onetrack

.... the celebrant, and the "other man" in the marriage, which positions were eagerly sought after by many job applicants - but which were given to Byron and Cappy, due to their respective skills in those areas.

However, before MFS videoing got under way, there was a uproar caused by........

As a general rule, the cheap Chinese tyres suffer from rubber perishing worse than any other brands.

This is because the Chinese don't add enough of the expensive chemicals (called stabilisers) to the rubber that help prevent rubber ageing or perishing.

The Taiwanese tyres are generally better quality than Chinese tyres, but the premium quality tyres are the Sta and Michelin (Condor) brands.

As befitting their position as "premium" products, you will pay "premium" prices for Sta and Michelin tyres - as indicated by mnewbery's website link.

FYI, tyre manufacturers recommend that tyres should be changed out after 6 years, as they claim that general rubber degradation stops them from being able to guarantee adequate performance after that time.

If you present with a tyre claim with a relatively unworn tyre, and it's over 6 yrs old, the tyre manufacturers will refuse to accept any responsibility for tyre failure after that length of time.

This applies to all tyres, whether they be car, truck, aircraft, earthmover, motorcycle or even lawnmower tyres.

At 840 hours and approximately 1800 landings, your current Chinese tyres have provided quite satisfactory service life.

(which)....if left hanging, creates assymetric drag, resulting in constant turns to the left, ending in a spiral dive, which is unrecoverable.

As a result, the Grammar Police were obliged to issue a stern warning about leaving hanging participles (more correctly known as dangling participles) unattended, due to the threat to flight safety. 

This then led to discussions about leaving anything hanging or dangling from an aircraft, particularly personal body parts.

Cappy immediately piped up with an old well-known line that the angle of the dangle.......

There's a bloke in Lonsdale, S.A. who has a NOS Kenda ribbed tyre in 15x6.00-6 (4 ply) size, for sale on Gumtree for $50. But it's clearly marked "NHS".

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/lonsdale/wheels-tyres-rims/kenda-multi-rib-15x6-00-6-tyre-4-ply-1-only-50ono/1077660175

Yes, Skippy is correct, use straight ribbed tread tyres for aircraft, not chunky-style tread patterns.

Skippy, where did you find Kenda 15x6.00-6 tyres with highway speed rating? I have only ever seen Kenda tyres in this size rated as "NHS", and I cannot find any Australian tyre supplier supplying Kenda tyres in this size with a highway speed rating.

Here is an Australian aircraft tyre supplier that can supply Michelin and Flight brand tyres in 15x6.00-6. No prices listed, you have to contact them.

http://aeroparts.com.au/ocart/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=17

Doesn't sound like there's any major downsides to the changeover. I reckon you've covered all the bases.

Maybe some minor tweaking could be required, down the line.

I'm quite happy with either Xenforo or IPS, it just means slight differences in style and operation, kind of like just changing to another aircraft type and getting used to the slightly different control layout.

The company in the link below will be able to supply your needs.

https://www.waggabiketyres.com/lsa_tyres.html

Remember these points:

1. Turf or Lawn/Garden tyres are available in 15x6.00-6 size - cheaply - but they are rated "NHS". NHS stands for "Not for Highway Service".

In other words, they are designed for use on mowers, small tractors, electric scooters and golf carts, and are rated for a maximum (off-road) speed of 30kmh.

If you want to do 70-80kmh on them, you do so at your own risk. These tyres also have low load capacity ratings.

Always find out the tyre specifications and designed use, before purchasing.

2. Tyres built for aircraft cost more because they are rated for aircraft takeoff/landing speeds and loadings.

Aircraft tyre brands and types, are Sta Air Hawk and Sta Air Trac. Turf or Lawn/Garden tyre brands are typically Carlisle, Kenda and Trelleborg.

Be aware that Carlisle produce a Carlisle Reliance Rib Turf/Lawn tyre which is known as a semi-solid.

It is not a pneumatic tyre, it is a largely solid rubber tyre with a hollow core to give a cushioning effect.

These tyres are common on forklifts as well as turf equipment, and they're quite heavy. Their advantage is, they're puncture-proof.

Thruster, the hybrid system works, Diamond have proven the concept with one of the new small Wankels producing 30Kw, and driving a generator. 

A 70Kw electric motor is provided with power via a battery pack, plus the Wankel power, for takeoff.

Once in cruise, the Wankel recharges the battery, while the electric motor provides the propulsion.

And of course, you have regenerative charging power on descent - plus the chances of an electric motor failure is much less than an IC engine.

https://www.machinedesign.com/markets/energy/article/21831674/hybrid-aircraft-proves-gaselectric-flight-is-practical

.... deal with the Grammar Police along the way. Few people know that the Grammar Police have wide-ranging powers, to bring even aviation to a halt, as they deal with writing and they need every I dotted, every T crossed, and Capitals required at the start of every sentence and used with every noun. 

Trying to submit written deals, agreements, maintenance records, CASA responses, or even just email communications, will soon see the Grammar Police step in and cause great angst as things have to be re-written to meet their exacting Oxford Dictionary requirements. 

In fact, it's looking like they are stepping in to kill this upcoming deal, because I forgot to.........

There's only one simple solution for light aircraft power, and it follows car design - hybrid power.

I personally believe there will be a time, soon, where a hybrid power alternative will provide a viable option to pure IC engine power for aircraft.

The hybrid option will also offer a lower emissions level, thus playing a part in cleaning up our atmosphere.

Parallel hybrid architecture offers immediate gains via electrification, but series architecture may overtake parallel in the distant future.

What is going to happen, I believe, is that hybrid power will lead to a range totally new and innovative light aircraft designs, that will take advantage of hybrid power unit design, ducted props power gains, and various other technologies, to raise efficiencies to entirely new levels.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181127171416.htm

The ABC now has aerial footage of the crash site. It's not exceptionally good footage, but it shows what appears to be an impact at a fairly steep angle, with virtually total destruction of the aircraft, and the debris trail spread over about 300-400 metres.

I see no major components that have survived. It's difficult to tell from the destruction trail if the impact was wings level or not.

If the wing/s separated in flight, I would've expected them to be highly visible, and picked up by the ABC aerial photography crew.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-24/three-firefighters-who-died-in-nsw-tanker-crash-named/11897704

.....fire extinguisher to put the fire out in the Turboencabulator, which had burst into flames immediately upon startup, just like an old R-3350 (avref).

Meantimes the Commitee For Investigating Turboencabulator Fires Fitted To Drifters (acronym - CFITFFTD) had arrived and had secured the area for Investigation purposes.

As with all Important Investigations, witnesses had to be interviewed, statements taken, photos and measurements taken, CASA notified, the ATSB notified, Greta notified, the IPCC notified, and the lawyers for TurboencabulatorGate had to be advised with updated stats.

There were now obviously more than 7 Turboencabulators that had caught fire - a growing and serious problem that would almost certainly lead to a Turboencabulator AD issued by CASA, and an upgrade to the class-action lawsuit against the Turboencabulator manufacturers.

But Hi-Ho was getting upset. All he wanted to do, was get airborne, and now his chances were slimmer than ever. Then he spotted a derelict-looking Jab.....

Cosmick, I don't know what you'd use for a configuration and power plants for a purpose-built-from-the-ground-up fire tanker.

Simplicity would be the order of the day, along with high durability, coupled with more intensive and shortened maintenance periods.

Hihosland, it's interesting, that in the first report I linked to above, one crash of a C130 was caused by all 4 engines quitting simultaneously.

The crew blamed the synchrophaser, which keeps all four props in phase, to reduce noise and vibration - but the investigators blamed the crash on fuel starvation.

Curiously, despite the investigators claiming they knew the cause of the crash, they couldn't pin down the precise sequence of events that led to the claimed fuel starvation.

Perhaps there's infrequent related events in certain extreme operating conditions that come together, to create a fuel starvation issue, that still needs to be investigated in great depth.

I'd guess the problem with a crash such as this, with major destruction of much of the aircraft, it makes investigation of fuel-feed faults very hard to trace.

".... as part of our services, we employ a Coulson LAT to follow the turboencabulator-powered Drifters, to drop a load of fire retardant on them, if they spot a Drifter on fire.

Besides, only 7 catching fire is not an excessive number in the overall scheme of things. As the car manufacturers says, it's an acceptable number, keeping in mind total production numbers that run into tens of thousands.

And besides, a Drifter on fire falling into a controlled burn, isn't a problem - except for that particular pilot!

But hey, we have to expect a small amount of attrition, that's just the nature of turboencabulators.

This is just an outstanding example of our ability to turn faults into features - something you don't get with any other operation that's in competition with MBACBCI!

Meantimes, Cappy was looking for an opening (as all good Rats do), in the field of aerial backburning, and accordingly, he said to Turbo.......

The suspicion appears to immediately be on engine malfunction - and the Allison T56-A-15 (and 16) are apparently very prone to overheating damage to turbine assemblies.

I have no idea if the heat levels above a bushfire would cause overheating problems in the turbine assemblies, but it must surely be a major risk - along with heavy dust, smoke and ash particles, which must also impact seriously on turbine blade condition.

No doubt the answer is somewhere in the following documents.

https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/docs/c-130-bar.htm

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/documents/sustainment/csc/service-news/sn-mag-v11-v20/V14N1.pdf

A C-130 air tanker is reported by three witnesses as "crashing in a ball of fire" at Peak View, in the Snowy Mts. 3 POB, RIP brave men.

https://7news.com.au/news/bushfires/large-water-bombing-aircraft-has-crashed-at-peak-view-reports-c-661253

Loctite requires 260 deg C to soften and release. I'd be heating the components in an oven to 260 deg, to get an even high temperature.

Be very careful with the softness of aluminium once heated to that temperature. It will lose one-third of its strength at that temperature.

..... legit? - or was he a result of an illegal liaison between his mother and the postman, as Cappy is rumoured to be?

If proven correct, that would be a disturbing revelation and complete re-write of Australian history, with a simple postman becoming responsible for a vast number of discoveries in Australia.

In Cappys case, if the rumour is proven to be true, this would lead to a far better understanding of Cappys problems, such as an overwhelming need to collect stamps, and his overwhelming and unnatural interest in the sexual proclivities of anyone he comes into contact with - plus his constant claim to be a complete Rat.

Having pondered these points, the fact does remain that neither of these rumours have been substantiated, which makes Cappy heave a huge sigh of relief - and the rumours will stay rumours thanks to Cappy refusing point blank to supply any DNA samples, which would serve to clear up the muddied waters.

Meantimes, back at the airstrip, there was intensive discussion centred around the next stage of Drifter upgrades, with a........

I watched the whole video. Despite the excruciating accents, and the poor speaking abilities of the presenters, they do raise many intriguing points.

What I would like to know, is why these engineers calculated MH370 trajectory varies so substantially from the "official" calculated version - and why have they calculated the aircraft turned to the S.E., and went past the South side of Christmas Island, while at the same time it was descending in 3 different steps, ending up at 5000' before it crashed into the sea S of C.I.?

They did not explain the major discrepancy in flight paths, nor how they calculated the lower and lower FL's of the aircraft.

I believe (and always believed) that the aircraft crashed well N of the ATSB search area. The reason being, there was never a skerrick of MH370 wreckage that ever turned up on the W.A. coastline, which it would have, if it crashed in the ATSB search area.

So the corollary of that is, the aircraft crashed well N of the search area, in the latitudes where the Easterly Trade Winds blow offshore from W.A. during March. That is, the latitudes Northerly from around 27 to 28 deg S. (approximately around Geraldton/Kalbarri).

The fact that the three wreckage items proven to have come from MH370 were found on the Eastern islands of Southern Africa is proof of this, as these blokes have confirmed.

I also believe the aircraft was cunningly piloted to its crash site by someone highly skilled as a pilot. Only the Captain had those skills. 

The likelihood of "other persons" with evil aims being in the cabin is extremely low. The pilot was known to have watched the trial of Anwar Ibrahim and was seen leaving the courtroom in anger at the obvious corruption and political manipulation of the legal processes of the country for political aims.

We have since seen the PM of Malaysia charged with massive theft, and with those charges comes the smell of total corruption.

Malaysia is one of the most corrupt and nepotic countries in Asia, and Capt Shah was obviously extremely angry with the Malaysian PM, the Malaysian Govt and the entire crooked Malaysian system.

I firmly believe that Capt Shah set out on a plan of suicide, to bring major discredit on Malaysia, the Malaysian PM, and Malaysia Airlines.

We have seen in the Germanwings Flight 9525 case, how easy it was for a totally suicidal pilot to carry out his evil aim.

I believe Capt Shah was equally as suicidal, his marriage had ended, his political favourite was being "neutered" on trumped up charges, and no doubt, there may have been other Malaysia Airlines management and corruption issues that greatly angered Capt Shah, that have never been revealed, for fear of more loss of face.

From the time that Malaysian PM Najib Razak fronted the cameras, to speak about the MH370 disaster, he came across as a dithering, incompetent fool of a man who was unable to articulate anything of importance, nor produce any statement of value.

Everything was left to a senior Govt spokesman to articulate the position clearly - and even then, vast amounts of important information were still not clear, were unknown, or were presented with an air of utter incompetence.

As regards Australia's JORN radar not picking up the aircraft - the reasons are simple. It was a Saturday morning, no current threat was on the horizon, and no-one works on a Saturday in Australia if they can avoid it. The radar was simply switched off and unmanned.

That thing looks like a crash waiting to happen. It's bad enough that the tail is so close to the ground, but the prop is even closer.

A bit of a gust on landing, creating a nose-up attitude, and it'd be all over, red rover.

The worst "gutser" (or "cropper") I've ever endured, was on a Honda Z50J mini-bike. Riding across a paddock of stubble at about 50kmh with my lunch Esky balanced across the fuel tank, I hit the hardened clay furrows on a headland with the front wheel - and the combination of slippery straw and furrow grooves, sent my front wheel skating out sideways in milliseconds, dumping me and my Esky unceremoniously and quite painfully onto the hard clay ground at 50 kays. Never trust anything with small diameter wheels, they're lethal!

.....will still make some muffled sounds that will sound suspiciously like the Jedi Rat pulling his Pud. But as the Jedi Rat pulled out his redevelopment plan, the grim-faced police officer appeared at his door, and said, "Don't give me any of your 'major real-estate developer' BS, and try to pull one over me! I'm here to see your licence, not your redevelopment plans!!"

"Oh? A licence? Yes, I'm a licenced real-estate agent as well, I'll just try to find that document for you", said the Rat with a gold-toothed, charming smile.

The officer snarled with a curled lip, "Don't give me any of your smart-arse lip! I'll arrest you and handcuff you faster than anything you've seen on TV!", he said.

At that, the Jedi Rat realised his luck was rapidly running out. But like all good rats, he was expert at leaving sinking ships (and stolen cars), so in a single bound, he was gone out the passenger window, and running for his life.........

....as desperate as a Rat abandoned in a car (for good reason), so maybe I could make a move on her...."

But right about then, the Rat decided Mavis had abandoned him (for good reason - she suddenly realised he was nothing but a Rat), and he took off, up the street, looking for a replacement ride.

"Look out! It's a huge Rat!!," shrieked all the girls, as he scurried past. Finally, he spotted a car with keys left in it, and despite only just being able to see over the steering wheel, he managed to start it and slip it into gear, and hit the road.

But as he hit the outskirts of town, he spotted flashing red and blue lights behind him. "Darn it!", said the Jedi Rat, "It's time I pulled my.....

"......make him hang around a lot longer than he ever wished he'd be hanging on. After I land, he'll need some more resuscitation, so I'll get Big Norm the local Firey with 4 missing front teeth, to give it to him - and when he comes to, he'll be screaming, and think he's woken up in a bad dream."

'He'll take off so fast, we won't see him again, ever! In fact he'll be running to the Chemist to find the strongest mouthwash available, and buy 14 bottles of it, and he'll be going through a bottle a day".

Meantimes, the Jedi Rat was on the road again, because he wasn't game to get back in an aircraft (avref) again, so soon after the last terrifying experience.

But as the first car came along, it pulled up, and there was Mavis. His luck was in, as she leaned over and said......

PM, the reason so many WW2 Russian tanks are pulled from Eastern European bogs and swamps in good condition, is because those bogs and swamps are surrounded by poplar trees. The bark from the poplars contains iron tannate, an excellent rust-prevention coating.

If you buy the commercial rust treatment called "Exit-Rust", it's simply a solution of iron tannate. It's a very effective product for combating corrosion.