onetrack

The hydrogen fuel cell is a pipe dream economically, and they will continue to be a pipe dream for decades, or even centuries to come. It's simply unviable, there's no other way to describe the system. Some on here may recall Perths hydrogen fuel cell bus experiment, which ran from 2004 to 2007. Three Mercedes-Benz buses fitted with Canadian Ballard fuel cells were purchased with Federal Govt backing of more than $3M. The W.A. Govt also provided a lot of money and infrastructure to run the buses. Hydrogen was produced from the Kwinana BP refinery and trucked to the Transperth bus depot in Malaga. This was not a widespread hydrogen distribution system, there was only one point of hydrogen dispensing, which limited the buses movements. The program was called the STEP program (Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth) and the fuel cell buses were provided to multiple countries to see how workable the design and system was. Perth was the only Australian location to use them. The fuel cell bus global trial was a Mercedes-Benz initiative, designed to see if they could produce the buses as a long-term viable product, globally. The hydrogen fuel cell buses were generally regarded as acceptable, with satisfactory reliability - but overall, operational costs were high, and routes were limited due to lack of an extensive hydrogen distribution system. The fuel cells were found to need expensive reconditioning every three years, and three year testing of hydrogen tanks was another cost burden. The trial ended with no substantial orders for the fuel cell buses. Full scale production of the fuel cell buses was abandoned when Mercedes-Benz deemed proceeding with the fuel cell bus design was uneconomic. Transperth made the decision to simply convert diesel buses to run on CNG, and about two-thirds of Perth's bus fleet has been CNG-powered buses. The CNG buses have proven reliable, and lower-cost to operate than either diesel or fuel cell buses - although there were early teething problems with bus fires using CNG, because of an initially bad CNG conversion design. Today, electric buses are deemed to be the future of mass transportation. Perth's Public Transport Authority has been operating Volvo electric buses for 2 years now, with great success (18 have been operational since last year), and has recently placed orders for another approximately 130 Volvo BZL electric buses. The Kwinana refinery (once, Australia's biggest refinery) has since been closed down, so one cheap source of hydrogen locally has been removed. No-one has developed a sustainable hydrogen-production operation in Australia yet, even though we've been promised that "cheap" hydrogen production for over 20 years. No cheap hydrogen, and no distribution system for hydrogen, so where's the benefits of hydrogen engines or fuel cells? https://www.bpswa.org/hydrogen-fuel-cell-buses.html https://www.busnews.com.au/inside-the-mysterious-first-australian-hydrogen-bus-trial https://www.pta.wa.gov.au/news/media-statements/first-year-of-electric-bus-travel-in-perth-a-success https://www.transdev.com.au/press-release/new-electric-buses-for-perth-cbd-routes/ https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/c-king/media-release/wheels-turning-manufacture-new-electric-buses-wa

Nowhere has anyone found a cheap source of hydrogen to replace oil that is simply pumped out of the ground and simply hydrotreated. Breaking down water to make hydrogen uses so much energy, it's not even remotely competitive with oil - even if solar energy is utilised, the hydrogen then still has major storage, transport and dispensing problems. Toyota is only working on hydrogen, because they want to ensure multiple sources of energy for powering vehicles, so they never become totally reliant on one source of energy. They have never forgotten their hard-earned lessons of WW2, they are an island nation with no reserves of any minerals or energy sources, and they constantly look for energy independence.

It's just another hydrogen engine dream. There is no way that any major supply of hydrogen, available in all regions, at low cost, will ever become available. At best, it might become available in densely populated areas for about $10 a litre. Meantimes, the Chinese EV onslaught will rule, with new and more efficient batteries every second month.

I actually got some work done, when the sites were down all day! 😄

By the time Trump is finished wrecking the U.S. economy, destroying 83 years of good relationships with Allied nations, finished toadying to one of the worlds most murderous dictators, and substantially reduced overseas markets for many U.S. manufactured goods (including armaments), then the Democrats will start to look good.

Chinaman say, "I like frying my Cub".

......definitely appeared, for the aircraft owners, like it had bitum on the arse. However, OT, being an old-school Roads Scholar, with a huge level of experience in regard to road-making materials, soon turned up with a simple idea to save the day. He recommended that.........

When I was a gold miner, and SWMBO and I attended conferences/shows, etc - and they had forms to fill in, requiring personal details, such as name, occupation, etc - I'd write "gold miner" - and SWMBO would put "gold digger". I didn't realise she was doing this, until much later, when she told me. I reckon a few people must have got a laugh out of it.

Does this thread (link below) assist you? ... https://mooneyspace.com/topic/22094-stratus-external-antenna-connector-specs/

I don't see where the thrust problem couldn't be addressed with a bit of housing reinforcement, such as through-bolts close to the gears.

Get some helical gears cut - end of backlash problem associated with crude spur gears.

Thruster88 - I've examined the NSW Fire & Rescue video in detail, on a full screen, and I can't see any damage to the underside of the fuselage, where it has fractured - as one would expect, if the fuselage was the first part of the aircraft to hit the roof. The fuselage fracture is vertical, not horizontal, and this leads me to the conclusion that the damage was caused by severe and rapid rotation around the stuck nose gear - rather than impact with the roof, which one would expect would create a horizontal fracture.

Yep, I'm SURE! 😄

I can't see any fuselage hit on the roof of the hangar, so I'd have to disagree with that scenario. What I can see, is two deep wheel grooves in the roof sheeting, the port groove is much deeper than the starboard groove. What I would say happened, is he came in fairly level longitudinally, but with a slight bank to port - the main wheels grooved the roof sheeting as they ran across it - and the nose wheel then dug in, and penetrated the roof sheeting, bringing the aircraft to a rapid halt. But the rapid halt was accompanied by a severe rotation anti-clockwise, around the dug-in nose wheel - and this rapid and severe rotation would've snapped the fuselage, as it rotated rapidly. Check out the Cessna landing more gently in the tree! I rest my case, M'Lud!

There are RC aircraft as big as that Hummelbird!

Printing magazines is a recipe to lose vast amounts of money in todays digital age - especially when you're catering to a membership that is looking for cheap flying costs, and low-cost membership fees. Add in a relatively low number of the members actually keenly interested in a magazine (as well as low total market numbers) and I'm surprised that RA-Aus would still produce a magazine. Magazines are part entertainment and part informative, and they require a serious level of contributor and editing input. The magazine market is still saturated, and there's vastly less magazines now, than before the pandemic.

Robinson claim 2 pilots and up to 8 pax for the R88. They're obviously not considering the body weight of the average American! And only 2 rotors? Looks to me, like regular modifications or upgrades will be on the cards.

This exercise reminds me of the old bloke crashing his Cessna into a big tree in Connecticut in 2017. He stalled into the tree, the tree acted like an aircraft carrier arrestor - he rotated 180° during the arrest, and the aircraft flopped right way up into a car park. He suffered only minor injuries. https://www.wkbw.com/news/small-plane-crashes-into-tree-pilot-survives-with-minor-injuries

The site may be wanting to download a PDF file, but you have selected a personal correspondence file to upload to this site. I'd suggest you remove it, in case scammers easily acquire your personal and finance details.

.....chop suey, chow mein, won tons and dumplings. However, when pointed, direct questions were asked, as regards the fillings and meat portions in Lee Won Turbin's dishes, he claimed it was a "commercial secret", and if he ever told anyone, he'd have to kill them afterwards, to stop his competitors from gaining an advantage over him. "What competitors?" asked Ghengis. "I slaughtered them all! There's no-one left to compete with you!" Lee Won started sweating. The innuendo was obvious. If he failed to reveal the fillings and meat portions origins, Ghengis would slaughter him, too. Lee had to think fast. He said, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but...............

I guess it's all well and good if the aircraft manages to stay on the runway, too - but even a moderate runway excursion with an over-run, would see the aircraft miss the safety bed completely.

They don't give you a lot of room, when you're pulling into one of those multi-storey aircraft parks, hey?

.....so much, that Turbo in his AGM address, claimed sales were "going like a cut cat!" A few shareholders objected to Turbo using the term, pointing out, it reflected badly on cat farming. But Turbo soon had them......

The NTSB Preliminary Report is out, and it basically only outlines the aircraft movements, flight paths, collision damage and other pertinent facts related to the crash. There are excellent CVR and FDR records from both the helicopter and the CRJ-700. There is NTSB concern over the accuracy of altitude data from the Multi-Purpose Flight Recorder ("MPFR") in the helicopter, and they are currently unsure how this affected other helicopter altitude measuring systems, until further investigation is carried out. The MPFR is a combined CVR and FDR. In addition, the audio record from the helicopter indicates portions of radio transmissions were not recorded (or heard) - in one case, because the helicopter microphone was keyed when ATC transmission was taking place, and in another section, the word "circling" in the ATC advisory transmission was not picked up by the helicopter recorder, but it is recorded on the CRJ-700 CVR, and on ATC audio recordings. At the time of the reports release, the NTSB issued an urgent recommendations report, advising immediate steps to be taken, to ensure a major reduction in the level of civilian aircraft and helicopter near-misses, that had been regularly reported in the region, in recent years. The recommendations report outlines how the helicopter route ("Route 4") along the Potomac River has lax boundaries, and even slight deviation from that poorly-defined route, poses an unacceptably high risk of an MAC with departing or arriving civilian aircraft, that are using the airport runways - especially as flight path altitudes of arriving or departing civilian aircraft over the River, can also have some altitude variations, according to how closely the aircraft is following the glide path or takeoff path. The NTSB advise that the FAA urgently needs to close the helicopter route ("Route 4") along the Potomac River whilst civilian aircraft are departing or arriving at the airport runways. However, they also recommend that an alternative helicopter route must be found, to ensure that important Govt, medical, law enforcement, air defense, or presidential transport, can continue at will, and at short notice. At present there is a NOTAM (active to 31st March, 2025), that prohibits helicopter traffic along the Potomac in the vicinity of DCA flight paths - but that NOTAM also advises that if urgent medical, law enforcement, air defense or Presidential helicopter movement needs to take place along the Potomac River, civilian aircraft will not be allowed to operate along the airport flight paths, until the helicopter has transited the critical zone. https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Documents/DCA25MA108 Prelim.pdf https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AIR2501.pdf

Peter, you have attached personal correspondence to your post instead of the NTSB report.