turboplanner

......Turbo had been awarded the Tasmanian Aerobatics Championship after a spectacular display from 10,000 feet and down in the little C150 Aerobat. It had been recorded by Channel 9 News and Al Jazira, so Cappy's disparaging remarks were disproven and his comments passed off as "the gin speaking". He was able to sell the Aerobat to bull who, starstruck by Turbo's dazzling performance had decided to take it to Europe and compete with Europe's bets aerobatic stars. bull had failed to realise that all Turbo's routines had been performed downhill, and when he tried the first Chandelle ..................

10 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I reckon its foolish to take any passengers, even with the " at your own risk " sign. But I like taking passengers and figure the risk of flying them over wheatlands is not so high. So I do it and so far there has never been a problem.

Just today I took a passenger who was ecstatic about the flight. I never told him anything.

That's all you are required to do as long as the sign is there. If you start talking it's very easy to create a different impression to what's on the sign and inadvertently give the passenger a claim bigger than what's in the legislation.

13 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

And that E G R really sucks, see a hill, foot down, get to that hill, and floor it.

The same vehicle with a blanking plate, gets half way up the hill Without putting pedal to the metal. 

AND WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT TO YOUR ECONOMY. From 14.5 lph, down to 12 lph klmts.

Just keeping that turbo spinning helps the econom.

spacesailor

 

 

What's the blanking plate cost if you get caught up in an audit?
 

Density altitude is a simple pre-flight calculation.

Just a hot day at normal altitudes can cause problems.

How many opetions did this guy have to abort.........

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

There are urea production facilities planned for Australia, utilising our natural gas supplies. However, with an energy-hungry world demanding nearly all our LNG at extremely high prices (LNG prices have doubled recently), the case for turning NG into urea, is now not as attractive as just selling it on the open world market, for fuel use.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-01-12/strike-energy-plans-urea-fertiliser-plant-burrup-peninsula/13051000

The vast majority of trucks are EGR, so if there is going to be a problem the market will just shift to buying EGR.

.......flying the Aerobat to its full envelope. Turbo's first advice to Cappy was "This aircraft flies best if you climb for half and hour while you eat your breakfast or lunch, then point it straight down for all the aerobatics - goes like a rocket." At firs Cappy ..........

55 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

It amazes me how our leaders have allowed this country to become so dependent on regular imports of critical items like oil, fertilizers and now urea for Ad Blue. Time to encourage local production.

A representative from Perkins Diesel came out from England a few years ago to discuss chronic problems with their engines at a Bus Operator's conference. One of the problems was exhaust manifold cracking. The Perkins man explained that Australian operaors where extending the wheelbases and upping passengers from 45 to 51 and this was making the engines work harder and cracking the manifolds which didn't crack anywhere else in the world where bus operators stuck to the 45 passengers it was built for. Someone got up and said "Well what are you going to do about it?" and the Perkins man said "Let's put it this way; the entire Australian market is filled by start of production to morning tea break on one day of the year; what do you think they're going to do?

At one stage we were building 12 trucks a day in the most efficient GM truck plant in the world. We had to shut that one down and pull product from one that produced one every 20 seconds. 

We just can't get the production runs to produce the volume which amortises costs fast enough.

We got close a few times, but the majority of the Australian customer based buys the cheapest product without question.

Someone has to put their hand up to manufacture something locally, then when they do that, the government can step in and assist them to employ more labour but that doesn't happen often because there's more money to be made distributing a cheaper overseas produced product.

.............chromium. It must be terrible for Cappy when that Chevrolet badge flashes past him (He rides on old 250 cc pink Suzuki, becaise he was one of the people who bought Chevrolet badges and screwed them on old Commodores, and then altered the timing to make them backfire, and ..........................

50 minutes ago, aro said:

China has apparently banned exporting it so that it can be used in fertilizer in China.

I hare to think of the urine consumption required by a truck to replace it!

European vehicles are the big users of urea, which technically allows them to use older, more powerful engines that would not comply with current emissions. They drip feed urea into the exhaust system downstream of the engine, and the urea brings the exhaust emissions up to current standard.  The older engones burn less fuel.

US and Japanese engines burn the emissions using EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) but at the cost of less power than they used to have, and burning more fuel. The power ratings are increased to where they need to be over time with upgrades.

So in Australia we have a crossover with the majority of trucks running EGR, so not affected by the 80% drop off from China.

The 80% may still be a problem as you say, for applications where European is the best solution, and that can affect Australians - e.g. weekly garbage pickup.

What will be interesting is if what will happen if urea does run out. The urea injector is independent of the engine so there's no problem in continuing to drive without urea (other than the huge fines). Maybe the Federal Government could authorise them to run pending a new supply industry?

6 minutes ago, aro said:

Meanwhile, there are reports that Australia will run out of Adblue in February.

 

Maybe those electric trucks weren't such a bad idea.

AdBlue is just one brand of Urea.  

We used a Japanese urea product to take black smoke out of trucks when it was known as PFM (Pure XXXXXXX Magic).

13 minutes ago, RossK said:

A good lawyer would argue that as a passenger they were aware of the risks being taken and subsequently the amount payable for damages should be less. 

Without getting into PL law, because I'm not a lawyer, a warning sign whether it be on an instrument panel or a sign next to a swimming pool simply makes people aware of an elevated risk, so they can walk away if they want.

I've been involved on losing cases even where "Motor Racing is Dangerous" disclaimers were installed at tracks and printed in programmes. Remember PL cases are civil cases between the plaintiff and defendant over an alleged breach of duty of care.

19 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

My friends who have spent time on large cargo ships tell of long, boring voyages with steady winds, ideal opportunities for using some wind-assistance to reduce fuel burn and perhaps add speed.

If controlled buy AI, neither of your objections should be of concern.

Fuel is a critical facto with ships,  but canvas and rigging has obvious issues with training, fire and loading/unloading cargo as well as hull shape. What was trialled a few years ago were  vertical cylinder "sails" which avoided those problems. When the cylinders were spinning they acted as sails. Some were fitted to cruise ships as a means of reducing their fuel consumption.

Similar cylinders have also been trialled as aircraft wings.

The trend didn't catch on, but I'm not sure why; perhaps the fuel lost in spinning them offset the gain through sailing.

The Insurance you do want to be careful to retain is Public Liability Insurance.

RAA Members get an automatic coverage, but people who fly recreational aircraft under other bodies, such as SAFA need to check whether their Association has similar cover.

The RAA cover is stated as:

"Members Liability Insurance

A cornerstone of protection for members is our unique Members Liability Insurance Policy which provides liability protection for those members of Recreational Aviation Australia Limited who hold a Student Pilot or Pilot Certificate.

The cover, being applicable to the member (not the aircraft), means that the cover is “portable” even when piloting an RAAus registered aircraft owned by some other person anywhere in Australia.

The cover has an indemnity limit of up to $20,000,000 for liability arising from third party property damage or bodily injury including a sub-limit of up to $250,000 for liability arising from injuries to passengers (including student pilots). Depending on individual circumstances, you may require more than the limits described above, so you may need to maintain additional individual insurance."

The intriguing part of this to me is that the $20 million applies to third party bodily injury on the one hand, but is limited to $250,000 for injuries to passengers where a death is usually going to cost $2 - $3 million and a Qudariplegic around $13 million.

Members should check what this means, but based on the above wording appears to mean you will be up for a separate policy to cover your passengers who, despite the notice on the instrument panel have the right to sue you for negligence including accidental negligence.

1 hour ago, Geoff_H said:

When I was consulting to the mines a good friend was doing velocity surveys for wind power.  He said wind cost 4 times gas turbines. Never quite sure what he was about but he did say it was an expensive installation (interest on investment?,) And you still need to have a gas or diesel power plant.  

The overwhelming amount of energy is in trucks and loaders....a solar panel on the roof of the trucks, or maybe a wind turbine?  One panel in a sunlit day produces enough energy to drive a Tesla 4km.  5MW motor on a dump vehicle may be just too much LoL

I don't know, but suspect the mines run 3 shifts a day so no time for charging 700 tonne trucks.  They are currently diesel/electric (the electric motors give them 100% torque at zero - perfect for optimum startability and there is no highway cycle.

.....regularly wins events to honour the proud emblem representing a mother with her arms out ready to embrace the oncoming car. Not many people know that Joshua Turbine for was a GM stylist in Detroit had been at a party and was drivinh his new Biscayne home at 100 points. He didn't know there was a car wreck ahead, but the mother bravely stepped out into the middle of the road in a vain attempt to stop Joshua. This was the imprint she made, and Joshua in learning from the incident used it as the idea for a new logo, and now it's all over the world and ...............

[Turbo's Vette has a little sign saying "the real one" next to the badge, and anothe sign saying "God made Sh!t", Ford gave it wheels!]

2 minutes ago, Garfly said:

 

Yeah, it's an uncomfortable choice to have to make with no way of predicting which'd be more likely to work.

 

But if it's a choice between ditching a non-retract into a remote beachless lake (esp. at Cirrus speeds) and chancing a tree arrival at parachute descent speed. I reckon I'd be going for option B. 

 

But still, I'm very much alert to the 'toothpick' threat because my (BRS equipped) Skyranger has nothing but laced-up X-Lam fabric to protect its soft underbelly - and, by extension, my soft back-side; not to mention some soft rubber fuel lines.

 

As it happens, just a couple of weeks ago I was discussing with my maintainer-mate the feasibility of installing a lightweight shield under the seat to mitigate that very risk (guessing that trees might be involved in a canopy arrival).  I even got to researching kevlar/carbon fibre sheets as penetration defence. Obviously that wouldn't help if a hefty trunk got involved (as above) but for wood of the slender and sharp type, a light shield might deflect the worst of it.  

Sounds like a smart plan for very little mass increase.

He did a beautiful job of splitting the wood.

.......Ukraine could spend more time perfecting their soliders' dance which was going to mesmerise the Russion troops into laughing and clapping and forgetting why they came to the Ulraine anyway, but one of the dancers .................

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Not really sure what you mean by this. Care to elaborate? It's just a statement of facts.

They're not facts if you've worked for an engine manufacturer.

.......Roulettes who take passengers up at night unbeknown to the Generals who think they are .............

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Engines are engines are engines, to believe otherwise isn't engineering, power, weight, efficiency etc. The turbines for planes are used by power station with a few modifications. Car engines are used in boats, there's really nothing special about any of them. Of course some people like to believe that aviation engines are special however they're just engines.

Always good to have a comedian around.

.....to get in on the action [we can't tell you the name of the actress here, but have to say OT has near-James Bond tastes], and will be not only investing his own money, but the Bank's, and that could ..............

Cappy, with his David Niven moustache and smoking jacket, and carrying the gin is clearly identifiable in the post above, but we were very surprised to see Planey walking in front with binoculars scouting for talent.]

4 hours ago, Ian said:

I've seen people pressure hose modern engines and it does them no harm, the electronics generally well sealed. Repairs are very cheap compared to aviation repairs and you can ask ask the engine what's wrong and it will tell you. But you do need to be able to use a mobile phone or laptop. I remember driving old cars where you'd drive through some water an the engine would stop, I actually got stuck in a floodway after a thunderstorm in an old ford with 3 on the tree and had to ride the starter motor to get out. There used to cars broken down whenever there was a deluge, that doesn't happen anymore.

Modern cars use Coil on Plug so there aren't any HT leads and electrical leaks are actually less likely. Rather than two magnetos each plug has a coil, on Mazda's and Saabs this CoP also includes the electronics to detect detonation. Alternators still function at altitude, it's just old fashioned magnetos that need to be pressurized from the turbo to remain functional.

In general the tolerances in a modern engine are an order of magnitude better than on a plane engine. In terms of reliability people are generally happy when a plane engine starts and they don't notice when a car engine starts.

You need to decide whether to talk about aero engine (and RA engines at that to be relevant) rather than conflate car issues with aero issues in one post to suit an argument and then deny any car relationships in another. Repairs are certainly not cheap in modern cars; I was quoted a possible head gasket replacement starting at $1,000.00 for inspection recently and going up from there. You only have to look at recent TV News stories to see new cars immodilised by floodwaters as they always were, and the low position of some 4WD starter motors can be a $600 surprise to people fording muddy streams. Towing a heavy trailer and caravan with a 4WD without any training on turbocharger use has starting costs starting at around $2,500.00 and can get to $3500.00 with people usually condemning the engine on social media.

There is no crossover between watercooled car engines and air cooled aero engines, so, as I said, you need to decided what you're trying to portray.

4 hours ago, spacesailor said:

turboplanner

Now the ' burnoff smoke ' is killing us !.

Both my wife & I, had a bad time with that thick smoke over Sydney.

The hospital said pneumonia,  now they say partial collapsed lung, with scarring. 

The wife is having breathing problems even today.

And they keep the number that died very quiet.

spacesailor

Yes bushfires turn grass and foliage into particulates, and particulates in the soil can get uplifted and drift. The smoke you can see doesn't cause lung cancer, but particles of 10 microns (PM10) can drift up to 50 km, get into the lungs and cause lung cancer as does 2.5 micron particles, which can drift for hundreds of kilometres and lodge deep in the lungs, and are the more dangerous. People die from lung cancer and other respiratory complications after a major fire. The numbers are not kept secret; local GPs have a reporting system to the State Health Department which retains all the figures. University students, or any of us, can access these figures to do studies which show increased cancer clusters downwind following a fire, or industrial suburbs with increased cancer clusters.

Get a length of clear plastic hose. Stick one end against your ear and start rocking while moving the other side around. In some cases, if it's hard to identify rest the other end opening on structural components to zero in. Sound like some sort of component collapse/on the way out.