economies. Reducing that dependence is something we have been pretty slow at doing. That is certainly changing with Electric trucks on the road & in the mines. Crises like this should be a wake up call to us all. There is plenty of fossil fuel at the moment but reserves that are easy to extract are being used up and eventually extraction will become very expensive not to mention its detrimental effect on the climate.

Removing the excise tax will cost the Government way too much so a reduction is a more likely possibility. If it was reduced by half then that is just 26 cents a litre cheaper. Better than nothing but not much.

The World Fuel avgas tank at South Grafton ran dry last week and is still empty. No word on when it is being replenished. Price at the time was $2.61 a litre. While we all whinge about the price hikes and especially because they happen on existing stock plus numerous tankers full already on their way here, the largest problem has been increased demand.

Why? There has been no change in the weather or distance travelled or more vehicles on the road suddenly, it is pure and simple panic buying and greed. People especially in regional areas filling multiple 200 litre drums on a trailer or ute or even large tanks. Motorists filling their tanks to full when they normally wouldn't and filling jerry cans that normally sat at home part empty. Bunnings ran out of jerry cans & probably other  retailers like Super Cheap etc. Just like toilet paper during Covid. Why? All this has contributed to the petrol and diesel retailers hiking the price. It is the normal economic model of supply and demand.

I am sitting here with my Electric car charged for free from my solar panels and home battery so I may appear a bit smug but my wifes car runs on petrol and  she didn't tear off to the petrol station to fill up. That will happen when the gauge gets to less than a quarter as normal.

Also Australia has cheaper fuel than all European countries, the UK, NZ  & most developed countries except the USA which is now about $US1.15 ($AUD 1.67) a litre. Our fuel excise tax is also lower than most developed countries.

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/USA/gasoline_prices/

Depending on the model the empty weight of a Spitfire is between 2.2 & 3 tonnes & with a high wing loading and span of 36 feet 10 inches (11.23 metres) it would take a pretty strong wind to flip it over.

16 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Fantastic scenes in that movie other than the fact he could have just as easily come down in friendly territory. 

The friendly part was covered in soldiers & equipment. The film just showed small parts with lines of men on the beach. There were 400,000 of them & it was chaos. 340,000 were eventually evacuated but 90-100,000 were left behind.

There is a video on Youtube of a wheels up landing I think in France videoed by the pilots bulkhead mounted camera. You could hear the wheels up warning screaming and see lights flashing on the panel & both pilot & passenger seemed blissfully unaware of anything. The belly landing on the tarmac was pretty good & they got out and walked around scratching their heads. It seems they had noise cancelling headsets which filtered the noise out.

I wonder how often this happened during WW2 not counting times when the landing gear had been damaged. Plots especially during the Battle of Britain often returned with damage to both the aircraft and themselves. The stress on the body and mind must have been extreme at that time. When the system failed and manual gear deployment was required was nicely shown in Christopher Nolans epic movie Dunkirk.

Fire trucks are really heavy & the US has really big ones. They weigh between 15 tons & 60 tons fully loaded. They carry a lot of water, chemicals & foam. 1000 litres of water weighs a tonne. The smaller 4 x 4 Striker 1500 weighs 31 tons fully loaded & the largest 8x8 Striker 4500  weighs over 62 tons fully loaded. The pilots never stood a chance.

5 minute battery swap systems are already here (in China) so are 15 minute truck battery swap systems (in NZ & Australia) so where is the problem?

Fortescue Rio Tinto & BHP are all installing solar farms and batteries. 50 megawatts of solar panels requires only about 80-90 hectares. The desert has plenty of empty space & Batteries can be swapped out in a few minutes, less time than it takes to refuel with diesel. In the Janus initial trials in 2022 a fully loaded B-Double easily got to Coffs Harbour on a single charge & the battery was swapped out in 15 minutes. The driver though had a compulsory minimum 2 hour layover before he could continue to Brisbane or go back to Melbourne.

Rooftop solar already produces more energy than all of the power stations in Australia including Hydro. The spot price often goes negative in the middle of the day as the grid is awash with power. The problem is storage. Massive battery systems resolve this.

This problem is guaranteed to speed up the transition to electric trucks. Fortescue are spending $4 billion with Liebherr on 360 fully autonomous electric dump trucks. Quite a few already in service, & a lot of diesel tractor units are being retrofitted with battery electric motors. BHP & Rio Tinto are trialling Caterpillar electric haul trucks in the Pilbara. Janus Electric started the first trials from Sydney to Melbourne 2 or 3 years ago. The conversion from diesel to electric is cheaper than a diesel overhaul. They have done 25 so far. There are over 200,000 electric long haul trucks in China

You are right. I should have said "some" not "a lot". There were 52,651 accidents & 13,873 aircraft lost. Roughly 8% were due to mechanical faults.

I have seen plenty of homebuilts with very poor workmanship. How they ever got approved to fly is a mystery to me or perhaps they didn't. When I built my aircraft I was very fussy. I wanted a specific measurement that wasn't on the plans & when asking the designer he said "Dunno, never measured it", though he had other good tips and my aircraft has zero trim tabs anywhere. I've seen a student built ultralight & it looked OK from the outside but they hadn't kept a photo log of the construction so there was no way to see how things were under the skin. I wouldn't trust or fly that one.

Women were employed in the UK to build all types of aircraft in WW2. At the time most of the capable men were in the armed forces. The British were very fussy about the build quality. The US mass produced aircraft utilising a number of car manufacturers & the error rate was pretty high. Over 15,000 US airmen died in training accidents before they even got out of the country, & a lot of these were due to manufacture faults.

It doesn't matter how experienced you are at anything. Mistakes can always be made because we are all humans. When more than one mistake is made and the holes in the swiss cheese line up the consequences are very dire. We will never know any more than we know now about this fatal mid air collision. We know what and when but how and why is conjecture and opinion.

A bloke down the road built a combobulator that would fit that. This is a later development of his earlier thingamebob but with reverse thrust and twin overhead carbuncles.

Very few products are pure aluminium. It is too soft. Most are aluminium alloys with varying degrees of corrosion resistance. As soon as aluminium is created and cools a cost of aluminium oxide forms on the surface creating a barrier to corrosion. Introduction of other corrosive elements such as salt will begin the corrosive process. If you wash un-anodised or unpainted aluminium regularly it will last for a very long time. After WW2 most pots & pans were made from scrapped aluminium from aircraft. They didn't corrode though some got pitting due to introduced corrosive elements. Most got scrapped again when stainless steel came in to vogue.

The grade I built my aircraft is called 6061-T6. It has magnesium, silicon, copper, & chromium, in it & the T6 is the  tempering number. It has high corrosion resistance excellent welding capacity & high strength which is why it is great for aircraft. Back in the 70s I built my hang glider out of the same spec & other than new carbon fibre stuff that is what they are still made from.

HV transmission lines are usually aluminium. Copper is just too heavy and expensive. I have aluminium jumper cables, about 40 years old & have lived at the back of my workshop without any cover for that time except while being used and still work as good as when i got them.

What a fantastic effort. The only down side is that it won't have that famous Merlin V12 sound.