onetrack

Doesn't sound like a good position for a fuel tank to me. In the back of my mind, you always need to be aware of what might happen in a crash - and having a fuel tank some distance away from yourself, and the engine, has to offer an improved level of safety. Even just being covered in raw petrol, without it actually being ignited, is painful.

......insulting behaviour. Accordingly, the giant yellow stuffed Tom was retired as a symbol of the Happy Cat restaurant chain, to be replaced by something better, that indicated Luck or Good Fortune.

Naturally, the choice of the new representative symbol had to go through the Politburo process, and it was important that the symbol be red or gold - as yellow really wasn't the best choice of colour, seeing as the Chinese still smart at being referred to as the "Yellow Peril".

Thus the reasoning behind the military buildup of China today, as it seeks to remedy the humiliating references via the "Yellow Peril" tag.

Meanwhile, back in W.A., it has been officially decided that no-one who has even been within 50kms of the NSW border, will ever stand a snowflakes chance in Hell of being allowed into W.A.

In fact, OT has suggested to Mark McGowan, that all New South Welshies be made to dress in sackcloth and ashes, be made to ring a bell, whilst crying out "UNCLEAN!! UNCLEAN!!, whilst walking the streets - and also be made to wear a large identifying mark (similar to a Star of David, but different enough for onlookers to be able to identify the difference between an unclean Jew, and an unclean New South Welshie).

This proposal, of course, was immediately rejected, loudly and in an outraged manner, by Cappy, who would be directly affected.

"It's bad enough being declared an unclean person, without being made to wear clothing and artifacts that offend my sense of good dress!" he exclaimed.

"Everyone knows I shower at least once a month, so how could I be declared unclean? It's an outrageous proposal, and I..........

How about someone recommend that all CASA operations be "outsourced" to private enterprise, to realise major efficiency gains? 

After all, the Govt regularly does the same to many other public services, in the name of "efficiency" and "reducing costs".  Or is the sacred cow called CASA untouchable, when it comes to efficiency gains, and major cost savings?

One argument could be, that as the airline industry has slumped to about 30% of its former size, then perhaps CASA needs to go on a similar size-reduction exercise?  

.....little Red Book is commonly used to log flight expenses". "But the Party picks up the tab for flying this new Wing, doesn't it?", said Aul Wing Wong, looking puzzled.

"No, as part of new Cost Recovery laws (we have been looking at CASA operations), the Party is no longer picking up the tab for flyboys who tear around the airways at Govt expense!"

"This is all designed to ensure that every good Party member understands how much things such as aviation costs, and they have to try to reign in unnecessary costs, to improve our countrys finances!"

Aul Wing Wong looked disappointed. "This could mean that the Wing never flies, if every pilot has to pay his own way?", he said, with his disappointment clear to see.

"It's O.K., said the Prez. "I will fix the problem by ensuring the pilots salaries are raised, so they can afford to fly the Wing! We need this new design to be flown regularly, so we can harrass the USAF in the Taiwan Strait!"

"President", said the Deputy PM tactfully. "This idea may not work in the manner you have planned, simply because.........

Isn't there a good Sikaflex structural adhesive available as an option? - such as Sikaflex 292i? That product will cope with 90°C.

.....the Knob they all call Turbo? You know, the bloke who starts up companies at the sound of a drop of a dollar note?"

Xi Jinping interrupted. "You're missing the thrust of the current CCP policy. We need to build up the Chinese Air Force (seriously overdue avref), with new and improved designs, to combat the increasing aggressiveness of Australia".

To that end, they called in Aul Wing Wong, the famous Chinese aerodynamics designer, who excitedly outlined his plans for a new Flying Wing (avref) to beat the B-2.

"With this new design, with electronics provided by Xioami, and a power unit provided by Haval, we have a clear winner over American air superiority!" he stated proudly.

"What's wrong with multiple DJI electric motors?" inquired the Deputy Premier. "After all, we have to present a Green image to the global community, even if we are initiating WW3, and our intent is on conquering the world!"

"We tried the DJI motors. They're crap", snorted Aul Wing Wong. "We sell them to the rest of the world, because they're crap, that we can't sell here in China!".

Jinping stared at the new design long and hard. "I see some problems", he said. "Firstly, that the Haval is.......

.....the only thing stopping Turbo from pulling the chicks is his abominably ugly face, and his chrome dome - but we have full-head masks for that as well, so he should gain some advantage in them."

"I think you've been out of Japan for too long", said Cappy to Nob. "You've lost the art of speaking correct Japanese. For a start, 'Kanzai' is a treasure hunter, one of the Anime characters - a member of the Zodiacs, using the codename 'Tiger'. You did get 'Ichiban" right, it  means 'Number One', or 'the best'.

But I think you actually mean to say 'Banzai Ichiban', which would probably be more correct, when referring to Turbo - he always has thought he's an Emperor in his own right, and being referred to as 'Number One Emperor', really appeals to his ego. So much so, that he now plans to have........

.... a souvenir of their retirement trip to Honolulu. The tail is not only a souvenir, it can be used, strapped to their backs when swimming, as a way to ensure they have the beach to themselves.

The Japanese were eternally grateful to Turbo for making their Honolulu trip so enjoyable, they actually erected a statue to him in Kesennuma.

But the sculptor, an old bloke who had his own ideas of what a statue of Turbo should look like, built the statue of Turbo, holding a Tuna!

The local Japanese were dismayed, they didn't want Turbo holding a Tuna, they wanted him holding a Shark! So they agreed to.........

(and for those dear NES readers, many of whom have probably never been to Kesennuma, here is the waterfront statue of renown - Turbo gripping a big fat Tuna, while he wields a whip on the workers under him.)

No fear of any grain export shortage here in the West. We are well on track to exceed 20M+ tonnes of total grain production for W.A. this season, on top of the record 18M tonne harvest, last season.

I have not seen seasons like last year and this year, since the 1960's boom wet years. We are going to run out of grain storage ability unless the shipping rate is increased and also kept up until the end of the calendar year.

Even as it is now, we already have large overflow grain storage areas at receival points that are nothing more than grain stored on asphalt and covered with heavy tarps. We'll be running out of room there, too.

Fortunately for Australia, a lot of America is in bad drought, and quite a few European grain producing nations are also struggling with poor seasons. 

...they were looking for a decent supply of Haval engines after investing heavily in a Turbine Aero distributorship, selling Evo52's. This was proving to be a poor investment for the said Kiwis, as the number of Evo52's left flying, were in direct proportion to the increasing number of angry Evo52 owners, who all reckoned they'd been sold a dog. 

Many of these disgruntled Kiwi Evo52 owners were now going past the dealers, when they realised who the instigator of the problem was, and they were baying for Turbo's blood - and some skin - and an arm and leg, too.

Turbo decided it was time to make himself scarce, and catch an early flight to.......

Be thankful you all got clear notice, and didn't incur substantial costs, followed by disappointment. Many people (myself included) have had a costly year, with booking cancellations, being locked up in quarantine, being locked down multiple times, and generally being stuffed around with every second set of plans I make. We won't be clear of this stop-start economy until the majority of the population are vaccinated, and even then, there will still be a risk of new virus mutations.

The three were charged with breaching S.A.'s Emergency Management Act, appeared in court, were released on $500 bail each, and kicked out of S.A.

They flew back to Broken Hill, and claimed they didn't think they did anything wrong. Just "didn't think", is probably more like what applies to them.

They tried to land at Uluru after leaving Coober Pedy, and were refused disembarkation, so they flew back to Coober Pedy.

People who came into contact with them had to self-isolate. A pretty thoughtless and self-absorbed trio, all round. But that's pretty common with the "selfie set".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/nsw-trio-order-to-leave-sa-after-alleged-border-breach-in-plane/100248524

Here's an interesting take on the secondhand plans problem - a post on FB by a licenced Australian kit aircraft supplier. He does bring up a couple of important points - both affecting him - and the plans buyer.

Quote

PIRATE PLANS.

It has come to my attention that a group called the BuildandFly Shop is selling pirated plans for many sport aircraft including the Karatoo. This group is based in Russia, and are fleecing both purchasers and companies alike.

While the plans are cheap (they send you PDFs of the plans), it could cost you big time when it comes getting your aircraft registered.

You could well be asked to pay for the full list price of what a set of plans cost, from the original copyright holder (in the case of the Australian Karatoo, this is Serenity Aviation).

You also do NOT RECEIVE ANY SAFETY NOTIFICATIONS IF REQUIRED. An example of this is the Spacewalker Shock Strut failure, and subsequent inspection requirements.

Please only deal with the copyright owners when buying plans. We are the ones who pay out big money for rights to these aircraft.

Best regards and safe flying.

Neale Dunstan
Serenity Aviation Pty Ltd.

And the offending site is listed below. It looks good and provides a lot of interesting stuff - but at the end of the day, it's all pirated, there's no support, and the site is liable to disappear overnight.

In fact, everything on the site is pirated - the text has been stolen and copied, the photos have been stolen and reposted - all despite the various copyright markings and watermarks. 

Of course, there's a huge difference between buying a pirated set of plans from Russian schemers, as compared to buying a set of plans off a local you know, where you can be assured the plans are complete.

And many an aircraft owner has been left in the lurch when a manufacturer has folded, and the manufacturer information and support has vanished.

But the point about safety notifications (and upgrades, and other manufacturer information) - while the manufacturer is current, and still operating - is well taken.

https://buildandfly.shop/product/karatoo-j6/

Yes, the CEO of BlackFly has gone onto the Hydundai payroll, to ensure the Hyundai flying car dream comes to reality. I, also, believe there are major regulatory, infrastructure, training, and controls systems hurdles to overcome, that will not be addressed in the short term.

Hyundai seem to think they can have their flying car marketable by 2028. I think that's quite optimistic, but the Koreans don't lack dedication and perseverance.

However, I would envisage the eventual market would be small, and the final product quite costly - little different to business jets, really.

I wish them luck. I have about 20 yrs left on this planet if I'm fortunate, and I don't believe I will see flying cars as a mass market, and in daily use by tens of thousands of people, in my remaining lifetime.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/doj-fines-boeing-over-2point5-billion-charges-it-with-fraud-conspiracy-over-737-max-crashes.html

Ooohh, such sensitivity. I wasn't "bashing" America as a nation, I was pointing out their track record over the last few decades is not as good as it could've been.

And Boeing management was deficient in morals and ethics and plenty of American journalists have stated exactly that. And they paid out US$2.5B to ensure there was no criminal investigation into the behaviour of their corporate leaders.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/doj-fines-boeing-over-2point5-billion-charges-it-with-fraud-conspiracy-over-737-max-crashes.html

Meanwhile, back in Australia, if just one of my employees gets killed on the job, due to my negligence and desire for fast profits, and lack of serious attention to safety, I can go to jail for a very long time.

Garfly, it was simply a comparison. We need more Kruegers and Torodes. BlackFly has yet to reach commercial success, but they certainly have a large emphasis on innovation.

China's figures for COVID-19 deaths have to be suspect, surely? It's the place where it started, and they refused to even acknowledge it existed, for at least 3 months??

In late 2019, the Chinese Govt claimed reports of a highly contagious disease spreading rapidly were mischievious, and even jailed the doctor responsible for sounding the alarm.

COVID-19 was developing in China in October 2019, and now the experts are saying it was probably in existence before that date.

And so many of those 3rd world countries figures must also be highly suss.

These places have poor reporting and recording abilities, and people just die by the hundreds, without them even being examined, or the reasons that they died, being officially recorded. 

I think Skippy has a good point. The U.S. is struggling with innovation as regards new designs, and European design is winning out.

And a lot of American technological failures are because the companies are short-term monetary-greed-focused, with a failure to have long-term vision as how their short-term greed impacts on their clients firstly, then themselves, secondly.

Nothing could offer up a better example of that, than the Boeing-Airbus comparison. Boeings greed and short-term "fast buck" outlook, coupled with a failure to consider the overall impact of their faulty decision-making, shows corporate America has poor training for CEO's and senior managers, and a general lack of ethics and morals, and management that is substandard across a wide range of industries. Airbus has been the winner in this race for product superiority and customer confidence.

The fact that GM went from the world's largest, most profitable corporation, and a highly respected manufacturer in 1955, to bankruptcy in 2009, shows the paucity of American corporate management.

American corporate management has avoided innovation and technological improvement, because they're more focused on who they can shaft in a corporate raid, than they are on making money from inventing and manufacturing improved products.

....sales soared - for the first two months. On the third month, numerous buyers suddenly realised, the engines in their Haval utes were identical to the engines in their Evo52's - which provided the major reason why only 7% of the Evo52's still in existence, were still in running order.

When we say "still in existence", there appeared to be quite a number of Evo52's that caught fire mysteriously in hangers when unattended. Another sizeable number had doors and panels fall off - in flight.

When it was further revealed in the incident investigations, that the wiring harness in the Evo52 - and the doors - and a large number of body panels - were all shared with the Haval ute, that a collective roar of outrage was heard to develop amongst the Evo52 owners.

It wasn't looking good for Turbo right about that point, so he called up Scotty (the best marketing expert currently available - just look at the pups he's sold the Australian public!), and said, "Scotty ol' buddy, ol' maaa-aate! I've got a slight problem that needs your deft marketing touch! How can I.............

Kind of reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw on an old early-model Kombi, many years ago - "Quit honking! I'm pedalling as fast as I can!!"

In this blokes case, he just wasn't pedalling fast enough, for long enough ..... 

......looked like a winner for Turbo - until it was found the major subcontract component suppliers were based in Mumbai, Jakarta and Johannesburg. This was all done at the previous managements institution of major-cost cutting moves, in order to provide better returns to shareholders.

Naturally, the previous management rewarded themselves with huge salary increases, thanks to the companys huge profitability increase - even though, not a single aircraft had yet left the production line.

There appeared to be serious QC problems with all the components already supplied, and the pallet racking in the warehouse was chock-full to the rafters with component boxes marked "REJECTED".

Once Turbo found out about this problem, he set about trying to solve it, in the fastest and cheapest manner. This involved re-labelling the component boxes with new labels, reading.......

I was watching the video of the story behind the Aeroflot 593 crash, where an A310 slammed into the ground after the Captain let his children play with the yoke, experimenting with giving them a "feel" for the aircraft.

After his son upset the aircrafts stability by pulling the yoke to the left and going into a steep bank - with none of the crew realising what was happening until it was too late - their frenzied efforts to regain control (against strong G-forces pinning them and stopping them from regaining their proper positions) were all for nought, as they couldn't grasp what was happening. Not a lot different to AF447, really.

But as the commentator outlined, if they hadn't overridden the automation with their incorrect control inputs, the aircrafts systems and autopilot would've made a satisfactory recovery on their own, anyway.

2 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

Australia has several empty mining towns with airport, lots of accommodation and facilities; easily turned into quarantine facilities. As well, we have similar facilities set up for refugees and illegals; why has our national government not made use of them?

Because the Federal Govt politicians set requirements for quarantine accommodation - such as "close to a major airport, "close to a major hospital", "close to major population centres", etc, etc.

None of these conditions are critical, it's typical pollies and public servants ideas that hold us back and which are out of line with any sensible persons thinking. In previous decades and centuries, quarantine areas were remote.

One thing's for sure - the city hotel quarantine accommodation has been a total disaster, every second case of COVID-19 was acquired whilst in quarantine.

Sweden has had 14,588 deaths (as of today) from COVID-19, with a population of 10,161,000.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

.....not paying their bills when they fall due. But I haven't been disbarred, only suspended! - and it's all a crock of shXX, anyway - that committee is full of DemonRats (at this, Ratty gasped under his breath) and they've got it in for us staunch Republicans and Trump supporters! The suspension will be overturned next week! I've never lost an appeal case yet! Besides, Donald will back me to the hilt and arrange to have those judges fired!"

As soon as the media vacated, Rudy was on the blower to his best mate, Turbo. "Turbs, ol' buddy, I need your help! Remember you promised to help me any time I was in trouble? Well, now I need your help like never before!"

Few NES readers know that Turbo owes a huge debt of gratitude to Rudy for getting him off a major felony charge when Turbo was arrested in NYC one time - many years ago.

It all started when Turbo shipped in a crate of...........