onetrack

And that would be US$, too? 🙄

Oui, oui, we have problem weeth pee-lots wanting toi-luts!! Sacre blue, do these Europeans not understand English?? 😄

Be assured. MS and Google always have your best interests at heart, and would never expose you to something that wasn't good for you.

The Apex seals in the Mazda Rotary are their weak point. Plus, their dreadful thirst - not what you want when you have limited fuel-carrying ability.

Peter, it's Naked Gyrocopter Girl - make sure you get it right, or no-one will be able to find the video. 😄

He doesn't even look like he's Nigerian, to be able to claim he built a plane out of scrapyard junk!

That's just that dodgy pilot, ripping off his rego decals, so he can't be caught, for recent low-level flying. 😄

I must say I'm a little surprised we didn't get shown an important makeup check and eyeliner touchup, as part of the emergency landing. After all, as an "Instagram pilot", one has to make sure ones makeup is still perfect, when one is being dragged from the wreckage, no? 😄

I can't wait for Blancolirio's dissection of all the primary causes behind this dreadful crash. W&B not recorded, no AwC, a total lack of logbooks (apart from one found that seems to detail non-aviation-related problems, as in a list of naughty boys and girls), the use of uncertified propulsion units with untested power outputs, controls authority unable to be verified due to some dubious control systems used, no definitive flight plan lodged (apart from some reference found in the wreckage that details a flight path roughly from the Arctic Circle, around the world, and back to the start point) - and finally, fuel quantity and type unable to be verified. The FAA and NTSB are going to have their work cut out here.

Here's a hint as regards getting those vinyl decals off - from someone who did it all wrong. Use a hairdryer or heat gun on low temperature to soften the vinyl, then peel back a corner with a sharp plastic scraper (some people say an old credit card, but I don't keep old credit cards lying around). Lift and peel the decal at about 120° angle, keeping the hairdryer/heat gun warmth on it steadily (without getting it too hot). Clean up the adhesive residue with citrus oil cleaner. If you're lucky, the decals won't have been on long enough or subject to enough sun heat to meld into the underlying paint. I had that problem with my Hilux, 10 years of Alice Springs sun fairly welded them to the underlying paint.

Great news! Now you're all set to start your glazing business, servicing Cue and surrounding areas! 😄

.......and even Donald Trump and Putin look-alikes. This was primarily led by the huge demand and generous renumeration for body doubles, for these two leaders - although the remake did come with some risks - even when those people weren't being employed as body doubles. It wasn't a lot different to having a bullseye tattooed on your face, actually. And speaking of tattoos - of course, Turbo rapidly realised there were those clients who preferred to avoid plastic surgery, but were happy to get large numbers of tattoos - thus meaning they could blend in better with the vast majority of the 21st century, general population of Australia. Accordingly, Turbo always ensured that TFPS had a subsidiary business, Turbine Terrifying Tattoos, located next door to every TFPS surgery. One would think that having "Terrifying" in ones trading name would turn people away - but No, Turbo knew that people who wanted tattoos, would understand that the "Terrifying" part of the name would mean that they would come out of the tattoo parlour looked even more terrifying, than when they went in - which is the whole aim of tattoos, of course, as anyone in the underworld knows. It was while Tony Mokbel was getting a new tattoo in the TTT parlour, however, that the problems started. Everyone knows you don't mess with Tony, and even more so, when Tony is unhappy. When Tony realised his new tattoo had been misspelled, things got ugly very quickly. Tony jumped out of his chair, screaming, "You.........

Once you get into the farming country, it will be pink and grey galahs, corellas, and ringneck parrots feeding by the roadside on spilt grain, that will be decorating your grille! Good to hear the trip is going O.K. Is the Christmas traffic heavy? When I lived alongside the Coolgardie-Norseman Rd at Higginsville, the traffic levels built up enormously before Christmas Day - then on Christmas Day itself, we could hold a party in the middle of the highway, with hardly a vehicle to be seen! Even 50 years ago, traffic levels reached nearly 1,000 vehicles a day going through Norseman. I believe the numbers haven't altered greatly in 50 years, with a reported average of 700 vehicles a day through Norseman, and 2/3rds of them, East-West trucks. Cheap airline fares killed driving the East-West route. The drive still gives you an appreciation of the vastness of Australia, same as driving the Great Central Road does. 11 years ago, I bought a good used 2WD petrol Hilux traytop at auction in Alice Springs. When I went to arrange a flight to Alice Springs from Perth, I couldn't fly direct, there were no flights! So, I ended up flying to Sydney, then back to Alice Springs! The fares were actually quite cheap, back then. I got into Alice Springs mid-afternoon, picked up the Hilux, fuelled it, got some food and water and a couple of jerrycans, and took off for the West that afternoon. I just camped on the tray of the Hilux at a suitable spot the first night - although I did pull into Warakurna Roadhouse/Caravan Park the second night, for the showers and camp kitchen. The third night, I softened up, and camped in the White House Hotel in Leonora. I pulled into Kalgoorlie early the next day, licenced the Hilux for W.A., and was home that night! I put up some photos of my trip, it was a good trip, and the road was well maintained over nearly all of its length. Running into numerous Indigenes and assisting with their car (and fuel) problems was all part of the trip excitement! I've still got the Hilux, it's a backup vehicle, although I don't really need it now. https://pbase.com/onetrack/tjukaruru_rd__grt_central_road

They're designing a new horse to prevent the motor car from taking over. The future is not in complex, high maintenance, fossil-fuelled engines - the future is in electric motors and batteries. YASA, a Mercedes Benz subsidiary, is now producing axial-flux, lightweight electric motors - that are being designed and utilised as wheel motors in EV's. They are going into high-end machines at present, such as Lamborghinis and Ferraris, but very soon, you will see your average EV comprising a drive train that consists only of 4 wheel motors. The weight-saving is predicted to be around 500kg for the average redesigned EV in the future. The axial-flux motor design has been perfected by a British scientist, and YASA now has a U.K. factory producing these motors, and YASA is actively looking for more uses for them - with Defence and Military use on their radar. Aviation use is a no-brainer for these axial flux motors. How does a continuous 500HP from a 13kg motor sound? That makes for plenty of weight saving for more batteries for the power source. Battery charging technology is now down to 10 mins to get to 80% recharge. The future is electric, despite what Trump wants to see. https://yasa.com/about/ https://yasa.com/news/yasa-smashes-own-unofficial-power-density-world-record-pushing-state-of-the-art-electric-motor-to-staggering-new-59kw-kg-benchmark/ Soft Magnetic Composite Material is the secret sauce that is rapidly advancing electric motive power, it really is a game-changer.

......lining up to get their slanted eyes pulled into "round eye" shape. Naturally, Turbo had been quick off the mark, with Turbine Facial Plastic Surgery Inc, opening up in multiple locations faster than TKD. However, there were some downsides to the plastic surgery that many Tasmanians failed to understand until after the surgery. First off, Turbo actually used real plastic in his plastic surgeries. When journalists started querying this process, Turbo loftily replied, "The use of plastic in our plastic surgeries is due to our clean and green credentials. With such a huge oversupply of recyclable plastic available, that no-one knows what to do with, it simply makes good economic and environmental sense, to use some of that available plastic in our surgical procedures! Besides, it IS called "plastic surgery", isn't it? What did these people expect?" However, as the rumblings, and then the loud complaints, of unhappy TFPS customers started to rapidly increase, Turbo was forced into some fast decision making. Did he continue on with the business in Tasmania - where adverse pressures against him were happening, or did he move to China, where "the sky was the limit" for client numbers. It was a no-brainer, and before long.........

That bloke has definitely missed his lifes calling - as a Sign Language interpreter beside the news reader! That new engine produces no worthy advances in IC-engine design - it merely contains all the problem of a piston engine, along with all the problems of a rotary engine!

SWMBO told me recently that her ex-hubby, before he married, bought a used van that had been a washing machine repairmans van. It was still plastered with the repairmans signwriting, advertising washing machine repairs. She said he took a couple of mates and drove across the Nullarbor to the East Coast, and up to N Qld in it, for a grand holiday tour - but whenever they stopped, people would regularly come out of nowhere, asking the blokes if they could fix their broken-down washing machine! 😄 Moneybox has jagged one huge advantage in his trip across the Long Paddock - a huge high pressure system is setting up in the Bight, with fine weather and a handy SE tailwind all the way. That makes a big difference when traversing that route, as against fighting strong Westerly headwinds all the way. Fuel costs get pretty astronomical across the Nullarbor, I paid $2.55 for diesel at Mundrabilla in May 2024. I hope Moneybox bought some jerrycans to extend his range. Diesel is $2.92 today at Nullarbor Roadhouse.

Brendan, it's Moneybox's eyes that will be glazed, after the next two thousand kays! 😄

Wow! Look out, everyone along the Nullarbor, for the Ratchet Strap Special! 😄 This gives me a whole new level of respect for Chinese ratchet straps!

Move to W.A.! - we don't have starlings, and even one sighting of a starling brings out an eradication campaign. They would cost W.A. hundreds of millions in agricultural losses if they ever managed to get established here. Bright flashing lights, loud noises, sharp spikes mounted at nesting or roosting positions, distress calls of the bird species, and the cries of predator birds, are the main things that deter unwanted birds. https://www.ebay.com/itm/404281383875

My Dad got paid £15 a week in 1957 as the resident painter in the Palace Hotel in Central Perth. He was quite pleased to get the job and the pay, after he threw in dairy farming, because dairy farming didn't even pay wages, it was actually a loss-making operation. The dairy farming looked good in 1951 when he started, then the State Govt tightened milk quotas around 1954, due to over-production, so that wrecked any possibility of making a profit. The milk quotas were introduced during the Great Depression (early 1930's). We have an old saying in rural areas - "You've never known real poverty, until you've been a dairy farmer!" https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46358586/3727394 £50 a week was a very good salary in 1955, and the pay rate of a Captain today is probably around 3-4 times the average salary, so the relationship to many things one has to purchase today, is similar. Cars are far cheaper today and much better equipped, but housing and property has gone ballistic, and skewed the relationship to many things. A Captain of a big commercial airliner today has a lot more technology to deal with, but weather forecasting is much improved since 1955 - communications and information levels are instant and enormous, and the flying conditions would be vastly more comfortable today, than the piston-engine, unpressurised, low altitude era. That was a very unhappy end to Captain Virtues career, and I trust he enjoyed the move into farming - but it would have been a lot harder, lower-paying work, even so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Virtue

Crime rate in Northam, Australia - RedSuburbs REDSUBURBS.COM.AU Crime rate profile of Northam

Moneybox, I trust you've got a list of friends or associates you can call on, along the route, if things go pear-shaped, and that Hyundai lets you down. The longest and loneliest section is Ceduna to Norseman. It's very hard to get anyone to stop out there, the truckies have their right foot glued to the floorboards and will not back off until they're forced to, and a lot of people in cars watched Wolfe Creek just before they left, and they'll floor it when they see someone standing by the roadside. Make sure you take a suit, and put it on if you break down. 😄

The companies that refuse to send to PO boxes, are using freight agents that are not part of Australia Post or Startrack, so they can't deliver to P.O. boxes, because AP has to handle the parcels to be able to put them in a P.O. box - which of course, are owned by AP. Handing the parcels over to AP for the final placement into P.O. boxes would double your freight/shipping costs. Officeworks started "Mailman" in 2015, which was a "post box" system for parcels, all located in Officeworks stores, where you could go to pick up your parcels, However, Mailman didn't last long, because AP have the monopoly on the postal box system. Mailman was wound up by Officeworks in 2020.

sfGnome, the AP contractors are hit-and-miss, some are good, some are useless. I reckon a lot of them can barely speak English, so they avoid face-to-face contact. The posties themselves are good, well-trained and efficient, but they can't handle the AP parcel volumes, so AP and Startrack are always hiring outside contractors with vans for final deliveries.