onetrack

It's 1980-81 all over again - with the double whammy of gas supplies being curtailed as well. Most of Asia runs on natural gas, with Qatar being the worlds largest supplier of NG. When oil prices go ballistic, gas prices follow. The next thing you can look forward to, is "there is no fuel - so supplies will be rationed to critical services". This almost happened in 1980-81, we were told we soon wouldn't be able to get any fuel. It's all fear factor, nothing like generating fear to send prices ballistic, and to create long lines at servos. In 1980-81, all heavy users invested in massive levels of fuel storage. Some of my farmer clients purchased 50,000 litre fuel tanks. The biggest concern is that an oil price through the roof generates a substantial increase in inflation. Watch for tyre prices going up 25-30% soon, because oil is a major constituent of tyres. Synthetic clothing, the same. Even Chinese-produced products will soon start becoming much more expensive, simply because of oil and gas prices. I went to buy a packet of my favourite bacon yesterday, the price has gone from $7 to $8 in just the last week. All groceries will soon follow the same trend. What we could do, is start up an AI-controlled load movement system, ensuring no trucks run empty. I see roadtrains by the hundreds, still running the highways, empty. What a waste of fuel that is. There is absolutely nothing any Australian politician can do about keeping a lid on fuel prices, or increasing availability. Their lack of vision and planning over decades, even to the extent of having low levels of fuel reserves, is showing up now.

Moneybox, you'd better invest in some decent tiedowns if you don't get home early, the forecast surface winds from that cyclone are going to be 90-100kmh, throughout the wheatbelt. See the Saturday forecast. https://reg.bom.gov.au/wa/forecasts/northam.shtml

New pilots keep coming along on a constant basis, and they keep making the same old mistakes!

And even more fun - you can jump out the back of one with a stolen $200,000 - and never get caught, either!! 😄

I wonder if this model aircraft automatically swoops on any open bags of chips? 💭

Baz might be looking for a spare for his Colonial Viper?? 😄

They're highly sought after by the 2001 Space Odyssey fans for models of the Orion space clipper controls. 2001 - A Space Odyssey | OK Brains trust! The 2001 chest pack control... WWW.FACEBOOK.COM OK Brains trust! The 2001 chest pack control handle is made from which aircraft part? I sort of think it might be the joystick from a Canberra bomber but I'm sure someone can set me right!

Ian, it's a control handle from a Gloster Meteor F8. Scroll down the page below for more photos. https://www.historicflyingclothing.com/en-GB/raf-aircraft-parts/gloster-meteor-f8-control-grip/prod_21647 Here's the Gloster Meteor cockpit photo.

Take a chill pill, you blow up at the slightest thing, that you see as a personal attack. Most threads get diverted to different aims to the original post.

You'd have to rate him pretty well up the list for a Darwin Award. There's no forgiveness for shortcuts in flying aeroplanes - especially when that shortcut is to leave out a check for water in the fuel.

Manufacturing processes are refined to reduce cost and increase speed of production. Crimped connections do just that. Manufacturers abhor processes such as soldering, that would slow down production and increase costs. Then there's the long-term health effects of full-time soldering with solder containing lead. All radiator repairers now have very strict checks on their employees blood lead levels, when they have been carrying out soldering processes for extended periods. In fact, quite a number of radiator repairers now refuse to repair soldered radiators, and most passenger and light commercial radiators today have crimped plastic end tanks. And of course, there's also the additional problem that less and less people today want soldering jobs as a full time job.

Printed circuit boards are all soldered! Should we now be requesting that all PCB manufacturers revert to crimped connections! 😄

The Tenerife disaster was caused by a simple lack of checking with ATC, that the B747 was actually cleared for takeoff, when they were lined up, and radio traffic was overloaded, and messages were becoming garbled and spoken over. There was cockpit confusion in the B747, and the Capt was a "go-go" merchant who was itching to firewall the throttles, and he didn't wait for clear instructions for takeoff clearance. He just assumed they were cleared for takeoff. Communications clarity, and asking for takeoff verification when unsure of instructions, would have to be the primary aims in ATC-pilot communications.

Well, if they were refuelling a Kenworth pulling a road train, $480 worth of fuel would barely move the fuel gauge.

Lucky you've got a gold mine to finance your fuel requirements, Moneybox! Most of us are sitting here, watching our limited funds get savaged by oil companies, and oil futures traders!

I was under the impression that canard wing setups were abandoned about the same time as wing warping, because a better design was thought up. If canards were such fantastic, award-winning designs, perhaps we'd have see more on regular commercial aircraft? Unsurprisingly, they only turn up on odd occasions, when someone advertises that they've thought of a new brilliant idea in aircraft design, and have produced a prototype or experimental model. A number of decades ago, there was a father-and-son team in W.A. (Deryck and Neil Graham), who were in business as "Composite Technology", who were convinced their Eagle 150 canard aircraft design was the dux nutz, and proceeded to manufacture a number of them. This was in the late 1980's, but by the late 1990's, with very few orders for their exotic machine forthcoming, they sold the design and manufacturing rights to the Eagle 150, to the Malaysians. The Malaysians poured multiple tens of millions more into the design, and they only ever sold a few more of the aircraft to their "captive" customer, the Malaysian Air Force - thus proving that the design is not world-beating, nor is it in demand. Composites Technology Research Malaysia has now become CTRM Holdings and provides a composites manufacturing facility for a few of the global aircraft manufacturers, manufacturing some of the composite components that go into the likes of Airbus and Boeing commercial aircraft. Canard aircraft production hardly rates a mention in Malaysia now. https://ctrm.com.my/our-offerings/ There are three military fighters that do use the canard design to a certain extent - the Saab Gripen, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Dassault Rafale. However, I suspect the addition of the canard to these three fighters, has little to do with any anti-stall characteristics of the canard, but more to do with assisting the delta wing with better control and lift, especially at low speeds.

In defence aircraft spending terms, "low cost" to produce, means a figure of around $20M to $40M. But I'm sure Martys got that amount hanging around the house in loose change. 😄

Note to Cappy - OT has a hide like a rhinoceros, but is more affable than one, so no worries there. It is good to see that Cappy has been watching lots of cat videos, these are obviously very soothing to his frazzled nerves, after associating with Turbo for extended periods.

Cleaning a soldered joint after doing the soldering is important to prevent flux residue from causing corrosion. Flux residue is acidic and draws in moisture, thus starting the corrosion bugbear. It's especially important when low voltage and low amperage levels are involved. Brushing the soldered joint in clean water and then applying an evaporative solvent works for me. Then installing heat shrink finishes the job, and produces a professional-looking finish that seals the joint fully.

Aunty Jacks precise words were "I'll rip yer bloody arms off!"

........call on 50,000 cane toads from his cane toad farm, for backup, anytime. The Mango Thieves took to their heels, and scattered into the mountains around Bone. Bull's cackling laughter echoed around those hills as they fled, as he thought about what to do next. He thought about an aerial drop (long-overdue avref) of cane toads from his Jackaroo, onto the heads of the fleeing Mango thieves, but decided against it, as it could be too hard to find them in that jungle terrain. Instead, Bull decided it was time to start........................

.........dug out their ration pack cans they'd previously buried in the sand, tore the tops off the cans with their teeth, and enjoyed a hot lunch in the middle of nowhere. As soon as they finished lunch, they turned their attention to the next pressing problem, which was............

.....even W.A.'s Premier (who lives there) fears to tread. It was in this cut-throat, dangerous environment, that some of Australia's finest men were produced. Men who could tell instantly if an approaching individual was "friend or foe". Men who could spot a bulge in clothing that meant trouble - big trouble - or not. It was no error of geography that led to the SAS barracks being established at Swanbourne, because these heroes were first found in W.A. These were no "cut lunch commandos", these men were the real thing, and they shipped the weaklings in from the East, to try and bring them up to the standards of the West Australian heroes, amongst the massive Swanbourne sand dunes. OT has climbed many of these sand dunes (especially after he found the nude beach there), and he now knows why the SAS were feared worldwide, after they were seen making short work of those dunes. It was during one particularly hot day, that OT climbed a massive Swanbourne dune and spotted a large collection of..................

The bottom line is, there are very very few aircraft - factory built or home/kit built - that actually fall apart once airborne, due to construction faults that affect the aircrafts integrity. The vast majority of aircraft that suffer mid-air structural breakup, do so because the pilot makes a serious error in aircraft handling, or exceeds VNE, or the aircraft was improperly maintained, leading to shedding of panels/components. Then there are the landing/takeoff upsets that cause loss of the aircraft, and that is probably around 90% pilot error, with the other 10% being engine failures, some of which are maintenance or assembly errors - and some, outright mechanical failure.

...........said, "These blokes live in Fantasy Land! They couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag! The only fighting they've done, is with the demons in their nightmares! They shouldn't be allowed near anything more dangerous than a rubber sword!!" bull was a bit appalled at OT's outburst. "Geez, that's a bit rough on Cappy and Alex, they thought their trip to the Spratleys was all sewn up, now you're saying they shouldn't even pick up a weapon? How are we going to take part in this Iranian stoush, if we don't have some decent military blokes step up to the plate?" "Look", said OT, "We've got a regular Army for that! I bet this pair even stamp out their own medals, out of aircraft they've crashed - probably using Turbine Medals and Great Military Awards Inc! You know how they keeping talking about 'wise men from the East'? - well, I can tell you this much, there was a lot of crap written in the early days, and there are no wise men in the East, they all came from the West, and............