onetrack

Ceramic matrix composites appear to be the answer to the requirements for high temperature abilities in turbine engines. GE has spent US$1.5B on CMC development and the technology is steadily improving turbine performance.

https://www.ge.com/news/reports/hotter-air-ceramics-are-the-secret-to-lighter-faster-jet-engines

Sorry, KGW, I missed your mention of fuel thirstiness in your first post. I've been under the knife for eye surgery this week, and my vision hasn't been 100%, and still isn't, as I recover.

No-one has yet mentioned the big bugbear with turbine engines - their dreadful thirst. If you're going to develop a successful new fossil fuel engine today, it will at least have to have a serious, measurable improvement in fuel economy over a piston engine.

Pumping more air through a simple piston engine is a proven method of developing more power and efficiency - and todays automotive petrol engines are now coming out with twin turbos to extract the important fuel economy and power gains.

The new Stellantis GME T6 engine is a 3.0L twin-turbo petrol in-line 6, and it produces up to 425HP. The "standard" Jeep cast-iron block/alloy head 6.4L V8 only produces 470HP, even with variable valve timing.

The GME T6 engine is reportedly going to be offered as an "upgrade" to the 6.4L V8 in the Chrysler automotive products line.

We'll be seeing a lot more smaller piston petrol engines producing more power than superseded engines in the near future.

https://moparinsiders.com/our-first-look-at-the-all-new-twin-turbo-3-0-liter-gme-t6-inline-six-engine/

Forgive me for thinking that it's made clear to all and sundry, who ride in "experimental: aircraft, that the ride risk is far higher than certified aircraft - thanks to the large plate affixed inside the cabin that states the aircraft is not built to the same standards as a certified aircraft. The vast majority of people who ride in experimental aircraft seem to be happy to accept that statement and the higher risk that goes with it.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that even certified parts and components fail, too. The largest majority of certified aircraft have backup to major critical failures, but there are plenty of components in them that have no backup, either.

If your fully certified IO-520 "hangs a leg out of bed", thanks to a manufacturing flaw that wasn't picked up, you're in not much different position as Skippy with a blown piece of plastic tubing in the cooling system.

Personally, I would shy away from plastic or even nylon tubing in the cooling system of an RA-Aus aircraft, and my preference would be for stainless tubing - because good coolant additives suppress any corrosion potential between dissimilar metals.

He doesn't look anything like that now - so be warned, if you fancy following his style!

Producing a new small turboprop engine for light aircraft right about now, is the equivalent of producing a new and improved hot air balloon in 1919, as an alternative to powered flight.

Now, if it was a 200HP electric motor with a new lightweight battery propelling it to sustained high speeds, then I think the general aviation audience would then have their eyes properly open, and be all ears.

16 hours ago, turboplanner said:

I saw the tail fin of a C210 up close sliding from left to right across my windscreen so gracefully when I was inbound from a Moorabbin reporting. Almost clipped  him with my wing.

And of course, in the airprox report, the final summary said you were primarily at fault, because you didn't practice keeping a proper lookout .....

.....in letting him drive the big broom, telling him it took "special" people to drive brooms - and that if he was very good with the big broom, one day he would even let him sit in the seat of a Drifter, and he could then make "brrrooom", "broooom" noises and pull on all the levers and handles he liked - except that what Cappy didn't know, was that Turbo had disabled any possibility of an engine start, just in case......

There are other versions, too ....

https://www.holidaymag.co.uk/mikes-blog/face-painting-for-aircraft

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For a host of reasons – reliability and user data privacy being the big ones – we are not looking to make our traffic data available externally.

And right there in that statement, is the guaranteed eventual death of OzRunways - just as online newspapers that try to charge you a constant monthly fee just to look at the low-grade, biased, badly edited, reproduced crap they write, will eventually die a slow death.

The newspapers information is largely available for free elsewhere, and no-one likes to pay for "exclusive" information that isn't particularly exclusive at all.

Neither Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Mozilla, or the dozen other leading hosters of internet information and knowledge, keep their information and knowledge secret for the general public.

They found a way to pay for their systems vias ads or voluntary contributions, without charging the users, and accordingly, all these internet giants are worth up to hundreds of billions, and are ubiquitous - and still free for users, and providing those users with information the users desire - and which free information makes the users keep coming back.

....put bull off his lunch, which he threw overboard as soon as he realised what was in his lunchbox. But while bull was going hungry, Turbo and Cappy were feasting in style again, as a result of their shorting the Russian Rouble. They cleaned up every time another sanction on Russia was applied.

Over another glass of Mumm Cordon Rouge, Turbo said to Cappy, "You know, I'm thinking about making a takeover bid for some of the Ukrainian aircraft manufacturers, now that they're under pressure, and half their staff are off repelling those nasty Rooskies. What do you reckon about an Antonov takeover, and we can........

.......the Victim plane leaves at 08:00HRS sharp, from Gate number 43!! Anyone who is not on it, will be regarded as..............."

Quote

If you ever get to Christmas Island you won't get a joyflight around the island. I was wondering why until I looked into the charges.

Basically a light plane is charged the same as a 20T airplane per movement.

I can understand that someone with say a 4-seater or a chopper, would be keen to find a market in the tourism industry on Christmas Island for joyflights around the Island - because there's basically only one beach, and the few "roads" around the Island are actually just overgrown tracks, where the crabs will mug you at every chance.

However, it's not just light aircraft landing fees on Christmas Island (or Cocos-Keeling Islands either, too) that are the cost problem.

The cost problem with these Islands is that because they're Australian Territories and each has to be supplied from Australia - and the nearest "resupply" port is regarded as being Fremantle - virtually everything that goes to these Islands has to be shipped in by sea - from Fremantle - and only one company has the contract to do this.

As a result, the cost of everyday items on these Islands is over-the-top - and the shipping is only done every few weeks - and the shipping is limited in size, thanks to the limitations of the jetties at each of the Islands. There is only one public jetty and one landing access point at Christmas Island. The other jetty is a dedicated phosphate mine loading point.

Commercial flights to both Islands are now down to 2 a week, and each flight has severe limitations on what they can carry by way of freight. The flights rarely have empty seats. A few perishables make it to the Islands on each flight - but typically, a lettuce costs around $10-12 at each Island, and fuel cost is more than double the cost of what is, here in Australia.

On Cocos-Keeling, the Govt decided the jetty needed an upgrade in 2008, because the old one was falling down and it couldn't handle anything much by way of heavy items. The initial costing was $28M for the new jetty - it ended up costing $43M by the time it was completed in 2011! And that only got them a basic concrete jetty. They have two mobile cranes for unloading containers and heavy items.

To give you an idea of the problems, the Govt abandoned a 15 tonne Caterpillar dozer in good condition on Cocos, left to rot alongside the new jetty - because it was deemed uneconomic to ship it back to the mainland.

So, in this context, landing fees would actually be the least of the problems of any joyflight tourism operator on these Islands. Parts, service, maintenance, the cost of Island living, and a limited labour force would be the major costs and hurdles. The Islands grow little food (apart from coconuts) because of their poor soils.

This seems a little counter-intuitive, because Christmas Island exports bulk rock phosphate - but the phosphate is locked into the rock, and has to be mined, whereas all the Islands topsoils are actually quite infertile.

The stupidity of the Islands supply arrangements can be viewed in the context that Cocos-Keeling Islands are only 900km from Indonesia - but they're 2700kms from Fremantle. The cost of shipping one 20 foot shipping container to Cocos-Keeling is now around about $10,000 - so that's on top of the cost of the 20 tonnes of goods inside. Let alone the 6 week wait while your goods are shipped.

http://islandshipping.blogspot.com/2013/10/cocos-keeling-islands.html

.....provide navigation instructions to the nearest aerodrome. Unfortunately, bull was still learning how to read ticker-tape encoding - which of course, entails abbreviations that makes bulls thread additions look positively effusive.

What made it worse, the ticker tape abbreviated already abbreviated aviation terms, which was like reading Scrabble results with half the tiles missing. Nonetheless, bull gritted his teeth and continued with the ticker tape lessons, and finally he........

For $545 a day (and night), I can lodge in a 5-star hotel with every comfort on tap, and be waited on hand and foot, and have valet parking included in the deal.

This is price-gouging on a scale that makes military hardware supply look like excellent value for money.

Look on eBay Australia for "Silicone hose 90° 19mm" - or "Rubber hose 90° 19mm" - or on sites such as Sparesbox.com.au. Silicone hose is infinitely more durable than rubber, but it doesn't like being in contact with petrol.

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=silicone+hose+90°+19mm&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=Silicone+hose+90°&_osacat=0

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=rubber+hose+90°+19mm&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=rubber+hose+90°&_osacat=0

https://www.sparesbox.com.au/search?Category[0][0]=Engine%2C Cooling %26 Drivetrain&Category[1][0]=Universal Fittings%2C Hoses %26 Accessories

Automotive Superstore is another useful supplier - although their site search engine is utterly useless and designed by clueless IT people.

However, if you type "hose" into the search menu, the drop down menu that appears has the choice of "radiator hose" or "silicone hose". You can't search by hose diameter though, you have to just scroll through the results.

https://automotivesuperstore.com.au/

That "tail end of bush" contained terrain in excess of 700M elevation (Mt Disappointment is 800M, Blairs Hut is 729M elevation) - and this terrain was reported as being in low cloud cover on the day of the crash.

The second helicopter travelling with the crash helicopter reported an alarm when the crash helicopter "did not re-appear after entering low cloud" (in the region of Blairs Hut).

The primary indications are that weather conditions and piloting error will show up as the major factors in this crash, rather than any mechanical failure. It's not like Microflite ran junk for aircraft, they have a top class fleet, and a good record.

The bottom line is, the eyeball Mk 1 and the human attached to it is extremely fallible, and nowhere near as competent as good quality electronic devices.

In every MAC report, the investigators include reams of paragraphs about the major limitations of "see and avoid".

In every MAC crash report, especially the ones in clear visibility conditions, there is always the lines that the pilots did not see the other aircraft, despite often looking for it.

Add in a bit of piloting casualness with regard to precisely and quickly establishing the whereabouts of the other aircraft, that is potentially on a collision course, and you've got the recipe for an MAC.

Add in the problems of a descending aircraft that is going through constant and steady altitude changes - then add in aircraft that have decided to change their heading without communication advice - then add in missed calls because of cockpit workload, or because of radio transmissions made at the same time - then you have outstanding potential for an MAC.

Remember that missed critical radio transmissions, or interference with critical radio transmissions have featured very large in some of the worlds worst air disasters - including Tenerife.

Accordingly, any reliable electronic anti-collision device you can add to your aircraft, has to vastly reduce your chances of having an MAC, due to all of the above. 

Even relying on radar and ATC has its limitations, as described in the Mangalore crash. When regularly competent 10,000hr and 20,000hr pilots and instructors die in MAC's, because they had no reliable electronic guidance, it shows up the fallibility of human control of aircraft over MAC potential.

One has to remember that the decision to install TCAS on all RPT aircraft was driven solely by America's worst MAC in modern times, between a B727 and a Cessna - Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182.

144 people lost their lives thanks to a multitude of errors, not the least of which was the Cessna pilots believing that any RPT aircraft in close proximity would sight them and avoid them.

....flat lice noodles, which gives you rions boundless energy! We also do very, very special dish with lion penis! Not quite as good as tiger penis soup, but rions more readily available, when your restaurant is sited crose to circus!!"

"I think you're getting Vietnamese and Chinese cultures mixed up", said the cameraman. "And besides, we're still looking for live and active lions, not diced and sliced and cooked lions!"

"Sollee, I cannot help", said FWT, "I no see circus rion come this way!"

"That can't be true!", said the cameraman, "I saw him run into......

23 hours ago, APenNameAndThatA said:

Seriously, the RPT has 170 passengers and two pilots. They had proportionally more responsibility. 

O.K. - So, you're flying a light aircraft at 600kg maximum weight, with maybe 100kt maximum cruise, and an ability to take quick evasive action - yet you insist an RPT doing 250kts and weighing around 40 tonnes say, has a greater responsibility to spot you, and get out of your way? 

You sound like the car driver who cuts in front of a road train, and then brakes, expecting them to avoid you, "because they're professionals" - or the sail boat operator who insists he has right of way over a bulk tanker on intersecting courses, "because the rules say power gives way to sail".

I would've thought a good RA pilot, when planning and carrying out a flight route relatively close to an airport that is used by RPT, would continually check on the potential flight path conflict involved with any arriving or departing RPT aircraft around that airport.

But I guess the world still contains plenty of people who think they're the only ones using that section of road, water, or airspace, for miles around, and who regularly fail to keep up a proper level of alertness.

I have a policy that has stood me in good stead for decades. "Might is right" - and I greatly respect and give wide berth to those who are in control of large chunks of metal travelling at high speeds, with their resultant inability to make major course corrections rapidly, due to their weight, size, and speed. 

......made Mike grab his chainsaw and start it up and wave it around. The audience went wild, this was a great Clown performance - particularly when Chopper tripped over his elongated shoes, and fell flat on his face, with the angle grinder still spinning at 12,000RPM.

The angle grinder hit a railing and sparks went everywhere, delighting the audience - but it was when the hot metal sparks landed on the sawdust in the ring that things got.......

10 hours ago, lee-wave said:

Agree ...  I regularly pass underneath Gatwick approach traffic with less then 500 ft separation.   

You appear to be missing the important factor in the Jab airprox incident - ATC is watching you carefully every inch of the way at Gatwick, and the SE of the U.K. - in the Jabs case, there was no ATC watching, separation was dependent on alert pilots and competence on the Jab pilots part, in understanding the level of risk involved in a mid-air with an RPT aircraft along his planned route.

This episode is disquieting on many fronts. The pilot of the Jab appears to be in need of remedial training.

1. He appears to have a poor understanding of the operation and modes of his transponder.

"The transponder fitted to 24-7456 was capable of operating in mode 3A and 3C. In mode 3A (ON), the equipment would transmit the configured transponder code only. In mode 3C (ALT) the
equipment would transmit the aircraft’s altitude in addition to the configured transponder code. The pilot of 24-7456 had elected to set the transponder to mode A only, so the altitude of the aircraft was not being transmitted.

The pilot incorrectly believed there were no requirements relating to the use of modes 3A and 3C."

2. Despite transiting the same area frequently (8 times a year), he was unaware of radio phraseology used by commercial airline crews.

"The pilot reported being unfamiliar with the radio phraseology commonly used by passenger transport flight crew, including reference to waypoints such as OPESO."

3. The pilot of the Jab appears to place a casual reliance on inadequate radio calls, not appearing to realise that missed calls are frequent, and not broadcasting his position more frequently when he should have known he was transiting known commercial flight paths. He missed important radio calls. He seems to be unaware that commercial flights use Ballina-Byron frequently. The reliance on visual contact with commercial flights is totally inadequate, I wouldn't like to try and spot a commercial airliner on descent crossing my flight path at 400+ kts. Trying to make visual contact with a high speed commercial aircraft closing at an angle is an even worse proposition. It seems the pilot of the Jab is too reliant on commercial aircraft avoiding him. The workload on the Jetstar crew would have been high, preparing for landing, the last thing they need is an RA aircraft tooling through their path with a casual attitude.

Note that the Jetstar crew still failed to see the Jab early in the piece, and when they finally did, it was far too late to take evasive action.

.....the Ringmaster and Charlie McColl both collided (because they were both looking in different directions - and therein lies a pertinent warning, dear aviators), knocking each other out cold, and bringing the show to a grinding halt.

It was at that stage, that Itchy and Scratchy the Clowns decided they'd better take the Show over - thus leading to that old, well-known saying, "they were running a three-ring circus" (a frequent saying in a number of flight school operations) - and the audience was......

.....this stuff that OT is producing beats anything I've thought up so far - so Turbine Industries is going to have to redouble its efforts to match OT's high-tech product!"

However, what wasn't widely known, was that the Boundary Rider was one Josiah Aloysius Turbine, and this is why and how Turbo is so familiar with the BR's story.

Josiah became known as the "Lizard Man", and along with the weatherbeaten, parched, crusty and burr-toughened skin (that all the Turbine family descendants are now well-known for) which matched his name, plus the long fingernails and toenails that he never trimmed (another Turbine family habit that was hard to break), Josiah was a natural choice for Ashtons Travelling Circus - where he became a favourite of the circus-goers. 

Josiah would come running into the main tent and scramble straight up the main tent pole, without a shred of climbing equipment, harness, or anything to assist him. Once up the top of the pole, he would just stop dead-still, and not even flinch a muscle or move an eyeball. The circus-goers were encouraged to throw things at him, to try and make him run down the pole again, but all that did was........