onetrack

...... Sunshine Lantern Festival, just in time for the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rat, thus making Cappy the star feature of the Festival.

"I'm a star at the best of times!", said the proud Jedi Rat, who was yet to figure out out how his Jedi outfit would go, trying to fit a Dragon outfit over the top of it.

"What you really need to do, is just go dressed as a Jedi Rat", said Turbo. After all, it's the year of the Rat, they'll just love you!

"But I want to go as a Dragon and breathe fire!", exclaimed the Rat. "It's my life aim to be leading a Chinese New Year dance as a Dragon, in the Year of the Rat!

"There could be some serious problems with that aim", said Turbo. "For a start, you're just a Rat, everyone knows you're a Rat, and trying to act as a Dragon is just.....

Kamaz do not build, and never have built tanks. They build trucks and tank transporters. Kamaz did not come into being until 1976.

The most successful WW2 Russian tank was the T34, which used a Kharkiv model V-2, V12 all-aluminium diesel, produced by the Kharkiv Locomotive Works. An amazing effort to produce a powerful 38L lightweight diesel engine like that, from scratch.

However, due to a shortage of Kharkiv V-2 engines, many T34's were produced with the Mikulin M-17 engine, which was development of the BMW V12 petrol aircraft engine of the 1920's. BMW gave a licence to the Russians in 1930, to build their petrol V12 water-cooled engine.

The T34 was built on a rejected U.S. military design built by the famed tank suspension designer, J Walter Christie.

The Russians set to, and churned out WW2 tanks at a phemonenal rate, often sending them out the door with unfinished detailing, straight into the field.

They produced 84,000 T34 tanks, as compared to 50,000 Shermans. A staggering performance, when you consider the Americans turned a lot of their car and truck factories over to tank production, Chrysler in particular.

The Allied forces tanks nearly always used petrol engines, because in WW2, the Americans decreed that petrol would be the primary fuel of the Armed Forces.

It was much easier to have one primary fuel, as having multiple fuels would possibly result in the wrong fuel, at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

In addition, there was a need for high power levels, and that only came from petrol engines. Diesels of the day were relatively low powered.

But the British tried diesels in tanks during WW2, because of diesel engines better economy, resulting in more range before refuelling was needed. AEC and Leyland diesels were used in some of the British WW2 tanks.

The big supply of U.S. aircraft radial engines, meant they were slotted into tanks, due to their ready availability, and high power output.

Thus the General Grant (M3) tank got the Wright Cyclone R975 - which was also built by Continental during the War, due to its ability to churn out huge numbers of engines.

But the tank builders were always desperate for more engines and more power - so Ford built a 500HP tank engine - the Ford GAA, a DOHC, 32 valve, all-aluminium V8 that was designed and built purely for tank use.

Then Chrysler designed and built the amazing 30 cylinder multibank A57 engine - essentially, 5 x flathead 6 cyl Chrysler industrial petrol engines, buttoned together on a common crankshaft. This engines reliability was below par, and it was a nightmare to work on.

But the Sherman (M4) was the main battle tank of WW2 - and it was powered by a range of engines, depending on where and when it was produced, and for what specific tank order.

The main Sherman engine was the R975 Continental radial, but it was also supplied with 2 x inline 6 cyl GM 2 stroke diesels, coupled side by side - the Ford GAA - the A57 multibank - and interestingly, a diesel radial, which was a Wright R-1820 converted to diesel by Caterpillar, and called either an RD-1820 or the D-200A. Not many RD-1820's were produced, only a few hundred.

Not surprisingly, Australia ordered the largest number of GM Diesel-powered Shermans. There were two main reasons for this - One, the substantially extended range of the GM-diesel-powered Sherman was regarded of utmost importance in Australian Defence Force leaders eyes, as fuel supplies could be very few and far between in Australia, and in many areas where the Australians were operating.

Good fuel range often meant the difference between a successful mission, and a failed one where tanks ran out of fuel - as Rommel found to his dismay, when his tank forces ran out of fuel in the Middle East, because the Germans had underestimated the fuel requirements of the German tank forces.

But the second reason the Australians ordered diesel Shermans was because of watching the bitter early experience of the petrol powered Shermans in the Middle East and Europe, of "lighting up" in horrendous fashion, when hit with powerful German shells. The petrol tanks were a major disadvantage in fighting.

Not for nothing were the Shermans nicknamed "Ronsons"(after the WW2 cigarette lighter), because of the fact they caught fire and burnt crews to death, in large numbers.

The Germans simply adapted their 88mm AA guns to fire horizontally and used them as an anti-tank gun with devastating effect.

But the Shermans only overcame German tanks purely because of sheer numbers, plus the Allied air forces doing a good job of protecting tanks in battle - and the Allies also making the German 88mm guns a primary target at all times.

Bruce, there's a bit of incorrect information in your Steiger tractor story. The 225HP Steiger Bearcat used a 10.5L inline 6 cyl Cat engine designated the "3306".

The 3306 was a good engine, and still powers many items still, even though production of it ceased around about 2005, due to new engines designed to meet tighter emissions levels, replacing it.

However, the 3306 engine never powered any American battle tank, the American tanks up until the 1960's utilised largely petrol engines.

The first tank to use a diesel engine, the M551 Sheridan used a GM 2-stroke Diesel, the V6 turbocharged, 6V53T, rated at 300HP.

However, you are correct that many military machines have the ability to boost power to exceptional levels under combat conditions, with the power boost period being only of short duration, to prevent engine destruction.

The Merlin in the Spitfire is the first engine that I know of, that had an overboost capability for a short period to get away from, or catch up to, Luftwaffe fighters. There were strict limitations imposed on Spitfire pilots as regards the overboost use.

If you've got an instrument panel vibrating that much, that the screws are going to fall out, I'd have to opine that;

A. You've got some serious engine/prop imbalance issues - and

B. You'd be having trouble reading the instruments.

I would imagine you'd be quite well served with regular screws and nuts retaining the instrument panel, just tightened to correct torques.

Lubing the screws would only assist in loosening them, IMO.

Marty, get hold of a thread pitch gauge and check the nut against the screw. Despite the full traceability, there's always the chance of a mix-up. Traceability merely finds the person responsible.

The short distance the screw is going in, before it binds, indicates a serious thread mismatch.

Sounds like the Chinese substitutes strike again!

Paul, your arguments may be suitable for a forum involving large commercial aircraft and heavy jet piloting - but as Facthunter points, this is a Recreational Flying forum, specifically aimed at light and ultralight aircraft owners and users, so a very substantial amount of your information is not relevant to the readers of the forum. 

For the readers of this forum (who will possibly, very rarely encounter aquaplaning when landing), I think perhaps the basic instructions in the link below, is adequate enough information for light and ultralight aircraft piloting.

https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/lists/2019/02/the-three-types-of-aircraft-hydroplaning-and-how-to-prevent-them/

I believe it is simply a case of complacency, coupled with the onset of insidious bad habits, over many years of operation.

Perhaps some age-associated forgetfulness in a few cases, where items that should have been checked, on a checklist, weren't.

I seem to recall one fatality where the pilot failed to utilise a formal checklist, and this was noted as a common habit of his.

....spin up to horrifying RPM's that result in rotation and lift off, with no warning - thus leaving hapless Qld'ers airborne with no idea how to control the turboencabulator - and resulting in vicious crashes, usually in paddocks littered with cow pats.

As a result, all turboencabulators now come with a warning decal that they are not to be entrusted to anyone under 21, anyone under the influence, anyone with no prior turboencabulator training - and no-one from Qld.

Regardless, this didn't stop Cappy from going out into the cow paddock with a shovel, to do battle with the dung beetles, to try and recover what was left of his major AliExpress investment.

Whilst digging around trying to find all the turboencabulator parts, he came across......

The place looks to me like one, where, if the vicious wind gusts don't get you, the wind turbines will. 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/29/house-at-strathaven-airfield-review-richard-murphy-grand-designs-lanarkshire

The missus and I stayed in a steel-clad, steel-framed holiday rental at Tugun on the East (Coast) side of the Gold Coast Hwy.

It was bad enough after we moved in, that we realised we were right on the flight path to the Gold Coast Airport, with 737's coming in so low behind the building that I could nearly read the writing on the tyres - but the living areas were raised, with the car parking underneath - and the place rang like a bell, anytime anyone walked along a walkway, or slammed a door, or walked up the steps!

We only rented the place for a few days, and I have never been so glad to get out of a holiday rental - despite the fact that place was only 200M from the beach.

Then the owner got upset when I left him a negative review.

Well, he showed beautiful vistas of the beach that were impossible to view from our unit, unless you stood on tiptoes at the bathroom upper window - and he said nothing about aircraft noise, or being on flight path - and he said nothing about 100% steel, industrial-style building construction, that had exactly zero insulation or damping.

So he got a review that the place deserved. In fact, the landing aircraft were so low, they cut off the TV signal, every time they flew past.

KG, I don't think the tree has died, the photo was probably taken in Winter in America, and the vast majority of American trees are deciduous. All the trees in the background appear to have shed their leaves.

Jerry, trees are not normally the accepted parking area for aircraft. But after seeing how some people park their cars, maybe trees are seen by some, as an acceptable parking area option, when the specified aircraft parking area is full. 

PM - Are you missing something to the right of the "Dunning-Kruger Aviation Edition" graph? Such as a major downwards curve related to complacency?

The reason I ask is - I am constantly seeing older aviators killed - people in their late 50's, 60's and 70's. Experienced aviators. The news articles are full of grieving friends and relatives saying things like;

"I can't understand it, he was a true professional! He's been doing this for 20/25/30/35 years!"

"There's no-one in our circle with piloting skills, who had more experience than him!"

"He never failed to check anything! He was a perfectionist!"

"I can't understand how this happened? He was never one to take risks!"

"I don't understand why he didn't turn back, when he could have?"

Does this sound familiar??

....the dung beetles can go to work, rapidly burying the wreckage, so there's no need to lodge any incident reports.

But the Level 12 Autonomous control is still riddled with programming flaws, and one of them is, that it can't find addresses where the street name or residents name, has a hyphen in it.

This turned out to be a huge problem for Cappy, whose real name is the Honourable Thomas John Montmorency-FitzHugh.

As a result, the TurboAutoland system bypassed Cappys house, and crash-landed right into a nearby paddock full of cow turds - and the dung beetles went straight to work, burying the.........

Don't worry, I've been caught out with the same stunt and made to look a fool. What's worse, is when you struggle to find a date on the article.

Turboplanner got caught out a few weeks ago, seeing an old news item about a Cessna Conquest crash in Renmark, when the crash news he was looking for, was the newer Evektor ultralight crash into the vineyard in Renmark.

He was telling us all it was definitely a big twin crash, while we all had info it was an ultralight.

Aldo, I fail to understand how you can post 6 hrs ago, that there was two deceased, when the aircraft wreckage was only located at 9.45AM this morning, and it took Police until 3:00PM today to walk into the site on foot, and confirm two deceased.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/light-plane-crash-nsw-far-north-coast-search-underway/5bf56d1c-4cc2-4167-a875-852dc0749413

The aircraft missing, after taking off from Casino, has not been found. SAR is still on.

Contributors need to verify and check information, prior to posting.

There's been no recent light aircraft crash in Darwin. You are probably reading old news, about the 64 yr old bloke killed in his Savannah, 27th Oct 2019.

Apparently they used to march straight up roads making heaps of noise  and get ambushed

 

That is so true. And they'd be making heaps of noise, and carelessly throwing away rubbish that could used by the enemy for booby traps - such as Coke cans.

The VC and NVA would make up a simple booby trap by cutting the top off a Coke can, inserting a hand grenade, pulling the pin out (the grenade doesn't go off until the handle is released, allowing the striker to spring up and strike the detonator under spring pressure), securing the can to a stake or small bush, and attaching fishing line as a trip wire, across a track.

The Yanks would ignore a Coke can lying alongside a track, they'd hit the trip wire, pull the grenade out of the can, and kaboom! One more U.S. war casualty.

My best mate had an SAS BIL. He was attached to a company of Yanks with a Captain in charge, to try and bring them up to speed as regards tactics against the VC and NVA. They set up an ambush and waited.

A couple of NVA walked down the track, and the Yanks were all whispering, "can we we shoot now? - can we we shoot now??" But Dave knew the NVA tactics were to break up into groups when moving.

They'd send a couple of blokes down the trail first, then increase to about 8 blokes in the next group - which was always out of sight of the first group - and then maybe 20 blokes in a group, long before the main force group.

So Dave managed to convince the Yanks to hold their fire as the first two blokes went past - then it became harder to get them to hold their fire as the second group went past - and as the third group arrived, the Yanks starting shooting without orders. 

Next thing, Dave said there was fire coming from everywhere in front, as the main group of probably a couple of hundred NVA hit the deck, started firing and started spreading out. Dave was getting more and more worried by the minute.

The Yanks were unloading ammo like there was no tomorrow - but the fire from in front wasn't decreasing much. What was really alarming Dave, was the fact the fire was spreading out, and covering nearly a 180° arc in front of them.

He waited for a lull, and told the Captain - "Tell your men, retreat as fast as they can, we are seriously outnumbered and outgunned, and we are going to be outflanked and surrounded, and wiped out, if we don't get the hell out of here!"

Dave said he waited for a lull in the firing, then jumped to a crouching position and took off, running down a creekline, as fast as he could. He wasn't even firing his weapon as he went, he was only intent on getting away from being annihilated.

He said he ran for at least 800 metres before he stopped to draw breath, and take stock.

When he did, he found he had a bullet hole through his giggle hat, bullet holes through the sleeves of his shirt, his watch had been shot off, and his water bottle had been shot off his waist. He didn't incur any bullet injury on his body.

He got back to camp and told his CO he was NEVER going to be attached to any American forces, EVER again - and he wasn't.

I don't know if he ever found out what the American casualties were that day - they probably called in an airstrike that killed more of their blokes, than the NVA did.

There was general opinion amongst us Aussie Diggers in 'Nam, that we were in more danger of being shot up by Americans, than we were of being shot up by Viet Cong or NVA soldiers.

NSSS - That Facebook page says it is no longer being updated, from 11th November 2019.

OME - The business "Model" ranges from Indian scammers utilising "Windows virus" scams, "Tax Office owed" threat scams, "Phishing" email and SMS reply scams - right through to Alan Bonds scamming corporate behaviour.

Bond found out quickly that there were a multitude of "high wealth" individuals in the world, who represented access to "easy money", and large amounts of it. He joined exclusive Yacht Clubs to gain first name access to these individuals.

Then he discovered that many companies and corporations were sitting on substantial reserves of cash, that were under-utilised - and the companies and corporations cash reserves could be raided by takeovers and mergers.

He wasn't alone in using this "Business Model", he was just the largest practitioner of the process. Along the way he also ripped off tens of thousands of reasonably wealthy individuals, who he coerced into buying his companies shares - often because these investors shared the same religion as Bond. These people ended up with worthless investments, thanks to Bonds perpetual activities of "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

.......her smartphone, to deal with questions and comments from her fan club, which had reached just over 2000 members in number, making her actually smile a little (if that's possible from a face with a permanent scowl).

But Hi-Ho was still upset about his fire allegory being totally ignored. "I could be a potential Poet Laureate!", he exclaimed. "But no-one from around here would notice!!"

"There, there", said Turbo soothingly, "We did notice your careful word crafting and allegories, but it's lost on a number of people here, they're primarily flying types, you know".

"If you'd put your arms out, and moved around like an aeroplane in flight (avref), while you recited your prose, you'd have had an immediate and supportive reaction".

Meantimes, Cappy was still looking anxiously for his new Turboencabulator, which he'd ordered off AliExpress, but which still hadn't arrived.

This is typical of Chinese purchases, though. It was likely Cappy would end up receiving Chinese New Year lanterns, instead of his eagerly-awaited Turboencabulator, thus leading to major disappointment on his behalf.

Suddenly, there came a familiar engine sound from above. It was a sound they all recognised, and it meant......

It's drawing a long bow to try and extrapolate a fragment of aircraft wreckage to a particular aircraft, purely by the metal analysis.

The metal composition he has described is more than likely identical to numerous high-strength components used in a B747.

If 30 USAAF personnel were lost in one action, the U.S. Govt would find it impossible to hide. Where are the 30 families who have been told their sons were MIA in some unknown action?

It's not likely all of their families would meekly accept the loss of a son without making enquiries about the reasons and circumstances behind the family loss.

And 10 USAAF aircraft missing in one enemy territory excursion? There would be many questions being asked for a long time, and the truth would eventually come out.