onetrack

Don't they fly them upside down when it rains, to stop the water leaks into the cockpit??

There's no hysteria, fear or panic that I can see in everyday life - perhaps in the news media, if you want to read that on a constant basis. They specialise in ramping up problems to hysterical levels, it helps sell their sites and newspapers.

But the bottom line is, this virus is a serious threat to our way of life, and serious steps are needed to stop it. We are fortunate to have people in authority who are prepared to act to limit the spread of the virus.

It is spread by a lack of population movement control, and a careless approach to its seriousness. We are fortunate, in that our infection rate is very low in comparison to the U.S., the U.K. and many European countries.

The reason for this, is all those last-mentioned countries were casual in their approach to the seriousness of the virus, and slow to introduce control measures.

We currently have an infection (positive test results) rate of 0.9% of the population. In the U.S., it's 13%, the U.K., 5% and ROK, 3%. In Italy there are nearly 5,500 dead from the virus and the infection graph has only just started to slow.

It is unfortunate that many of our pleasurable activities are being crimped and even completely shut down, for what appears to be spurious reasons.

The fact remains, the Govt is being pro-active, and therefore the curtailing of socialising activities is a necessary part of that being proactive. We are shutting the door as the horse starts to make an escape attempt, not after it's bolted.

Some good information in the official link below, without the hysteria or fear-mongering of commercial networks.

https://www.health.gov.au/news/australian-health-protection-principal-committee-ahppc-coronavirus-covid-19-statement-on-22-march-2020

I can see, in the forthcoming electric era, that the manufacturers will have to build in sensors that will produce some kind of warning noise, when an object appears directly in front!

Salty arranged to have her picked up by the medics, so her collapse wouldn't interfere with his continuing in the Mardi Gras parade.

Meantimes, the word was being put out by the PM and his henchmen. Australia was going into lockdown.

"Lockdown??", gasped Turbine. "As in; when we were in jail, and something went wrong, and they put the jail into lockdown?"

"Hey, I never knew you'd been to jail?", exclaimed Cappy. "What did you do, to end up inside? This is something you've never told us about?"

"Well", said Turbine, "I had to keep that part of my life quiet, or I would never have got my CPL, my VIP Lounge Gold Pass, my $100,000 limit Amex card, nor invites to every Ministerial bash going!"

"So, what are you going to do now?", said Cappy - "Seeing as this part of your life is completely exposed to public view, and you're going into lockdown as well!? It's going to be......

Machtuk, it's time to pull your head in, and be a little bit civil towards others who have differing opinions to yours.

The closure of VFR is simply designed to prevent the spread of virus carriers arriving from other countries. It's simply an extension of border controls.

Don't think for one moment that thousands of people who can't get commercial flights, aren't thinking of hiring a light aircraft to get home, and thereby try to slip past border controls for the virus.

I'm of the opinion that Richard Pearse more than likely beat the Wrights into the air. But of course, there's a number of different definitions for "flying". Some of the earliest machines must have still been in ground effect.

Interestingly, the missus and I went to the Gold Coast from Jan 18th to Jan 29th to visit her son and wife. We stayed with them the whole time, at Burleigh Waters.

About 4 days after we arrived, the Missus developed a really bad dry cough, which then turned into a really bad dose of phlegmy coughing and extreme mucous production.

She was really crook, like she had a dose of the 'flu, but wasn't bedridden. We went to lots of places, mostly restaurants and pubs on the Gold Coast, while we were there.

She was sick for a week, and still coughing a bit, when we came home. We went business class all the way, via Virgin - direct Perth to Gold Coast, and via Sydney on the return, because Virgin no longer do Gold Coast to Perth direct.

She ended up going to the chemist on the Gold Coast to ask for Rikodeine - because we found that works best on really bad coughs. She said the chemist told her, when she was asking for Rikodiene, that she had a dry cough.

After news of the COVID-19 virus broke and all the details and symptoms came out, she said, "I suspect I had that virus when I was on the Gold Coast!"

She recovered O.K., and I slept next to her all the time she had it, and neither I nor any of the sons family caught it. But they are under 50, and their young son is only 5. I'm 70, and my Missus is 69.

The COVID-19 virus was identified as a new virus cluster on Dec 31st, 2019 and identified as the COVID-19 virus on Jan 7th this year.

Now, the Gold Coast was full of travelling Chinese at that time (and before), and we're now wondering if - 1. She really did have the COVID-19 virus? - and 2. If there were others enduring this virus on the Gold Coast at the same time, but it wasn't reported, or identified as such? The first 4 cases of COVID-19 in Australia were properly identified on Jan 25th.

This is a documentary made by W.A.'s Artemis Films, and it has been on the ABC before. In the link below, there is a scanned review of the documentary and the investigations behind the making of the film, from the West Australian newspaper.

What I found interesting was that the Smithsonian cut an agreement with the Wrights, that only allowed them to display the 1903 Kittyhawk Flyer, provided that they never conceded that anyone else flew before the Wrights.

Surely an indication that the Wrights themselves knew of the possibility that they had been beaten in the race to get airborne?

I believe that numerous other inventors and experimenters probably beat the Wrights into the air, but they simply lacked enough witnesses and connections to the media outlets of the day.

http://www.artemisfilms.com/productions/who-flew-first

.... join in and grab two trolleyfulls of facemasks, sanitisers, and toilet paper. He didn't even stop at the cash registers, knowing full well his selections would be rejected, and he's be asked to return most of the items to the shelves.

So, accordingly, he ran through the checkouts with the two trolleys, with the Chemist warehouse security guard in hot pursuit, yelling at him to stop.

But Cappy knew the back lanes of Wagga Wagga CBD like the back of his hand, and despite being handicapped by the two trolleys, the fat security guard was unable to keep up, and Cappy made a successful getaway.

But then came the awful realisation the Police would be notified, and he'd become a fugitive from the law! He had to do something, fast, to avoid capture.

Then came his brilliant idea! He'd lock himself in his house, and put a "Virus Self-Quarantine" notice on the door! How great an idea was that! The Police wouldn't be able to touch him, and besides, they......

It's a neat-looking little aircraft, but it's got me stonkered. It appears to be only a tiny machine, a single-seater?

What would be wrong with putting the responsibility on the driver who overloads? We are genuinely a nation of f*ckwits if we need to penalise someone for not stopping someone else's stupidity.

The problem in the trucking industry is that truck drivers working for the larger companies are there to just drive the truck. They don't load it, a load dispatcher arranges and oversees that part.

The forklift driver loads on what he's told, must go on the truck, and the truck driver takes off. The truck drivers often don't even secure their loads, that's often done by someone working in the depot.

The truck drivers in the large companies don't even change their own flat tyres, they call up the company tyre vehicle, or the tyre company vehicle, and a tyre fitter changes the flat for them. It's all about job skills and job descriptions limits.

A truck driver rarely gets to go over a weighbridge, unless he's ordered to by a transport inspector or police. So the truck driver often cannot be held directly responsible for overloading, because the loading is not under his direct control.

Many people misquote the saying as "money is the root of all evil", but the original saying is "the love of money, is the root of all evil".

We need money for our economies to operate, it is when an overwhelming greed for money takes over a persons life, or a corporations aims, that it becomes a cardinal sin.

....looking individual from the backblocks of Wagga, who was reportedly offering a near-new Drifter for sale, at an astoundingly-low price.

The sting centred around the fact that Salty couldn't go past a bargain - particularly an aviation (avref) bargain.

The fact that the Drifters origins were dubious, was of no concern to a bloke who specialised in stealing religious articles.

The bloke contacted Salty through eBay, asking about a swap deal, and arranged a meeting time and place. The fact that that place was a lonely carpark was something that Salty.....

Nev, the politicians can always rely on the National Security provisions of the Constitution, to enact anything they deem necessary for the protection of Australia.

They did this during WW2, when they commandeered properties and trucks and equipment without warning, and without immediate compensation.

Many landowners never got any compensation until after WW2 ended, and then it was often inadequate compensation.

Many truck and near-new vehicle owners had their trucks and vehicles confiscated on the spot, during late 1941 and early 1942, as being needed for the War effort.

Army personnel were authorised to stop vehicles in the street, and deem the vehicles as necessary for the War effort.

Many owners then joined up, they had little choice, their income was often taken from them with the confiscation of their vehicle.

They received compensation later in the War, but many claimed it was inadequate, and they couldn't argue about the amount received.

Keating destroyed the Govt-owned Commonwealth Bank, at the behest of the bankers from the private banks - a move I will never forgive Keating for. He was simply a bankers lackey.

The champagne glasses are still clinking in the boardrooms of the private banks, as they celebrate the destruction of the one thing that stopped them from controlling Australia's banking system completely!

The Govt-owned Commonwealth Bank was instituted by King O'Malley, to reign in private banking sector greed, after he saw the greed and ruthlessness in the American banking system in the 1880's.

For over 80 years, the Commonwealth Bank stood as a bulwark to commercial banking greed - and the privately-owned banks hated it with a vengeance.

As it stands today, these banks are still charging anywhere between 14% and 21% for credit cards, when their financing costs are likely to be in the region of less than 2%.

The airstrip on West Island on the Cocos Keeling Islands is interesting. The islands are full of feral bantam chickens, because the Malays love them, and they provided a good food source in past decades, when food supplies were a little more insecure.

These chickens are quite good fliers, if only low level fliers, because no-one ever gets to catch them, to trim their wings.

The airstrip is located central to the island, and has a narrow patch of native vegetation on each side. The bantam chickens graze the ground each side of the runway, and also hide in this vegetation.

Just prior to any takeoff by an aircraft, they drive the airport runway ute up and down the runway, and along each cleared section adjoining the runway, to chase the chickens off these areas, and back into the native vegetation!

Talk about 3rd world operations! But the bantams seem to be wise up to the aircraft operation, and flutter off into the vegetation, and only return quite a while after the aircraft has left .

I do't recall any aircraft crashing at Cocos due to bird ingestion, but I believe there were a couple of military aircraft crashes there during WW2, when the airstrip was upgraded and sealed and heavily used.

The other interesting part of the airstrip is that the local golf course extends across it, and golfers have to cross the runway to follow their balls! No ASIC cards needed here! LOL

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-23/cocos-islands-golf-course-on-international-runway/11222500

Ian, what is the main reason you're paying a U.S. operator to host the website? Is there something they can do, that we can't do here in Oz?

I mean to say, I thought hosting only involved the use of a big server and the occasional attention to that server. Why can't we purchase a big server here, and you host the site on that, and you attend to the server maintenance?

I was under the impression that a big server with reasonable capacity, is not a huge cost outlay, around $2000 to $3000? With a server under your control at your location, you could also host other websites, and bring in income?

You're halfway there, you already have the IT skills to maintain a data centre. At $280 a mth in hosting costs, it is only going to take less than a year to pay for a server of your own.

I can recall a bloke piloting a twin Cessna between the mainland of W.A. and Koolan Island, many years ago (must have been the '80's), hitting a sea eagle at height, well offshore.

The sea eagle smashed through the windscreen, knocked the two front teeth out of the pilot, and rendered him temporarily unconscious from the impact.

He came to shortly after, and recovered control of the aircraft, and then returned to the mainland and carried out a successful landing.

I think the worst part would be the blood and guts and feathers everywhere, that would make operating controls more difficult, having to clear a lot of it, and also having it still blowing around everywhere.

I can't find the incident report, it may be buried in the BASI archives.

You can virtually eliminate corrosion in moist, enclosed, unprotected places, by installing a small heat source - and that's not hard to do, if you put a bit of thought into it.

In the case of wise old mechanics, who had to contend with tool corrosion in steel toolboxes, that endured wide swings in temperature and humidity - they installed a lit incandescent globe in their toolboxes.

The steady heat from the lit globe keeps the temperature in the toolbox above the dew point, and drives out any moisture that might find its way in.

I see no reason why a lit incandescent globe inserted into exhaust piping on an engine, wouldn't work in exactly the same way as the mechanics toolbox trick, to keep bore corrosion-causing moisture at bay.

Heat rises, and if there's any moisture ingestion path created by an open valve, then the heat from the globe will rise accordingly, and follow any potential moisture ingestion path.

The bottom line is that much of our global financial system is based on pea-and-thimble trickery. Our financial systems are manipulated by those with wealth and power, to unjustly reward themselves, and reward other wealthy investors.

Currencies should be fixed, because they are a store of wealth or value - and as such, that wealth or value should not be manipulated at will.

We have set, fixed standards for weights and measures (with severe penalties for shortchanging) - why is this not extended to currencies?

It is only in the "Keynesian" era, where "progressive financial ideas" have proliferated, that the idea that a currency that varies in value, from minute to minute, day to day, week to week, is a great idea.

It isn't. It only allows banks and other exceptionally wealthy entities to trade in currencies and make millions from minor variations in the values of those currencies, by buying and selling tens of millions of that currency, typically in overnight markets. This is a travesty - how does manipulation of currency values, create real wealth? It doesn't - it only shafts everyone who holds any amount of that currency, in the most opaque manner.

There is going to be a financial shakeout soon, the likes of which the world has never seen - simply because the financial systems of the world are based on fraud and manipulation - aided by politicians, who gain additional power by currency floating and financial manipulation.

The COVID-19 virus may be the sole factor from out of left field, that will produce a financial values collapse event, which the Omaha Oracle describes neatly, as - "you only get to see who's swimming naked, when the tide goes out".

....his best to protect it, by going in there one night, and removing it to a much safer place - his back shed.

However, when the true believers - Turbo amongst them - came to worship at the Shroud, they were aghast, when they found, that it had disappeared overnight!!

"This is an appalling theft!", said Turbo. "I looked forward to my daily absolutions at the Shroud, just looking at it gives me confidence each day, to carry out my allotted tasks!"

"We'll get Moorabbin's best investigator onto this dreadful desecration of our States finest religious relic, and we'll soon find out, that.......

Boeing is also the USAs biggest single earner of foreign currency for the US government. That just took a major dive.

Well, I hope that makes the US$ dive, so we can get some value back in our dollar!

Spacey - Like this one?

Boeing has now put the bite on the U.S. Govt for a US$60B bailout. This is just after obtaining around US$13B last month in additional loan monies from major lenders, to help with their financial problems.

If Boeing was a dog, you'd put it down, as being a terminal case, with no hope of recovery. But this is Boeing, it's the heart of America, they have to keep it on life support.