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Old Koreelah

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Posts posted by Old Koreelah

    Wiring up a new PTT switch

    in Instruments, Radios and Electronics

    Posted

    Huullooo,,, Lyle, your brother used to be, and even though he's retired from the RAAF now, I'm guessing he still is, one of the best rad techs this country has. When you've got those sort of brains in the family, man, why would you be asking us? Unless of course, you're just teasing... 063_coffee.gif.b574a6f834090bf3f27c51bb81b045cf.gif

    Not teasing, Wayne. The things you learn on this forum. Brother has moved far away from that trade in recent decades. I hoped that someone on this forum had experience of wiring up their own PTT switch. As FT says, it's part of the fun of home building, but I've had just a little too much fun... most jobs I've ended up doing re-doing until I arrive at the ideal set-up. Expensive and time consuming. My shed is full of cast-off bits and pieces; I'd rather not add a cooked radio to the mix!

     

    Lyle

     

     

    Wiring up a new PTT switch

    in Instruments, Radios and Electronics

    Posted

    I purchased an aftermarket PTT but find the switch unreliable and too klunky to fit on my stick. In order to feed the cable up through the stick (where I plan to install a smaller switch) I had to cut the original switch off. Now to wire in the new one...

     

    My new, smaller switch only has provision for connecting two wires, but the tester says that the original switch connects two pairs of wires (red to green and black to white). Is a double switch necessary for this application, or is it just that the manufacturer happened to use this sort? I don't want to cut the connectors apart to trace the wiring.

     

    Any advice?

     

    Regards,

     

    Lyle

     

     

    Any designers out there?

    in Aircraft Building and Design Discussion

    Posted

    And what catagory would it fit ( fixed wing / autogyro / helicopter ) & which licenceI wonder if I should put a rotor on my hummel, no need for a runway, saves tire wear !, a couple of mini (aeromodlers) turbines should do, but how do you Relight them to land.

    Bryan

    Good idea, Brian, a great way to save tyre wear! Wings are wings, whether bolted to each side or spinning overhead. We still need control; its just a little easier to vary the geometry of a fixed wing than a rotary wing. I'd love to see how the compressed air was channelled into the RotoDynes's hollow rotor blades. Apparently fuel was mixed in at some point and igniters were mounted in the tip jets. I bet that if the Yanks built one today it would be far more complex than the elegantly simple system the Brits had. Just look at the Boeing V-22 Osprey.

    Lyle

     

     

    Any designers out there?

    in Aircraft Building and Design Discussion

    Posted

    Hello, Spacesailor,

     

    Thanks for mentioning what is perhaps my favourite historic aircraft.

     

    It would be an amazing acheivement if it flew today, but the FAIRY RotoDyne was flying passengers two generations ago.

     

    What were they thinking when they destroyed it?

     

    http://www.asra.org.au/rotordyn.htm

     

     

     

    I doubt any of us could "rebirth" it, but at least we can ensure that awesome achievment is never forgotten.

     

    Lyle

     

     

    The Helicopter

    in Aviation Enthusiasts

    Posted

    Amazing - thanks for that find too Lyle. Hard to believe someone hasn't picked up on that technology since. Was there other drawbacks other than noise I wonder. Interesting reading about the scale back led by government in Britain on Helicopter companies. I know I'm forever a cynic but I wonder what was really going on behind closed doors.

    Why was the Rotodyne dropped, and almost all evidence of it obliterated? There have been (and continue to be) plenty of amazingly stupid decisions by governments. Then there are the conspiracy theories.

     

    It's very instructive what we learn long after the event; NATO chose the Lockheed F104 Starfighter over a promising British jet fighter. Much later the Lockheed bribery scandal made the headlines.

     

    Regards,

     

    Lyle

     

     

    What REdrive (s) should I consider?

    in Engines and Props

    Posted

    A few years back I was in Bundaberg and visited a factory making Gyros with a Sub4, a NZ-made EA-81 with their own reduction box. Very impressive and designed to handle mobs more power than a standard Subaru, but it also made the engine even heavier, which put it out of contention for my machine.

     

     

    Leaving Aircraft outside

    in Aircraft General Discussion

    Posted

    I agree, I've seen expensive planes deteriorating for want of hangar space.

     

    Anyone purchasing an aircraft should factor in the cost of hangarage, which can cost almost as much as the aircraft itself.

     

    Many designs allow folding; perhaps this should be considered. Mine folds for transport and lives in a shipping container, avoiding many problems (but creating others).

     

     

    Centrelink Fairy

    in Aviation Laughter

    Posted

    OK to define it loosely lefties are totalitarian inclined people opposed to individual freedom. And humour actually does irritate them, as we see.I'd love to meet one of these people you describe. Perhaps it's only your type of humour that irritates them.

     

    As ahlocks says, perhaps we'd better play nice.

    Centrelink Fairy

    in Aviation Laughter

    Posted

    I'm an indigenous Australian and not an immigrant but quite white. Why your hang up about skin colour? And BTW no-one is more anti-science than a Greenie.You are quite young and naive I take it?

    GG perhaps you should attend a few GreenPeace functions: you will seen highly intelligent and successful people of all ages, with a disproportionate number of elderly scientists and engineers. What sort of Greenies have you been hanging around with?

     

     

    Centrelink Fairy

    in Aviation Laughter

    Posted

    Lefties don't get humour, or reality. Besides tough week for them with much admired Kim entering hell and now Gillard grasping the Nauru nettle. OK not her, she wouldn't break her holiday over a few dozen of economic migrants drowning.

    OK, GG, I'll bite at your trashy jibe: What is a "leftie"? Do all "lefties love Gillard and the Dear Leader? What planet do you come from?

     

    Plenty of "lefties" and Greenies and other people you apparently disagree with are normal, working Australians who pay their taxes, go to church and actually contribute to our nation. They also actually "get humour". According to the polls most of them dislike Julia and probably all of them hate Kim the fat departed. What is it that you dislike?

     

    I have heard so much crap from people who should know better; as Winsor68 mentioned, there is so much misinformation being disseminated by powerful people who are sooo good at manipulating the gullible. There is plenty we can laugh at, but perhaps at the moment we might stay clear of making fun of desperate people caught in desperate situations.

     

    Where is our country up to in its development:

     

    The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years.

     

    These nations have progressed through this sequence:

     

    From bondage to spiritual faith;

     

    From spiritual faith to great courage;

     

    From courage to liberty;

     

    From liberty to abundance;

     

    From abundance to selfishness;

     

    From selfishness to complacency;

     

    From complacency to apathy;

     

    From apathy to dependence;

     

    From dependency back again into bondage.

     

    ---Sir Alex Fraser Tyler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian

     

     

    • Like 2

    Cessnock Airfield

    in Aviation Enthusiasts

    Posted

    A mile of road will take you a mile, a mile of runway will take you anywhere in the world.Listening to a seminar at Airventure with a big corporation exec speaking about how they expanded their company, was asked how they found towns that had a population base that could supply the labor they needed, responded by saying that the initial contact to check out the town was via the local airport. If the town had no airport they just flew onto the next town that had an airport. No airport, no employment growth for the town.

    Good point Oz, perhaps you could get more details and form this into an advice for local governments keen to attract investors.

     

     

    Centrelink Fairy

    in Aviation Laughter

    Posted

    Like it or not, this continent is likely to see enormous numbers of boat people in the near future. In the past, as under Malcolm Fraser's administration, we welcomed large numbers of desperate people, and Australian has benefitted greatly. Let's face the facts: we need the energy, drive and skills of new people, because not enough Australians are putting in the effort to study the hard subjects: sciences, languages, engineering.

     

    As Litespeed said, our ancestors had to survive a long and dangerous boat trip to get here. What better way for people to prove their determination to become Australians?

     

     

    • Like 1

    New Jabiru Engine

    in Jabiru

    Posted

    Good to see Jabiru still investing in local manufacturing. Nikasil should be an improvement, and stop the rusting bores problem (I have to remember to run my engine on a weak 2-stroke mix before a long period of inactivity).

     

    Tough stuff, that Nicasil. When my wife's 1978 Guzzi was assembled they couldn't even get within the incredibly sloppy tolerances typical of Italian manufacturing at the time. The crank had so much movement the rings somehow chewed out the top of the Nicasil bores. When my engineer tried to bore out the barrels to insert iron liners, all his best cutting gear was wrecked.

     

     

    Improperly Clamped Fuel Line May Collapse Causing Fuel Starvation

    in Engines and Props

    Posted

    Thanks for sharing this, David.

     

    My plane had no taps at all when I bought it and all I could find were large, heavy and ugly as sin.

     

    I ended up fitted four brass gas taps, the lightest and smallest fuel taps I could find. Not being designed exactly for the job, one side is shorter than the other, but I managed good seals on the rubber fuel lines.

     

    Three have given reliable service until recently. One always leaked fuel, even when closed, and I used to squeeze the tapered inner part into the outer housing to try to seal the leak. Now the others have also started to weep petrol. Not ideal. Can anyone suggest an better alternative?

     

    Regards,

     

    Lyle

     

     

    Engine failure near Bathurst

    in AUS/NZ General Discussion

    Posted

    a prop spinning at idle speed will produce less thrust than the glide speed, so actually creates drag.

    I have it on good authority that if the prop is stopped there is more drag than if the engine is idling. This means that simulating an engine failure with the motor idling may not be as realistic as we thought. Perhaps we should expect a steeper glide angle (i.e. we won't get as far as we thought) with a stationary prop.

     

     

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