onetrack

If you drive your ICE car into a flooded area and water enters into the cabin, and rises more than 150mm above the door sills, it is classed as a Statutory Write Off under safety legislation.

This is because many electronic components involved in the safety features of the vehicle are mounted under the seats or in the footwells. Immersion of these components is regarded as affecting the safe operation of the vehicle, so it is written off. You can get a pretty vicious shock from a 12V battery, try shorting the main power cable from the battery!

They talk about exceptionally close tolerances and fits to eliminate sealing problems. If it was that easy, we'd have the design in our engines right now. But the problem is - trying keep those exceptionally close tolerances after a few hundred hours of operation is nigh on impossible. The rotating components need bearings to spin on, and bearings spinning at breakneck speeds develop wear and movement in short order.

This engine is no different to Ralph Sarich's Orbital engine - it looked great in theory, and in the prototype - it ran quite happily on short tests - but when it came to the crunch and it was put through long-term, all-conditions testing, it failed on the sealing angle, it failed on the emissions angle, and it failed on the heat dissipation angle.

Even Ford thought they could make it work, but in the end they all gave up. BHP poured $50M into the Orbital engine, and ended up with little to show for it, because of the Orbital Engines "insurmountable", inherent design problems.

Ralph Sarich did make money out of a side project, air-assisted fuel injection, for which he sold the rights, to a number of manufacturers, mainly outboard engine companies.

They're looking good there. Durability of the design, will now be the $64 question. The engineering and construction of the pivot area for the motors/fans is going to need to be good.

The flex of the wing is going to have an effect on the pivot points. If that area fails, there's no backup, you're going to be in serious trouble, with no way out.

The Lotax is only as good as the record of the Chinese for producing high quality products of a consistent standard. They fail on at least one of the requirements, every time. There are no "Gold Standard" Chinese manufactured products.

The resale value of Chinese manufactured goods, once they are used, reflects their true value in the overall marketplace. The only manufactured products produced in China with any degree of reliability are from Western-company owned premises with Westerners overseeing the QC and placing suppliers under constant intense scrutiny.

The Chinese lie constantly about rated outputs, will cheat on the specifications for metals, alloys, and other crucial inputs, their managers are easily bribed and corrupted to substitute sub-standard components and parts, and their understanding of "service and parts availability" is so far behind Western requirements, you are effectively running an "orphan" once you buy Chinese. Add in servicing and parts literature that is littered with Chinglish, and the potential for disaster in the air looms large.

You're probably happy with your aftermarket, and even original, vehicle parts that are made in China - as they have been for around 25 years in a number of cases.

But the difference with your Chinese piston failing in your Beemer, is that you don't have to plan an emergency landing with the Beemer - as compared to a Lotax giving you an EFATO in your aircraft.

Doesn't that donk just sound superb? The camera work is very good, considering the cramped cockpit, and the pilots description of what's going during the flight, is excellent.

Mike, I recall this upside-down movie problem from an earlier time, it's related to programming conflict between Apple and MS products. I don't use any Apple IT products, I use Windows 7 Pro and Chrome with WIndows Media Player. I haven't got Quicktime installed on any of my equipment.

From another site -

"If you record using an iPhone with the volume buttons pointed at the ceiling, the resulting video plays upside-down in Windows Media Player. QuickTime is smart enough to correct and rotate automatically."

If we look at Norway as the worlds leading country in EV vehicles (nearly 75% of the vehicles sold in Norway last year were fully electric-powered), we don't see or hear or read of Norway having a massive problem with EV fires. It is simply not a major EV problem, despite the fossil-fuel naysayers.

The fire problem with ICE vehicles has been well known for over 100 years, and ICE vehicle manufacturers have a range of procedures to address and minimise the chance of fires - all developed as a result of determining ICE vehicle fire causes.

Who recalls the American cars such as the Ford Pinto that regularly exploded into fireballs, thanks to poor petrol tank positioning and protection, if they suffered a hit to the rear end?

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/auto-safety-testing/did-pintos-really-explode-in-the-1970s.htm

The Dreamliner did have initial lithium battery fire issues. The problems were traced back to build quality control issues in the Yuasa factory, and inadequate battery internal insulation.

A concerted effort by Boeing and Yuasa engineers, involving thicker insulating plates in the battery, plus the installation of a stainless steel fireproof battery box ensured the problem was completely fixed.

When was the last time you heard of, or saw, a Dreamliner reporting a battery fire? It would be at least 8 years.

CASA regulate all airspace movements under the Office of Airspace Regulation, the operational arm of CASA. Once you leave the ground in any device lifted by airflow, you're under the control and direction of CASA via the OAR.

A council owing an airport is restricted to control of the airport, and its grounds only. A council trying to issue binding air movement regulations to control aircraft movements towards its airport, is overstepping its authority, and any air navigation/control orders it issued wouldn't stand examination in a court of law. Not a legal opinion, merely my personal opinion.

If there was any reportable aviation incident within the approach area of the airport in question, I could not see anyone getting very far in court trying to blame air navigation instructions issued by the council running the airport, for the incident.

Point 6 in the official legislation under "Function and powers of CASA in connection to Australian-administered airspace", appears to make things quite clear to me (my bold and italics) - 

"The legislation and regulations which govern airspace administration enable CASA to:

·    determine the class of airspace and controlled aerodromes in Australia;

·    designate prohibited, restricted and danger areas;

·    designate flying training areas;

·    designate air routes and airways;

·    provide directions relating to air routes, airways and facilities;

·    publish the particulars of air traffic services; and

·    review the Instruments containing declarations, designations, determinations and directions at least every 5 years. 

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021L01589

I hope you blokes don't do the build on the same level as your movies! - upside down!

....hit local Mayors Valiant Charger instead! But this wasn't any old Charger the missile hit - it was a lemon yellow RT Charger, and it was the Mayors pride and joy - well, I'd have to now say, was the Mayors pride and joy - because it was now just a smoking wreck, resembling something a Russian General had recently occupied, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Someone in the gathering crowd promptly called the Mayor and let him know his pride and joy was no more. The response could be heard by many, even though the caller wasn't on speaker phone.

"He's gone and WHAT!!!???", screamed the Mayor. "Just wait, I'll be there in 10 minutes and by then, that bloke that launched that missile, had better be ready to............

The percentage of EV fires is probably lower than the percentage of IC vehicle fires. I think I've personally witnessed, and seen local news items, for a total of about 8 or 10 IC-engine vehicle fires, just this year alone. Even diesel-powered trucks feature regularly in vehicle fires.

I would hazard a guess (which is true for IC-engine vehicles), that the greatest source of fire potential (for EV, IC-engine, or aircraft) is in the wiring harness - and how the harness is installed and run, and how it is protected, features very largely in the fire risk potential.

The second greatest fire threat in IC-engine vehicles is the exhaust manifold and turbo area. Blown turbo oil lines regularly cause fires (when hot oil sprays onto hot exhaust manifolds) and hoses and wiring coming into contact with a hot exhaust manifold, also cause fires.

At least with electric power, you don't have a red-hot exhaust manifold posing a continuous fire threat that needs careful management. If you crash in an aircraft, your chances of a major fire starting, thanks to a hot manifold, are exceptionally high.

Blanco Lirio has his 0.02c worth of input to this incredible event - and like many, he suspects the passenger must have either had a lot of right front seat experience as a passenger and watched and learnt a lot from previous pilots - or he had a degree of flightsim experience. His knowledge of aviation is above what would be expected from the ordinary passenger who only wants to get from A to B and has no interest in what's going on up front.

Further to this, Blanco Lirio reveals that when the pilot initially passed out, the 2 passengers were in the back! - and the Caravan went into a pretty vicious dive, as the pilot crumpled at the controls.

The bloke who took the controls had to haul the unconscious pilot away from the controls, and keep him upright (the 2nd passenger must have helped here) - but more importantly, the passenger who took the controls, had to do an upset recovery!

Blanco Lirio says the aircraft reached nearly 300mph GS in the dive right after the pilot collapsed, lost around 3600' in altitude (reaching a descent speed of 6,375' a minute before the passenger arrested it) - and not only did the passenger do a good upset recovery, he regained around 2600' in altitude again, after the recovery. This speaks of either some learnt aviation skills, or a bloke who watched a lot of pilot training videos very carefully.

What is pretty amazing is that the VNE of a Caravan is reportedly 175kts, so that "nearly 300mph" GS is a pretty frightening speed to see recorded. It looks like the ol' Caravan is pretty stoutly built.

What's he got powering it? It looks like a V-twin, is it a Briggs & Stratton Vanguard? That thing is so tiny, 240kg MTOW, it must be the equivalent of a Hummelbird.

......have to hit the ground, and roll into a ditch to avoid being hit, and the ditch he rolled into, just happened to be one full of effluent from the nearby pig farm, which certainly had an "aroma" that lingered if you came into contact with said effluent.

Unfortunately, the farmer ended up completely covered in pig effluent - which enraged him to the point of firing the shotgun at the departing HZ, which then led to Turbo having to do an evasive move at relatively low airspeed, resulting in......

I couldn't imagine there would be sufficient demand at a relatively small country airport, to have fuel available 24 hrs a day. 7 days a week, yes - but the cost of having fuel available at night, wouldn't seem to be warranted.

Modest availability hours such as 08:00 to 20:00hrs would have to be quite adequate for all but the few rare night-time requirements. Perhaps a night-time callout number with an after-hours fee to unlock the fuel supply, could be considered.

Fuel security systems must be uppermost in the design, in this day and age of expensive fuel, and the constant onslaught of fuel thieves.

That passengers landing of the C208 is better than many a qualified pilots landing! Surely he must have had some aviation skills he failed to mention? He was pretty cool about it all, he must be Sullys brother!

https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-pbia-lands-safe-passenger-pilot-private-plane/39957179#

One of the interesting points to be taken from this crash, is that the helicopter involved in the crash, passed below the second helicopter at about 3,500' (which had already done a 180° turnback, and was at 3650'), whilst still travelling North on its planned flight path.

Mt Disappointment is listed at 810M elevation (2657'), and Blairs hut is 727M elevation (2385M). The pilot of the crash helicopter obviously thought he was sitting pretty at 3500', to be able to avoid the dreaded "cumulus granitus".

But the tracking shows the crash helicopter entering a "left descending turn" prior to impacting a large "old growth tree trunk" at what must approximate, say around 780M (2560') - meaning the crash helicopter lost around 1000' in height within a very short time after entering the cloud bank.

I cannot understand why the pilot of the crash aircraft did not pick up this rapid and substantial loss of altitude, but I would have to opine he was distracted from his instruments in an attempt to regain visual sightings - all the while being affected by spatial disorientation.

Well, the ATSB preliminary report is out, and all I can say, it doesn't look too good for that young pilot - nor for his level of training. Flying into a wall of cloud whilst on VFR has killed a lot of people.

It's unfortunate a post crash fire consumed a lot of the aircraft. However it appears there was an Appareo camera on board which could provide some further information. 

Appareo claim their onboard image recording systems are pretty crashproof. I guess we'll soon find out, how true that claim is.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/news-items/2022/mt-disappointment-prelim/

....said, "Hold my beer and watch this!". The HZ, which was unfortunately powered by a wheezy, bog-standard, emission-control choked, red 202, struggled to reach V1 as it slowly trundled down the strip.

The level of apprehension rose amongst the gathering of watchers, as the HZ neared the end of the strip and still showed no sign of getting airborne.

Suddenly, OT spoke up. "Hang on! Where's my oxy-acetylene set gone? It didn't get left in the back of the HZ, did it?"

"Well, now that you mention it", said bull, "I haven't seen the set, since you used it to weld the wings on! And those were the large G size bottles, weren't they?"

"Oh, gawd!", said Cappy. Turbo's beer is going to go to waste, for sure!' - and as they all watched, the HZ ran off the end of the strip, there was a cloud of dust and flying pieces of vegetation, and.......

Peter, it's actually an "I" in the abbreviation, not a small "L". I guess that's why RR were careful to avoid utilising a name such as Spirit of Lektrickery. 

The specs for the RR Spirit of Innovation are hard to come by - but the specs bandied around are totally wrong. Articles that are wrong that are obviously copied off other wrong articles, state that the 3 RRSoI batteries weigh 450kg each - yet the articles also state the MTOW is 1200kg? 

Regardless, despite the RRSoI having the initial claim to fame in the electric air power stakes, nothing in any of the above shows adequate battery density, payload capacity, or range that even reaches a commercial level.

It will take many more years, or a major battery innovation breakthrough, before the electric-powered aircraft reaches commercial viability with a satisfactory range and payload. All of the above are merely test beds and prototypes.

The RRSoI is reported as having a 320km range - but says nothing about payload at that range. It appears pretty obvious the payload is practically zero, apart from the pilot.

Pipistrel are really the only manufacturer with a (short range, minimal payload) electric aircraft, but even their product has major limitations, and short-distance training use is about its only real application.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-battery-innovations-behind-rolls-royces-ultrafast-electric-airplane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_ACCEL#cite_note-8

https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/innovation/spirit-of-innovation-factsheet.pdf

A Perth-based engineer promised to provide a Perth-to-Rottnest Island Air Taxi service, utilising an electric aircraft in 2019. We're still waiting - and waiting - for that electric air taxi service from him.

https://particle.scitech.org.au/tech/aussie-first-electric-plane-takes-to-wa-skies/

Another local "start-up", is "hoping" to bring us air taxis in 2026. I won't be holding my breath on this one, either.

Aviation is littered with unfulfilled promises and dreams that never materialise, but which are usually good at soaking up investors money. I note that even the RRSoI was funded with a large grant from the British Govt.

https://australianaviation.com.au/2022/01/perth-based-start-up-to-bring-electric-air-taxis-to-wa-in-2026/

You cannot blame the U.S. as a major activist for the War in the Ukraine; that is adopting a particularly simplistic reasoning that defies any proper study of the history of the Ukraine and Russia.

Russia and its Communist leaders have indulged in some of the worlds greatest ethnic cleansings and population transfers, that makes Hitler and the Nazis look tame in comparison.

The entire aim at all times of these ethnic cleansings and population transfer moves, was simply to increase the power of Russia and Communism, and to totally eliminate any opposition to Communism.

These moves have resulted in both Russians and other nationalities being transferred to regions where they historically and culturally did not belong - thus setting the scene for warring.

In particular, the "Twenty Five Thousanders" are a major reason behind the warring - where Russians were encouraged to move to regions where Russia wanted to extract more wealth for itself - such as the Donbass region, a region of huge mining wealth.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43910409

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_transfer_in_the_Soviet_Union

But by far the greatest cause of unrest and opposition to Russia has been Russian Communism's outright criminality and constant theft. Russia steals ownership of other countries land by indulging in constant criminality. Russia is a hotbed of criminality and theft - both State, and by individuals. The Oligarchs amassed their billions by bare-faced theft of National assets.

Stalin was a not only a thief, but a murderous thief who makes Hitler pale in comparison. Putin worships Stalin and wants Russia to return to the Stalinist era of theft and repression - and land gain.

Putin is kept in power by the thieving Oligarchs, who really are the "power behind the throne".

America is now using business criminality laws, money laundering laws and confiscation of stolen State assets, to ensure they dismantle the power of the Oligarchs. It's high time the world addressed the constant criminality of the Russians and Communism, and do something about it, and the Americans are best positioned to do that - as the Chinese in comparison, being Communist bedmates to Russia, are quite happy to stand by, sit on their hands, and do nothing about Russia's constant criminality.

Encyclopedia Britannica gives the entire history of the Ukraine and its peoples, and I suggest a thorough read of the countrys history and its peoples might be in order, to familiarise yourself with the historical events that have led to this War.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/World-War-I-and-the-struggle-for-independence

There's some more information on the Tipsy Nipper in Australia, below.

https://aeropedia.com.au/content/tipsy-t-66-nipper/

The debris appears to show signs of being mangled in other rotating components, with its flattened shape, and the gouge marks in it.

However, I guess that the flattening and gouge marks could also occur in an errant space vehicle launch failure exercise, or a re-entry event, if two components collided during a destructive phase.

The debris is almost certainly a man-made metal, I'd hazard a WAG at a titanium alloy component.

How high did that last rocket of the Norks go? 6000kms? And it flew for an hour in total. Of all the countries I'd distrust with world safety, the Norks are right up there.

Somewhere in outer space, right about now, a Martian spacecraft is missing its lower landing thronomister, and they've had to activate their Martian Space Locator Beacon (MSLB) to call for Martian spacecraft backup.

There's some very worried and stressed-out Martians out there right at present, and I feel for them.

Seriously - stuff falling out of our sky is to be expected, given the huge amount of equipment we've launched up into Space since 1957, and given what intergalactic debris is already hanging around out there, that gets caught in our gravitational system.

https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/articles/surprised-while-sunbathing-on-binningup-beach

If this had gone through their roof, the couple might have had to do more than replace a tile, and fix a couple of holes in the roof and ceiling!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-12/four-decades-on-from-skylabs-descent-from-space/11249626