onetrack

Spacey, if you fitted cowlings that wrapped around the rear of the cylinder and heads and which directed cooling air to the rear of the cylinders and heads, you'd find your engine cooling would improve.

You can still readily acquire temperature-indicating crayons, they are called Tempilstiks and they are still widely used in industry, for measuring heat levels in alloy and low-alloy steels, when heat-treating or welding on them. 

They melt when the preset temperature they are designed to melt at is reached. You can still also buy temperature-indication paints, pellets and temperature-indication cards.

All these products are merely useful indicators, and for precise accuracy, a thermocouple is the most desirable temperature indicator.

https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/faq-what-is-a-tempil-stick

The Jab lacks the controlled airflow around the cylinder fins that most other similar aero engines almost universally use (Baffles and ducting shields). They are not hard to fit and don't run it for long with the cowl off.

 

This above statement is the best advice you can get. All air-cooled engines should have tight-fitting, effective baffling and ducting, to ensure the airflow is getting to the fins, where it's most needed.

.......you didn't tell us you were going to drop us like that!! "I drop babes left, right, and centre, every day of the week", said the Rat, showing his nasty side. "Why should you be any different?".

Just then, Onetrack rushed up and said, "I just heard a CASA inspector is after you for not reporting that hard landing!". "What hard landing?", said the Rat nonchalantly. "All my landings are like that! That was one of my best landings this month!".

Meantimes, Turbine was ruefully examining the Jab's engine mounts. It seemed he hadn't taken into account the torque of the Cat engine, and it had twisted the mounts by 45º, thus giving the Cat a new slant.

"We'll have to do some reinforcing", Turbine said. He said to bull - "Have you got any Chrome-Moly tubing in 2" diameter and 0.250" wall thickness, laying around? I'll make sure it doesn't get twisted up again!"

"Ahhh", said bull, "I don't think so - but you could probably use some of the scrap water pipe I scrounged from the last lot of plumbing repairs on the Bone Town Hall!".

"Not good enough", said Turbo with a frown, "This is high-tech engineering here, we can't utilise just anything that's laying around!"

"Why not?", said bull defensively, "Both The Rat and I, built our aircraft using that system! - and just look at what we ended up with!".

"Yes, that's the problem", said Turbine with a grimace, "We can't afford to......

And here we have Cappy doing an initial taxi test of bulls homebuilt......

Homebuilt.mp4

I'm old enough to remember from many decades ago (the 50's), when water injection units for cars were advertised in the Modern Motor magazine to fit to cars and trucks. 

There were imported water injection units and locally-made units. Most used a mixture of methylated spirits with water to give the required alcohol content.

They were popular due to the inadequate octane rating of the petrol of the day, causing detonation or combustion knock ("pinging" or "pinking") due to engine compression ratios rising faster than the oil companies could raise the octane rating of petrol. That problem brought about the division of petrol into "standard" grade and "super" grade, which many of us older blokes can probably still recall.

The water/alcohol injection systems worked well enough to a certain degree, but the problems were corrosion of the components, corrosion of bores because the water was still being sucked in on engine shutdown, and trying to get an even flow rate, according to throttle opening.

I have little doubt if someone wanted to revive the idea, with brass, stainless, or plastic components, electronic control of injection rate, and shutdown of the water flow as the ignition was cut, it would probably be a winner today.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206087995

I agree, 3 fatalities were from 2 gyro crashes. Still a really bad record for the light aircraft flying fraternity for the year, and one which is bound to have repercussions, with more clamour for "improved safety".

.....truck engines, as in Caterpillar truck engines. He still hasn't got around to the principles behind aero engines, and still fiddles at his computer, trying to downsize and lighten Caterpillar truck engines to turn them into aero engines, as they are just so reliable in the trucks. He reckons if he can translate that reliability, and long life, and service backup, into aero engines, there'll be no need to ever replace engines, you'd just replace the airframe, and keep the original engine".

"I can understand somewhat where he's coming from", said Onetrack. "As an old Cat man myself, I've often thought about modifying a bulldozer to turn it into an aircraft. Imagine the benefits! Virtually unbreakable, any drongo could drive it - if you hit another aircraft, you'd just smash the other aircraft to pieces, and keep going with only a few minor scratches. I don't understand why someone hasn't thought of this before?!".

"You're nuts!", exclaimed Cappy. "You pair have been smoking the drapes! I've never before heard such idiocy!"

"It's not as idiotic as overflying an island with two marooned aviators, and leaving them to die!", exclaimed Onetrack.

"Look", said Cappy, "We were running behind schedule and we were already overloaded. What's a man to do? You gotta make swift judgements in these crucial situations, or someone will die!".

"Yeah", said Onetrack, "We sure know about that, don't we?? Look at......

The ultralight fatality list has reached a total of 12 so far this year. That is worse than the previously-worst year, 2013, when 11 fatalities were recorded. 

We still have 23 days to years end. Let's hope there's no more UL fatalities this year.

Feb 6, 2019 - 2 Fatalities - WA

Apr 14, 2019 - 1 Fatal - QLD

May 30, 2019 - 1 Fatal - NT

Jun 8, 2019 - 1 Fatal - VIC

July 6, 2019 - 2 Fatalities SA

Oct 28, 2019 - 1 Fatal NT

Nov 29, 2019 - 2 Fatalities NSW

Dec 8, 2019 - 2 Fatalities QLD

RA-Aus Fatality figures 2011-2016

Year      Fatalities    Medically related

2011

  6

       0

2012

  3

       1

2013

 11

       2

2014

  6

       1

2015

  9

       2

2016

  6

The distance may be deceiving due to lens distortion, but the timber each end of that runway looks like it should have been chopped back more.

https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/two-men-have-died-in-one-of-two-sunday-morning-plane-crashes-in-queensland/news-story/82b886d92bbc073c8151568753bb2179

That's TWO planes crashes in the news, on the same morning! One with two fatalities at Captain Creek, and a crash with an injured pilot in the Atherton Tablelands.

What is happening? - it seems like every weekend now, there's a light aircraft crash. The statistics for light aircraft crashes must be going through the roof this year.

The Captain Creek crash says the aircraft went down "at the end of the runway". Sounds like another badly-managed EFATO?

....smoked pipes, and drank warm beer from large pots. "I say!", said Crappy, imitating an English accent badly, "Is this Western Orstralia? We set off quite a few hours ago, and it appears our compass was a little wonky, mainly because Turbine placed his 'We Landed At Forrest' fridge magnet on the instrument panel, right next to the compass. So, we're not quite sure if we've landed in Perth or not, all big cities look the same today!".

"Of course this isn't Western Orstralia, you clown from the land of the Kangaroo", said one of the Poms. "This is London, surely you can see that by Big Ben and Windsor Castle as you flew in?"

"Cripes", said Crappy, doing his best Bazza imitation. "I thought this place had too many wogs, chinks, curry-munchers and muzzies to be London? I could've guessed it, now that I see a curry house on every street corner!".

"My God", said the Pom, "You colonials are so crude and backwards, aren't you? This is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, we accommodate anyone with a passport from any former British Dominion!".

"Geez, said Crappy, "I'm dry as a Pommies towel, you wouldn't be able to find us a cold beer, would you? - or a bottle of some Brown Bros finest vintage?"

"Don't be silly", said the Pom, "We don't drink cold beer, that's for ignorant colonials. And what is this 'Brown Bros' you speak of?"

"Ahhhh, it doesn't matter", said Cappy in a fit of gloom, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to get anything else but warm beer and cold pork pies in the place. He said to the others, "Let's go and....

....skidded to a halt just 5 metres short of the airstrip perimeter fence. "Why didn't you go before we left?", complained Cappy as he spun the Jab around in a tight circle, and taxied back to the terminal.

"I did!", said Tinks, "But your flying skills left me absolutely sXXXing myself, and wetting my pants! - let alone wondering if the Jab would ever rotate!".

"It's alright", said Cappy, "I've flown a lot worse than this, and I've got the CASA record of convictions to prove it! Besides, they never make runways long enough, anyway!"

Once Tinks has completely emptied his bowels and bladder so nothing at all remained, he set to, throwing out of the Jab, several cartons of Brown Bros , golf club sets, blow-up sex dolls, bench-press weights, and a heap of other personal things he deemed totally unneccesary, in a bid to get the MTOW down to a level the Jab could actually get off the ground with.

"Hey, I hope I can get Brown Bros in W.A.!", wailed Cappy - "And how am I going to improve my handicap if I haven't got my best set of clubs with me?". He thought it prudent to not mention the blow-up doll.

"You'll be alright!", said Tinks, "W.A. will have wines that are better than Brown Bros, you can extend your tasting experience - and you can hire a set of clubs".

Once the weight and balance had been readjusted, Cappy firewalled the throttle, the Jab just cleared the perimeter fence by 10 feet, and the adventurous foursome set off, for the great unknown.....

Skippy, I find bolted clamps are excellent for radiator hoses where you need foolproof clamping ability.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tridon-Clamp-T-Bolt-Part-Stainless-25mm-Box-Of-10-TTBY23-25P/163199960134?epid=9004203201

It's unfortunate that the NES has lowered itself to the level of telling ferret stories by Eastern States contributors, but this is to be expected from a region where dunny racing, ute musters, and cane toad racing, are major sports.

It appears that the Eastern States contributors to NES view W.A. as the aXXXhole of Australia, from their view of quick visits whilst passing through. One does need to remind these visitors of what it is, that passes quickly through an aXXXhole.

Meantimes, whilst Crappy was preparing his evening meal of Spam (thanks to his Hawaiian ancestry) and tinned spaghetti, washed down by some cheap plain-label Eastern European wine, Turbine called on him to talk about their next jaunt West.

"Will we need some major backup, in case we get stuck", asked Cappy. "I mean, I've never been across the W.A. border, all Easterners know it's a place of savages and undeveloped swamps and sand dunes, interspersed with huge holes in the ground, where the West Oz Mining Entrepeneurs have ripped the guts out of the country for a quick billion!"

"Nah, we'll be right", said Turbine, "I've heard they've got Maccas and KFC and Mobil fuels, so I guess we'll be able to survive without resorting to shooting and skinning camels and boiling and condensing salt water, just to survive the trek".

"Hang on", said bull, "I've heard the place has pure white sandy beaches, gorgeous beach girls, cute quokkas, and even a couple of rivers! You can't go without taking me!"

So the hardy trio started on planning their major exploration venture to the West, with great trepidation and low expectations......

This is where the personal data companies and tracking sites are making a massive killing - and where we, personally, are being shafted.

The tracking and data companies can supply everything the airline booking programme requires to figure out what your preferences are, how many airline booking websites you've looked at recently (and what destinations you've been looking at), and the fare can be adjusted accordingly, usually upwards, to incur a sense of panic and FOMO in the person booking.

Meantimes, we get nothing for handing over all our 'net data and history, and providing reviews - except maybe something virtually worthless, like Google points.

EFI Solutions should have what you need. I presume the thread is 10mm x 1mm? Roger Lee has raised some useful points in the discussion below, about Rotax fuel hose, and barbed fittings.

https://www.efisolutions.com.au/fittings-hose/barb-fittings/

https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/rotax-forum/4-general-discussion/5793-fuel-line-912

Off subject a little - but this is just what the fireys don't need right now. There's some real low-life scum out there.

With a bit of karma, their own home will be in the path of a fire, soon - and the fireys won't be able to help them, due to the missing equipment.

https://www.criticalcomms.com.au/content/industry/news/equipment-stolen-from-rfs-radio-repeater-vehicle-338899293#axzz67HPpKaqg

M16A1 - What's wrong with just using a standard brass threaded barbed tail, as fitted to virtually all other engine fuel systems?

Is there something special about the Rotax thread? I note it appears to have a parallel thread with a sealing washer, but these are normally fairly readily available.

......testing him with rubbing circles on his stomach whilst walking backwards. Talking of backwards, it appears that Kappookistan, the ancestral home of The Nice Rat, has just been rated by Womans Day, as the most backward region in the nation, and WD has started a fundraiser on the GoFundMe website, to try and upgrade the region from the most backward region in Australia, to almost the most backward region in Australia.

"We know we'll never be able to lift the place a huge amount", said the Editor of WD, "And it's a fantasy to try and imagine we'd be able to lift the place to the level of a highly liveable region, such as Halls Creek - so the best we can do, is gather up enough funding to plant a huge line of big Plane trees, to hide the place from passing traffic - and that includes air traffic."

"Hey", Olde Kappookistan isn't THAT bad", said The Nice Big Rat, "after all, we've got a rifle range and a pizza shop, and 6 other empty shops, plus 43 of the towns 186 houses are occupied, so it's not all bad news!"

"Yes, but you forgot to mention, 23 of those occupied houses, are occupied by squatters!", said Onetrack disdainfully. "The place even makes Gulargambone look good! At least Gulargambone has some corrugated iron galahs!"

"But", said The Big Rat, "Gulargambone hasn't got.....

Fridges give off heat in any ambient temperature, regardless. The same goes for RC air conditioners. Put them on cool and the condenser on the outside of the house gives off heat. That's the basic principle for all cooling/refrigeration setups.

Many a home was burnt down by kero fridges with blocked flues, they were tigers for it. Even lost a building myself to one (on our minesite - fortunately it was an old, 3 roomed Fettlers timber cottage, that we'd trucked in, so not a huge loss).

"......try and imagine a dirty laundry basket filled with six-week-old dirty clothes, crossed with a septic tank sporting a busted lid, and you have some idea of how he smells".

But Crappy thought that was quite a mild level of B.O., as his own B.O. was regarded as a cross between the smell of one of the donkeys that tourists ride up and down the cliff face of Santorini, between the Port and Oia, and one of the Golden Sun Camels that gives tourists, camel rides on Cable Beach.

"Surely, Turbine can't actually smell that good?", he said to bull. "Well", said bull, with a pause for long consideration (because bull hails from a town of s-l-o-w  t-a-l-k-e-r-s and s-l-o-w  t-h-i-n-k-e-r-s).

"Let's put it this way. If there was a 'before' and 'after' in aftershave competitions, Turbine would feature in the 'before' part of the competition".

"That good, eh?", said the Craptin thoughfully, stroking his 3 days of rough, black stubble. "I wonder then, would......

..... that does to create a nasty smell of cordite in an area where you should preferably be wearing the aroma of Paco Rabanne (which is supposed to make you smell like a million bucks).

Nothing puts Nikky off more than snuggling up to hear the latest plan to thwart police investigations, and instead, putting her nose into a dose of overpowering and lingering cordite smell. 

But Cappy was getting very jealous by this stage as it was obvious Nikky preferred Turbines company instead of him.

Besides, if he couldn't spend more time with Nikky, he'd miss out on some great corruption chances, going right through to the Premier and Cabinet.

He had to work out a plan to ensure that Turbo became more repulsive to Nikky. A great thought struck Cappy, he knew what he could do, and it involved decapitated horses and Turbos bed.

Cappy, ever gleeful of a new plan of action, set off in search of.......

But bull was obviously drinking some potent beer to actually believe what he said to himself. The simple fact remains, that Turbin and Crappy were only being nice to him because they wanted something from him.

That something wasn't immediately obvious to bull, but unbeknowns to him, it was bound to cost him dearly, if he continued to believe the cXXXp about "well-known members".

They were only well known to certain areas of the nations Policing Depts - mostly CASA compliance inspectors - but there were also some run-ins recorded with other law-enforcement agencies, too.

It wasn't widely known, but both of these individuals are bound to be included in the Nicola Gobbo Royal Commission - you know the one, that investigation where it's been determined that law enforcement and lawyers were sharing beds with the crims they were trying to arrest and jail. A sorry story, and one where Crappy and Tubewhines parts in it, are yet to be exposed (literally), in a major revelation.

I can only reveal a small portion of their activities here, but it involves politicians, developers, police, sex workers, lawyers, local councillors, brown paper bags full of cash, and a breathtaking level of corruption and eavesdropping, at all levels.

I can't say any more now, I'll have to.....

Paddy found a mirror in the scrap yard once. He took one look at it, and said to Mick, "Begorrah, I'da thrown away a portrait that bad, too!"

The money problems started when Kamehameha Turbine started getting involved in cattle and aircraft. As we know, these are the two best ways to lose lots of money.

But Turbine was intent on becoming the biggest rancher on Kauai, as well as owning the largest number of aircraft in all Hawaii.

However, a volcanic eruption from Kilauea in 1960 put paid to all his best laid plans (and planes) by burying everything he owned, under 2 metres of volcanic lava and ash.

It was a devastating time for the young Turbine - but he managed to recover some of his fortune by selling his lava-covered land to NASA for experiments with moon landers, and other moon-landing-related research.

He moved to Australia to leave behind his bad Hawaiian experience memories - but the sight of Cappy in a grass skirt brought all Turbines repressed memories of financial loss and PTSD to the surface, and he started going crazy.

He ran up to Cappy and started to tear at his grass skirt, convinced that Hawaiian bad luck was following him, in the form of Cappy in a Hawaiian outfit.

Of course, the worst part was, Cappy was wearing a Hawaiian floral shirt, which only antagonised Turbine even more. Cappy became alarmed, he'd never seen Turbine at his worst, and now he was seeing.....