onetrack

Or the annoying American "short" ton of 2000lbs? An imperial ton is 2240lbs, and a metric tonne is 2204lbs. But the amazing thing is, every heavy weight (on land) in America is measured in lbs?

So rather than hauling 65 tons in your truck, you're hauling 130,000lbs!

But if you go to sea, the displacement of your U.S. Navy ship is in "long" (Imperial) tons! This was set in the 13th century and has not changed since!

The British dispensed with long tons in the Metric Weights & Measures Act of 1985 - but let all the other Imperial measures stay, as "optional" measurements for trade!

I also seem to recall the U.S. lost a very important Mars orbiter worth about $250M in 1999, due to metric/imperial measures confusion.

JPL used metric measures for all space programmes from 1990, but the satellite builder, Lockheed Martin, initially utilised American software that used psi for pressure calculations, which was supposed to be converted to the metric pascals.

The orbiter was going to orbit Mars and relay huge amounts of information relating to Mars weather, but it was accidentally sent into the gravitational field of Mars and burnt up, when the satellite control system was fed psi for pressure readings, instead of pascals.

https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/

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

There have also been numerous aviation accidents and near-disasters, with calculation errors relating to mixups between metric and imperial.

And I'd hate to count the number of destroyed threads and fasteners when people failed to carefully check thread pitches and thread types, upon re-assembly of components.

I still fail to understand why people pay absolutely vast sums of money to buy European ultralights.

Sure, they're slippery, but they're also lightweights, they come with the added burden of extraordinary parts and servicing costs, and there's never any immediately-available parts.

All that to gain some speed advantage? IMO, there are numerous locally-built aircraft and kits that have higher MTOW, simpler and more robust construction and components, and which provide far better value, for a lot less money spent.

I was going to start a camouflaged aircraft company.

But I just can’t see it taking off.

This bloke is showing photos of his Aeropup on a trailer, so it's obviously within gauge. However, an enclosed trailer is a different kettle of fish, you may be be struggling.

You could always contact the gentleman and discuss the width. Even though he's sold it, his contact details are still up.

https://www.planesales.com.au/details/Listing/Single-Engine-Propeller/6339/2010-Aeropup-Twin-Seat-Aircraft

.....come filled with leaves and unflyable, so this manoueuvre is best left to highly-trained professionals with a high-hour logbook and plenty of under-canopy flying experience.

But of course, this technique is also governed by the type of tree and the size of the canopy involved. Naturally, you wouldn't carry out an under-canopy wingover under a Wodjil - but a Moreton Bay Fig is a totally different scenario, and the Fig wingover is usually accompanied by the pilot yelling out, "I don't give a Fig about RAA or CASA rules!" as they carry out the manouevre, followed by.....

....talking and thinking about "overs", such as "noseover", "legover", "bendover", etc, etc.? "It's because I'm basically a great cricketing person", said Turdbro - "and I can only constantly relate to "overs", because they occupy such a large part of my life, and I'm trusting that I won't hear, 'It's all over, Red Rover', because that would be devastating for ......

Alan, there are covered structures and covered structures. There are Chinese-made ones and Australian-made ones.

There are ones with the cheapest fabric that they can find, and ones with covering material so tough, it's still good after 20 yrs out in the weather.

There are shelters with the cheapest tensioning arrangements you could ever see, and ones with tensioning arrangements that are designed to work and hold up against decent storms.

There are ones with the thinnest tubing that they can find that will hold up, until a good willy-willy comes through - or there are ones with real thickness in their tubing, that resist storm events.

There are structures with no end walls, so the wind howls straight through, and there are structures that come complete with end walls, so the wind doesn't scream straight through.

There are covered structures that are designed to be mounted on the top of containers, so you can have storage as well as cover. There are covered structures designed to just be attached to the ground.

I'm a little surprised that you don't know what you bought? Is this something you do often? I know I've occasionally bought a "crate of surprises", but not without generally having some idea of what's in there.

The Dome Shelters are regarded as the best you can buy, the mining companies buy a lot of them, for parts and component storage and for short-lifespan workshops (where they are dismantled, and then moved to another location).

https://www.domeshelter.com.au/

That video is nearly 7 years old! Surely you don't imagine, that in the COVID-19 era, the same level of fly-in activity is happening, as it was in 2013?

....my bike to the shops to get milk, she's always there! Then she wants to know everything about what I've been doing, so she can keep tabs on me! It drives me insane! I'm going to have to.......

....them back into the Middle Ages, where people who claimed to be able to fly, were tied to stakes and burnt as witches, which led most pilots to keep very quiet about their....

....besides, the "cone of silence" was behind the whole idea, and this would protect Turbo from any interrogation by CASA operatives, who were sure to be.....

I guess it's lucky M16A1 isn't in W.A. I regularly get stuck behind 100 tonne low loaders with mining gear on board, that are 4.5M wide, travelling at 70kmh, and have pilots front and rear.

Of course, the rear pilots are there to try and stop idiots from passing everything in sight, regardless of oncoming traffic.

I once had a woman in a Falcon overtaking my 100 tonne Drake low loader at 80kmh. The truck was doing 70kmh with a 100 tonne excavator on board.

She lost control after placing her RH wheels onto the gravel shoulder, swerved left into the front wheel of the Mack, and promptly rolled the Falcon.

She tore the front mudguard off the Mack, ripped off the steps, tore a hole in the fuel tank, and brought the entire equipment movement to a halt for 24 hrs.

All because she was in a tearing hurry, and didn't even have any basic vehicle control skills!

The brother was piloting the low loader once, coming out of Kalgoorlie, and ensuring oncoming cars would move over, as the load was well over 4M wide.

Then one oncoming car driver stopped dead, right in the middle of his lane, and complained to the brother, "But, THIS IS MY SIDE OF THE ROAD!!"

1966 it was, thanks Cyrano. I should have rechecked the year.

Willedoo - Colourisation of WW2 photos has been carried out for the last 25 or 30 years, and has speeded up since computers got bigger and better. Even WW1 images have been colourised with startling results.

There's even WW1 film footage that has been transferred to video and colourised. The footage is stunning.

There are thousands of these colourised WW2 images available today, from factory assembly photos, right through to battlefield and naval photos. Do a Google search using "WW2 photos colorised" and select images.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4976806/The-hell-Pacific-War-color.html

I dunno, my 450,000km 2.4L diesel Hilux cruises along quite happily at 75kmh with my 24' x 8' caravan hooked up. For people like M61A1, I've got the bumper decal that reads "SPEED ON MAD FOOL! HELL AIN'T FULL YET!" ?

I get the impression from the photos the entire tail structure (rotor, gearbox and driveshaft) tore away from the tail boom cone. So the suggestion is the tail boom cone structure failed catastrophically.

There are eyewitnesses who saw the tail rotor and gearbox fall off in flight shortly after takeoff.

But the ATSB are being very careful with the investigation and obviously want to find why the structure actually failed.

Bear in mind it underwent inspection and ground testing just prior to the crash, and nothing was found wrong.

But both the pilots picked up kickback vibration through the pedals in previous flights, and they were obviously interested in finding out why this was happening.

However, the fact that the engineers didn't carry out a hover test, with actual flight, seems to me to be a major inspection error.

One always tries to replicate the appearance of a problem or problems by testing as closely as possible to the actual conditions where they appear.

Then there's the possibility that cracking of the structure was overlooked in the hunt for a mechanical moving part that was being pinpointed as the potential problem.

I can recall a media Jetranger crash in central Sydney in the 1970's where the tail rotor failed catastrophically. It took the investigators quite a while to find that an important washer was missing from one of the tail rotor bolts.

They had to find whether the washer failed in flight and flew off, or if it was left off in recent repairs.

They then went through the rubbish bins at the maintenance facility and discovered the missing washer. It had inadvertently been missed and left off, upon re-assembly.

The ATSB has released a preliminary report on this crash today, and still nothing has been discovered as regards the cause of the crash.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2020/aair/ao-2020-033/

You don't want salt water being dropped on fires, it's toxic to both vegetation and soils - not to mention airframes and engines. In addition, many fires are distant from oceans, so water supplies closer to the fire are far more useful.

Australia has a major problem with availability of satisfactory water supplies for firefighting, unlike Canada and North America with the vast bodies of fresh water everywhere.

.... bull was intent on geting rid of his tired old Drifter to them, so went into overdrive on the sales speil. "Yep, I've flown from Caboolture to Hobart on a total of 15 litres, and saw 170 kts TAS on the trip!", he boasted.

He did fail to mention that most of the Drifters instruments were faulty, and the airspeed indicator wouldn't return to zero for the last 5 years.

"On top of that," bull went on, I'll guarantee the engine is good for another 2000hrs before overhaul, and the airframe has unlimited life!"

"That's pretty impressive," said one of the group, "But tell me, can you fit more seating? - because we need to carry more passengers than what the Drifter currently offers".

"Yair," said bull, "Not a problem, I'll get onto Turbine Entreprises, they specialise in this kind of stuff, why I believe they've even turned a Drifter into a firebomber, and they're currently planning a .....

From the news article below ....

" Overall, the need for repairs (to the Orions being retired) has begun to ramp up as the (Orion AP-3C) system approaches the end of its service life. Over the last four years, the team at RUAG Australia has applied 286 repairs at Bayswater, 242 repairs at Amberley, and 270 repairs at Airport West ."

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/key-enablers/5090-ruag-australia-polishes-sustainment-credentials-as-raaf-p-3c-orions-retire

In the final washup, simple economics dictate the cost of major airframe and component reconditioning on high hour 20 yr old aircraft, plus the added cost of conversion to firebomber, means the suggestion is not economically viable.

The money is better off being put towards the purchase or lease of dedicated firebombers that are based on low-hour, newer aircraft.

After all, firebombing involves a high level of duty cycles and high aircraft loadings, so you don't want tired old airframes doing the work.

They spent many hundreds of hours in just a short time frame, looking for signs of MH370.

There will be an abundance of new, and almost-new aircraft, available for conversion very shortly, at fire sale prices. I reckon those Orions will go cheap, and just be converted to parts.

With the numerous standards already existing - with each one claiming to be superior to the other standards, I see no reason why we shouldn't have another superior standard!

Something halfway between Metric and Inch measure should suffice, with possibly a few antiquated measures thrown in as well, to satisfy those who believe, "the old ways were best!"

....are looking towards starting a revolt. "But they're just revolting people, anyway", said Turbo, as he looked down his nose. Cappy thought he might get armed up, to head off any planned revolt, as he could be just as revolting, too.

"I think this all needs to be brought to a Head - a Blue Head", said Onetrack, with the wisdom of a Sage from the West, where Sages are of a superior quality and grade, as compared to Eastern Sages.

"But Chairman Dan is an Eastern Sage!", said Turbo, who obviously thought Dan had acquired his SageNess from sitting at Chairman Jinpings banquest tables.

"He wouldn't know a Sage if one flew up and hit him in the face!", snorted Onetrack. "He's just a......