onetrack

You were King of the Road with those old Diamond Reos in those days, especially with a massive 335HP, single trailer, and an Allison auto to boot!

I can remember them arriving brand new in early 1970, parked up at the warehouse just prior to allocation, in Moorebank Ave, just out of Liverpool, when I was stationed at the School of Military Engineering in Casula.

I owned a tandem tipper Perkins-powered 1968 "Butterbox" ACCO (DF1840 model) from 1972, an ex-council truck. She was good old rig, and I hauled 30,000 tonnes of sand with her, to backfill the Redross Nickel Mine just out of Widgiemooltha.

In between times, I hauled 13,000 tonnes of gold-bearing ore from my gold mine at Higginsville, to the Norseman State Battery (crusher), between 1972 and 1980 - about a third of that tonnage with the old ACCO.

However, I got sick of being blown away on the highway by the 450HP Cat 3408 (V8) powered "Mack-Munchers", the Kenworths of Cleveland Freight Lines, from about 1974 - and they pulled two trailers, and sat on 110kmh!

So I invested in a good used F-785 cabover Mack and a tandem semi-tipper, so I didn't hold up the Mack-Munchers any more than necessary on the highway!

The old Mack was a real mans truck, too - no power steering, a 237HP Maxidyne with a 6 speed overdrive gearbox, and enough torque to pull the back out of a locomotive!

The best part was when the authorities raised the open-road truck speed limit to 100kmh in 1976. The Mack did 100kmh, but I spent all my time watching for the lawmen, until they raised the truck speed limit!

The old Mack hauled my dozers around until I got a secondhand 500HP V8 Mack Valueliner with a new 100-tonne Drake widening float in 1993. Now, that was a nice rig! She could gross 132 tonnes, that weight sure made that V8 bark!

I reckon it's an Indian Lister, sold as a Metex in Australia, and frequently referred to as a "Listeroid". A couple of friends had an agency for them for a long time, from the 80's to the early 2000's.

The Indians copied all the 1940's Listers and built them in backyard workshops, utilising kids like the ones in the video.

Metex kind of ran out of customers here after purchasers realised Indian backyard manufacturing methods wasn't really up to the reliability they were used to from the original Listers.

Plus, Australian exhaust emission laws started to be applied to imported stationary engines, as well as motor vehicles, from the early 2000's, so that helped can the Metex imports.

However, that hasn't stopped probably at least 20 other Indian companies from manufacturing "Listeroids", they're still very popular in India.

https://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/lister-engines.html

Quote

I worked there in the middle ‘70s, drove the oldest of 104 trucks in the fleet, an AB184 Inter with a 160 Cummins in it.

That was nearly 50 years ago, things have changed a bit since then, and every single area, from road upgrades to truck handling, braking, power, speeds and comfort - right through to heavy vehicle legislation and regulations and driving hours, have been revisited and upgraded.

In the era you're reminiscing over, all trucks were limited to 80kmh maximum speed because most were outright dangerous over that speed. Truck drivers drove 24 hrs non-stop, and the truck accident levels were major.

By far the greatest advance since that era, was mandating an 8M highway seal width for all national highways. So many highways in that era were 6M width, or sometimes even less, with "one-and-half lane" highway seals meaning that oncoming vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder to pass, or overtaking meant both vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder.

In that era, road trains were non-existent, and were even completely banned, in all but the most remote regions - nowadays, we have roadtrains operating on city arterial routes and mixing it with cars.

No, I wasn't saying that at all. But there are any amount of car drivers out there who don't even see triangles, they need to see huge numbers of flashing lights at height, before they will even take their foot off the accelerator. These are the same people who will run you over, because "they didn't see you".

We get car drivers running straight into the back of delivery vehicles and garbage trucks, despite all the flashing lights. At least 3 people with amputated legs in the last 12 mths here, thanks to this abysmal level of car driver incompetence.

The biggest single problem as regards truck tyre changing, particularly with a B-double, is trying to find a safe place to park the truck and change the wheel. There are not enough truck bays/laybys on many "highways" and changing a wheel with the truck parked on the shoulder is difficult and exceptionally dangerous.

People get killed every month, changing wheels by the side of the road, you need to instigate traffic control on high-speed roads if you need to carry out an activity like this.

I was in my Hilux and following a fully loaded 6-wheeler (tandem drive) company skip truck heading East out of Perth towards the landfill at Red Hill last year, in the middle of Winter, it was about 5:30AM and raining lightly, and still relatively dark, but lightening up.

As I came up close behind the skip truck, I noticed the two drivers side rear tyres were almost flat. Any truck driver with a degree of alertness would have been able to see the massive bulge at the bottom of the tyres in the rear vision mirrors - as well as the heavier pulling.

But the driver just kept gaily belting along at the 90kmh speed limit, totally oblivious to the near-flat tyres. We got to a set of traffic lights that were red, I pulled up alongside and slightly forward of him, jumped out and went over to his window to alert him. He took a few seconds to even realise someone was rattling his closed window - because he had his headphones on, and obviously had the music turned up.

When I finally got his attention, he looked very surprised, then he took his headphones off, rolled down his window, and looked a bit shocked as I advised him he had two nearly-flat rear tyres. He didn't have the faintest idea.

"Oh!", he says, "I'll have to get onto the boss, then!" No mention of getting out and actually changing a wheel - nope, he'd be told to stay in the truck and wait for the Beaurepaires or Bridgestone tyre fitting crew to change the wheels/tyres for him.

The company drivers aren't allowed to leave the cab to do any work on their truck, and even the thought of a driver changing a wheel makes the company safety officer blanch, as drivers can't possibly change a wheel, that's above their skill level - and besides, they might hurt themselves, and lodge a claim for compensation!

If you think that's bad, what about this effort? This tri-axle (3 rows of 8 ) float was parked near my workshop recently, awaiting repairs.

All 8 tyres across the back were burnt right off, and one of the inside (steel) rim and hubs, had been dragged on the road for so long, it was nearly one-third worn away. There's no excuse for this, this is purely, "steering wheel attendant" stuff. 

The level of truck driving skills has seriously deteriorated in recent years and the desperation of companies to employ anyone who can hold a steering wheel is showing.

......opportunistic source of warmth, so he carried his big ball of mud right up into bull's.......

Spacey, both acrylic sheet and polycarbonate sheet appear translucent (clear) when looked at at right angles - but when looked at from the edge (looking along the surface), the acrylic appears clear, while the polycarbonate appears blue.

The media has corrected the age of the pilots to 70 and 80, from 77 and 80. The ATSB has confirmed they will not be investigating, as the aircraft and crash are outside their remit, and they have to balance their investigation funds against the general public safety interest. The ball is in RA-Aus's court now, so don't hold your breath expecting a quality crash investigation.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/transport/atsb-wont-probe-qld-aircraft-collision-c-8817152

....cannula, not that it matters much, as Dom has never had much knowledge of either. To outsiders, the MWS is a fascinating series of events, starting off with every entrant showing off their biggest and most frightening-looking Mud Wasp.

The second round of events involves how fast each entrants Mud Wasp can block up a pitot tube in a Jabiru (the aircraft choice ensuring this is an all-Australian event). 

The major entrant from W.A. was Halftrack, a half-brother to Onetrack. Halftracks Mud Wasp was a huge black-and-orange monster W.A. Mud Dauber Wasp which had a wingspan nearly as big as a Thruster, and which had been known to bite and paralyse smaller pilots and then bury them in a mud nest in a wall, as food for the young wasp larvae.

Halftracks Wasp took out the pitot-blocking competition with ease, blocking the Jabiru pitot in less than 0.3 seconds with two fast dabs of mud with its front feet. It was fortunate that with all the constant rain in the Eastern States, the W.A. Mud Wasp was in Mud Heaven, because it had never seen the level of mud that existed everywhere in the Eastern States at present - in W.A., it actually had to travel to dams to get its mud.

After the blue ribbon had been awarded to Halftracks Wasp for the pitot-blocking competition, it was on to the next round - which was to show the ability of each wasp entrant in relation to nest-building speed. Halftrack let his wasp go, and in less than 3 minutes, half the Jabiru had been plastered with mud, and 63 paralysed spiders had been daubed against it, ensuring that......

The tow aircraft report has been proven to be just media inaccuracy. The evidence seems pretty simple to me - two aircraft that fell out of the sky, totally destroyed by an MAC.

The exact reasons for the MAC are certainly not clear, but given the age of the victims (if accurately reported), then a medical episode leading to incapacity is quite possible - but regardless, even if that was the case, then the other pilot should be totally alert, and on the lookout for the other aircraft, and still be able to avoid it, even if it wasn't tracking as advertised.

I guess if one pilot had been incapacitated for some time, and gave no radio calls, that also might help explain it.

With both pilots deceased and no CVR's or FDR's, the investigation is totally reliant on anyone in the area on frequency who heard and remembered important calls - or ground witnesses who actually saw the aircraft.

With one witness reporting they simply heard a loud bang, and two damaged aircraft "fell out of the clouds", then visibility levels is going to be another important question.

A mid-air collision is pilots simply not being aware of other traffic in the area they're flying into. Use every means at your disposal to alert others to your presence, especially as you approach heavily-trafficked areas such as airfields.

Skippy, photos might assist in a better analysis of what the problem is, and how best to solve it.

Media reports state the victims were an 80-year-old Caboolture man and a 77-year-old Glenwood man. No identification of the aircraft, rego numbers are blanked out in videos, and it's almost impossible to tell the make of aircraft, but I'd have to guess it's an ultralight. Doesn't seem to be any mention of the ATSB getting involved at this point. This is certainly a real tragedy, and just another reminder to stay aware of other aircraft in your area.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/fatal-aircraft-mid-air-crash-queensland-gympie-kybong/e32ae0b9-225f-4fad-9a98-131bee6f97ee

Skippy - Try a loose leaf calico rotary polishing buff attached to a drill or a tapered spindle on a bench grinder, with a small amount of polishing compound.

Josco make polishing compound in bars of different colours, blue is the one for plastics.

Be careful not to overheat the polycarbonate by constant heavy pressure on, or with, the buff. Gentle, short, repeated buffing efforts prevent heat buildup. Apply small amounts of compound to the spinning buff as needed.

https://www.josco.com.au/types/calico-buffs/?pid=9

https://www.josco.com.au/types/compounds/?pid=9

https://www.josco.com.au/resource/josco-polishing-demonstration/

.....feet, that everyone admired when any local B&S ball was on. Of course, AH was a favourite at the B&S balls, because of his ill-fitting womans disguise that he still used. Despite that, a few of the bachelors from the more remote regions of W.A., where men were men and women were rarely seen, fell for AH's disguise and kept making moves to crack onto AH.

But AH was smart enough to keep them at arms length (as he was prone to do with nearly everyone who got near him, especially in the latter stages of the War).

Meantimes, when AH wasn't spending his evenings dressed up at B&S balls, he was spending time sussing out W.A. aircraft development and W.A. airfields, in his plan to start up WW3 and finally acquire what he missed out on, in WW2. 

To that end, he visited every hangar and factory that even had a faint whiff of Avgas about it - still always dressed in drag, of course. It was while he was on a visit to Persistent Aerospace, the local drone manufacturer, that AH got so excited over PA's drones, that his wig nearly fell off, and he started to speak in.........

That's one incredibly tough old aeroplane. How did he manage to land it successfully, with that massive level of wing damage? And how did he not see that antenna? He obviously had his eyes elsewhere.

Quote

The whole scenario has been carefully cooked up by NATO and the US for decades. This "unprovoked attack" line is simply propaganda.

What a lot of rubbish. You must have been watching and listening only to Putins rigidly-regulated Russian State media. Putin is a warmonger and a former totally ruthless East German KGB spy, whose whole life has been dedicated to the destruction of Western democracy and NATO. His seething hatred of NATO goes back decades. If Putin was so honest, upright and well-intentioned, he'd have garnered a substantial number of world Allies for his "SMO".

Instead, the only Allies he's garnered, amount to a tiny number of countries run under ruthless dictatorships, or by religious fundamentalists, that you can count on one hand.

Even the line that "the Ukraine is full of Nazis, and Ukraine must undergo de-nazification" (words straight from Putins mouth) is straight-out BS, on a par with Trumps hate-filled dialogues.

Then, to try and say that Russia's actions in Ukraine are a scenario "cooked up by NATO and the U.S." is laughable, when you see the actions of the Russian military in the Ukraine have simply been indiscriminate bombing of civilians, and nothing to do with "denazification" and finding the Nazis that are reputedly the seat of Russia's problems.

https://theconversation.com/putins-claim-to-rid-ukraine-of-nazis-is-especially-absurd-given-its-history-177959

......took control of the meeting and stated that he wasn't going to take any notice of any rules or regulations, anyway - because so many other people failed to follow them, so he saw no reason why he should - and besides, he only flew where there was no other aircraft, so the chances of him hitting a Dash 8 was so miniscule, it didn't even rate as a statistical blimp.

This statement only caused a major uproar, and OT lost control of the meeting, so he left the arguers to it, and went outside and started up the.................

I think you need to compare the total production numbers of each brand to reach a better comparison.

Both Cadillac and GM built a myriad of aircraft components during WW2. Cadillac specialised in the manufacture of superchargers and turbochargers for aircraft, because they were the leading world facility at that time for their ability to machine components to 1/10,000th inch, and to polish hi-tech components to superfine finish levels, which was needed for the extremely high speeds that the turbines and shafts reached.

The GM "71 series" 2 stroke diesel, largely the brainchild of Charles Kettering, a chief engineer at GM, was released in 1937 and reached full production in early 1938. The engine was a unique design, in that it used a 2-stroke cycle, with "unit" injectors mounted in the centre of the heads, actuated by pushrods off the camshaft, and "Uniflow scavenging" which was carried out by the use of a "Roots blower", which pumped air into the engine via ports in the lower part of the cylinders.

Uniflow scavenging is where the intake air flow and exhaust air flow all go in the one direction. Once the piston reaches the lower part of its power stroke in the cylinder of the GM diesel, the ports are uncovered, pressurised air from the Roots blower is admitted via the ports - and the fresh incoming air helps push the spent exhaust gases out as the piston rises. 

Once the piston travels past the ports in the cylinder, the fresh incoming air has displaced the largest proportion of the spent exhaust gases - the exhaust valve closes, and the compression stroke starts.

At TDC, the injector squirts diesel in under high pressure, and the power stroke starts.

A Roots blower is also known as a supercharger in many other circles. Despite the GM diesel being fitted with a Roots blower, the engine is not regarded as being supercharged by the SAE, and is still classed as "naturally aspirated".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Diesel_Series_71#:~:text=7 Sources-,History,engine introduced as a replacement

https://www.dieselduck.info/historical/01 diesel engine/detroit diesel/

GM changed the name of their Diesel Division from GM Diesel to Detroit Diesel in 1965, and much of the younger generations only know the GM 2 stroke diesel as the "Detroit Diesel".

But all GM diesel 2 stroke engines produced between 1937 and 1965 were known as, and marked as, "GM Diesel".

And I guess this new Tupolev will have a similar crash record to all the previous models of Tupolevs?

https://www.1001crash.com/transport-page-plane_database-lg-2-aviation-tupolev-plane-accident-aeronautical-history.html

The trike appeared to almost do a forward roll, before the structural collapse - perhaps wind shear forced the wing downwards, and it just folded?

They're not the most robust design for resisting negative wing loads, their Euler Critical Buckling Load is low, and you'd only need one top support cable to let go, and you're history.

Possibly the worst part would be, "the learn-as-you-go" process involved in finding out the dreadful handling qualities and quirks, of a completely new aircraft design.