onetrack

Or this one? .....

HB-2036 Farner HF Colibri (Keiheuvel 1990)

And this one is even better! - the Luscombe P3 Rattler .....

luscombe aircraft | luscombe | 1983 | 0426 | Flight Archive

Photo by Keith Newsome

Yes, that would be true. Ettore Bugatti was known for his arrogance. Asked about the worthiness of the Bentley race cars, he merely described the Bentley, as "the worlds fastest lorry".

He was fixated on the aims of speed, and beauty in his design - but not necessarily the practicality of his designs.

If a problem arose in any of his designs, he was loath to change anything, claiming the problem lay with the owner or operator. He was often rude and abusive towards Bugatti owners who complained about design faults.

I can recall the story from the late 1920's or early 1930's when the Type 35 racing Bugatti's brakes got so hot, the heat transferred to the wheel rims and started to melt the tyres, causing huge problems for the Bugatti race car drivers.

The team manager fronted Ettore and told him the brake and axle design needed to be modified. Ettore reportedly flew into a rage, claiming there was nothing wrong with the design, and blamed the drivers.

In the same vein, when Bugatti persisted with his abominable cable-operated brakes, after most manufacturers had converted to the superior hydraulic brakes - and purchasers of the Type 35 started to complain - Ettores answer was simple. "I make cars to go, not to stop!"

What a bummer. Just reminds one of how inherently dangerous the testing of novel aircraft designs is - and even more so, when it's a vintage design that never previously flew.

I know it's ugly but I love the benign flight characteristics of the 2nd one, from 1.15 minutes.

It kind of reminds me of how the majority of car manufacturers went from rear-mounted steering linkages, to front-mounted steering linkages, because front-mounted linkages gives improved steering control.

If you equate planes to cars, there's plenty of BMW's through to Ferrari's out there, especially related to price, but not so many Toyota Camrys.

The missus has an ASV50 Atara-S and it's actually a very very good car to drive. It corners like its on rails, it's a superb highway car, it produces quite adequate power at 135kw, and I can get it down to 6.4L/100km consistently on a smooth level freeway at 100kmh.

The motoring journalists will tell you the Camry is just a POS, typical Toyota whitegoods offering - but these blokes worship the European badges, and won't even consider the massive problems that come with Euro badges, such as horrendous parts prices, over-engineering resulting in constant niggly problems, and massive depreciation.

Roll on with the Ornithopter. Just remember, putting a bend in the wings has to have advantages on more than one front, besides looks, and not consuming more material.

I'd personally be concerned about the bend producing control and linkage complications, and control surfaces operation complications.

If you did it in some of the traditional styles of building then in some cases you might be right, but you may have noticed already that I don't do things like other people do.

This series of old film clips has to go into the laughter forum, because they're a laugh a minute!

Bex, doesn't the gullwing design mean more fasteners, and multiple wing sections, that detract from the inherent strength of one straight, simple section?

My grandfather won one of those letterbox lotteries many years ago and ended up with a Porsche Boxster which he had traded in on a Mercedes before even taking delivery of it.

My vote is for a Jabiru, because they're locally made, and we need to support local industry.

If the winner hates Jabs with a passion, he/she can always trade it on the aircraft of their choice!

I bet the fine for stopping on a freeway is going to hit his wallet, big time!

Looks like the GA training and procedures are going to have to be sharpened up, in more than one airline operation!

I bet that was a pretty wild ride, before all the bouncing stopped!

I hope they didn't damage my fragile freight that I'm waiting on!

Accident: ASL Hungary B734 at Milan on Aug 5th 2016, overran runway

Could've been worse, you could have landed somewhere on the Nullarbor Plain!

I can recall sometime in the late 1970's, when I was an agricultural contractor, I called on a potential farmer client, looking for work, in the area NE of Hyden - because I was working my machines in the area.

We had a 10 minute discussion, the discussion ended, I farewelled him and roared back out the long entrance drive to his farm, to the front gate.

Now, most of that country out there is relatively treeless, and the farmers never left too many trees or shade patches. The only break is undulations in the countryside, when someone or something can actually hide in a depression.

His driveway had a couple of raised areas of ground, with a couple of matching depressions, which meant you could hide something in one of those depressions, and get a surprise when you came over a small rise, and it suddenly appeared in view.

Unbeknowns to me, when I roared out, the farmer had jumped on his trail bike, and roared out the driveway, probably a couple of minutes behind me. It was Mid-Summer, he was only wearing stubbie shorts, thongs, and a T-shirt.

I got to his front gate, and suddenly remembered there was something important I wanted to ask him. So I did a U-turn, and roared back up the long driveway to the house, in the ute.

I crested one of the couple of rises in his driveway - when suddenly, I was confronted with farmer squatting by the side of the driveway alongside his bike - shorts around his ankles, trying to lay a length of brown cable!

I dunno who got the biggest shock - me - or the farmer - who didn't hear me coming back up the rise in the driveway, and who only realised I was coming back, when I crested the rise, 200M away at 60kmh!

I've never seen a bloke stand up and whip his shorts back on, so fast in all my life! I reckon he broke the world record - it would have only taken him around 5 milliseconds, I estimated. It was faster than any reflex action.

He was as cool as a cucumber, I asked him what I wanted to know, got my answer, and I farewelled him again.

I often wonder if he managed to lay that turd right after I left, or if it got clenched back in so tightly, it took 2 days to release it again!!

The reported temperature of 49 deg C would have had a pretty sizeable effect on performance, of even a B777, wouldn't it?

And that's just at the temperature reporting location - the temperature over the runway would have to be a lot more, wouldn't it?

It's not until you've stood out on a big area of hotmix bitumen for an extended period, on a 38 deg C day, that you understand what "heat sink" means (that's heat sink as in heat absorption).

There have also been reports of windshear, which I understood was their reason for selecting TOGA.

If there was a combination of windshear and the performance-reducing heat effect, coupled with a few seconds delay in the decision to GA, then one can perhaps understand the reasons behind the crash.

What puzzles me, and a lot of others, is the apparent gear-up position. Surely the Capt and FO would have ensured a positive climb rate before raising the gear?

I've been in, and also watched at close range, large RPT aircraft who carried out a GA. The one I was in, was due to departing military aircraft debris on the runway at YPDN, a couple sighted at YPPH were due to extremely gusty conditions.

They don't stuff around, the rejection decision isn't left to the last few seconds, but more like 150-200 feet - and the gear isn't raised until they're properly climbing.

I would suspect a very late and poorly-initiated decision to GA could be behind this crash. Could have perhaps also involved some miscommunication between the Emirati Capt and the Aussie FO.

NOTE - I'm not a SIM expert, not a commercial pilot, not a 16 yr old wanna-be - just expressing a personal opinion, which is what most people do on forums.

It looks like I'm not the only one worried about Trump having unfettered access to the Big Red Button ...

Former Nuke Weapons Officer Goes Off: Trump Is 'So Damn Dangerous'

The comments below the article are interesting enough in themselves. Noonan, I might add, is regarded as a hawkish Republican, as well as a former nuke launch officer.

The media is reporting a Cessna 172 has made a successful dead-stick emergency landing on the Cape Leveque-Broome Rd (Manari Rd) after reportedly running out of fuel.

Now, while this immediately sounds bad, it is more than likely the story is a lot more involved than what has been reported in the couple of paragraphs below.

Light aircraft makes emergency landing near Broome

1. The aircraft left Cape Leveque after an overnight stay, destination Broome. It is entirely possible the fuel tank/s were "milked" at Cape Leveque, and the pilot didn't do a final check, just immediately prior to takeoff.

2. It's possible the fuel supply line was disrupted in some manner, and serious amounts of fuel were lost in flight.

See scenario 1 for the possibility that the "milking" involved removing a fuel line and it was not replaced properly.

3. I had a former business partner who put his Cherokee down on the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie Rd many years ago, due to a fuel tank crossover valve failure and resultant fuel starvation.

He landed O.K., but then took a wing off on a large roadsign that got in the way!

It's entirely possible the Cessna suffered a similar style of problem, but I'm not familiar with Cessna tank/plumbing setups, so this is merely conjecture on my part.

Glad to see the emergency landing was successful and no-one was hurt. The Manari Rd is full of caravanners, campers and 4WD's at present, he's lucky he didn't land on a 4WD or a caravan or a camper!

It's funny how the only ones who recognise Trump as a worthy leader of the U.S., also just happen to be the most erratic and dangerous people around - the NK military - who also view unquestioning, dictatorial-leader-worship, as the ideal method of Govt.

What amazes me is how no-one has pinned Trump on his policies - mostly because he doesn't have any.

He believes in policy-on-the-run, divide-and-conquer, abuse of opponents, and rapid-backtracking on statements, as hallmarks of a fabulous leader.

He cannot produce a firm policy and direction statement on anything of major importance that any previous President has been unable to solve.

The greatest self-promoting statement that reveals the level of his BS - which BS, I'm firmly of the opinion, he actually believes - is his statement that the day after he is elected, "Beginning on 20th January 2017, safety (in the U.S.) will be restored (to all its citizens)!"

Stupid Donald Trump Quotes 2016

Full text: Donald Trump 2016 RNC draft speech transcript

Maybe if Trump produced a worthy policy outline on how to reduce the number of easily-accessed, billion-plus firearms that the U.S. is currently awash in, one could actually imagine he did have some method of attacking the gun violence problem that plagues America.

I can predict one thing with great certainty - even if Trump is elected President, the safety of the average American will not improve, and neither will U.S. gun-violence reduce, one iota. Mostly because Trump has no worthwhile ideas on how to reduce U.S. firearm violence.

He will be no different to any other U.S. President, they are totally unable to deal with rabid "2nd Amendment" protesters, nor can they deal with the "untouchable" firearms industry, or its well-financed arm, the NRA.

I cannot even begin to comprehend the maths, the science, and the skill behind being able to jump from 25,000 ft precisely into a 100 ft square net!

Let alone the nerves of steel it would take to even contemplate a jump without a 'chute! The bloke must carry his cojones around in a wheelbarrow.

I can recall reading that the British had no less than 22,000 military aircraft sitting unwanted and unloved, in early 1919.

Nearly all were broken up for scrap, some selling for a little as a couple of pounds - and many had only a few hours on the clock.

Nev, I don't need first-hand knowledge of Rudd's temperament and modus operandi - plenty of Labor people close to him have already outlined it clearly.

And there's nothing slanderous (definition of slanderous - "false and malicious") about my assessment of him, the precise same words have been used by others to describe him, and I used them with no malicious intent. The words are an accurate description of his character flaws.

What amuses me, is Tanya Plibersek seems to have done a complete about-face in her opinion of Rudd. She needs to have the footage replayed to her where she described working with Rudd as difficult, and how flawed his personality is.

Here Nicola Roxon (former Labor A-G, in case you forgot) calls Rudd a bastard, and for him to quit Parliament, in a John Button lecture ..

Nicola Roxon calls on 'bastard' Kevin Rudd to quit Parliament in John Button lecture

How not to be a boss like Kevin Rudd (SMH) ..

How not to be a boss like Kevin Rudd

Rudd would be an embarrassment to Australia if he was punted into the U.N. leadership position. He was an embarrassment as a PM.

He's another Trump - a bloke who mistakes movement for action, he's nothing but a blue-arse fly.

His airfares bills when he was PM were utterly staggering, and he spent more time in the air, than on the ground.

Anytime there was a pressing decision to be made at home, Rudd was on a jet, tear-arsing around the world, pressing the flesh with every 3rd world tinpot dictator he could garner a photo session with.

He sees himself as a world leader to eclipse Winston Churchill - when the sad fact is, he's an arrogant, narcissisitic, bullying, divisive, intransigent prick, who is a complete arsehole to work under. And I'm looking at the descriptions from Labor people who had him as a boss, to form that opinion.

Turnbull may have broken with tradition - but a proposed appointee to the U.N. position has to show the necessary qualities needed, by way of leadership ability, ability to unite people, ability to work with others, and a calm and steady temperament. Rudd has adequately demonstrated none of those qualities.

I might add, I've employed many hundreds of people over a number of decades, and I've operated a business with up to 103 employees at the one time, so I think I've acquired some character judgement skills, when it comes to assessing peoples abilities, and employment suitability.

Bex, I feel for those people who are losing their livelihoods in the car industry - but there's a maxim I live by, and these people need to understand it.

"The only constant in life is change".

With drastic changes, unending losses, and restructuring, comes opportunities. They have to be identified and seized. I've been there and done that.

In the late 1970's, I had to abandon all I knew, the industry I worked in, and all the goodwill and clients I built up with my business, to reset my life and start out again in a different direction - when I was cursed with a 400% increase in fuel prices within 18 mths, a drought that was the worst in 80 years, and interest rates that peaked around nearly 30%.

I actually had to pay 23% interest on a $100,000 bridging loan in 1983, to enable my total change of direction in life, and into the new industry I'd selected as the way forward.

The move paid off handsomely, but it was certainly a torrid time, and most of my white hair probably came from that traumatic period of my life.

In most cases, people who relied on the local car industry for their income will have to re-examine their skills, what they can utilise them for, the potential for them to move elsewhere for work, or the potential for them to maybe even start their own small businesses locally.

Life is a rolling train, and you have to ride the bumps and undulations, and the derailments, that your travel through life hands you.

Nearly all these car industry people will receive severance payouts - it's not like the factories have shut at 5 mins notice, and with no money left to pay anything.

Facthunter, the simple fact remains the numbers are against us. The total vehicle market in Australia is a little over 1M vehicles annually - for ALL makes and models. Compare that with manufacturers requirements that investment in a vehicle manufacturing facility has to be a guaranteed annual sales level of at least 250,000, just for that make, to ensure adequate ROI.

Falcon sales have recently been down to about 20,000 annually. Ford have been producing the wrong model for our market for too long, with lower build quality and poorer design, than the imports.

They stuck with a huge thirsty 6 for far too long, when high-tech 4 cyls and smaller capacity engines were taking the market by storm.

The only thing we can do with our manufacturing industries today, is to seriously upgrade and automate them, and seek out niche markets.

Car manufacturing in Australia is a dead industry, it's been dead on its feet for the last 20 years, and only constant huge Govt subsidies have kept it operational. Those subsidies largely only benefited global corporations.

The car industry in Australia should have been given a decent funeral and buried with honours in the 1990's.

It served Australia well from just after WW1 to the 1980's - but it was overtaken by technology, it was crippled by corporations who refused to invest in new automotive technologies, it was hobbled by manufacturers failing to recognise what the Australian customer wanted.

It was destroyed by global corporations selecting low-cost-base manufacturing zones, and utilising the benefits of favourable Australian trading regulations, that gave advantages to those third-world countries seen to be in need of trade assistance.

Those regulations never foresaw global corporations becoming the major beneficiary of those favourable trading laws.

Australian manufacturers never produced a local diesel engine, the Japs saw the market and filled it. Jap diesels rule in Australia now - yet, it could have just as easily been Australian diesels.

It's not like we lack the smart people to design engines - it was just Western global corporations protecting their investment in the engines of the day, and refusing to progress to new and better and more fuel-efficient designs.

Local manufacturers had to be dragged kicking and screaming into producing 4 speed transmissions in the late 1960's - when they all insisted that 3 speed trannies were good enough for everybody.

They refused point-blank to produce and install 5 speed overdrive trannies - so the Japs promptly met the demand.

The local manufacturers belatedly produced their 5 speed overdrive trannies, 5 or 8 years later - but it was too late, the Japs already had the market by the short and curlies.

Australian manufacturers never saw the emerging market for dual-cab utes. The Japs and even the Europeans did, and these vehicles are the biggest sellers in Australia today.

I can recall the brother buying a HQ Holden Statesman - which was only available in V8 and automatic transmission. He wanted a manual for improved fuel economy and preferred a decent 6 cyl rather than a V8.

The salesman agreed, he said they had told GMH there was a considerable market for a 6 cyl manual transmission Statesmans - and GMH told them they wouldn't make it, as it was deemed as detracting from the "luxury Statesman image".

I have a copy of an interesting book, called "The National Handbook of Australia's Industries (1934). This book was a Commonwealth publication, detailing all the industries in Australia in 1934, state by state.

A YouTube user shows part of the above book -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=domRo02ur4Q

It is mind-boggling what we produced back then, even though we only had a whisker over 4M population. The car industry alone employed nearly 40,000 people directly. Probably another 140,000 were involved in ancillary and associated work related to the automotive industry.

However, those industries survived because they were industries of the times, meeting the current demand, and wisely (for that era), protected by tariffs.

In the intervening 82 years, technological advances have wiped out many of those industries. The rest were wiped out by thoughtless total tariff removal, by poor management that couldn't see developing trends and meet them - and by favourable trading regulations that enabled an onslaught of products from low-labour-cost nations.

Total tariff removal only works when everyone does it - we did it, but a lot of other nations didn't. Who's the mugs, then?

Naturally, many of those imported products from those low-labour-cost nations today, are poor quality, but people (the buyers) largely only see the initial purchase price, not the poor quality.

The situation is not helped by retailers only stocking the cheapest products with the highest profit margins.

The future of Australia is not in manufacturing - it's in innovation, in producing new technology, ideas and inventions, that are world-class-leading.

Our future is in education and training the people in the 3rd world countries. Go to Singapore and see how well-regarded an education in Australia is.

We need to be pushing English-language proficiency, both for Australians, and for people from overseas who are studying here.

English is the world-recognised language of technology, of science, of engineering, and of high-tech construction - as well as aviation!

We are world leaders in many things - but no longer in manufacturing. We need Govts that recognise innovation and technological advances, and we need Govt support for industry and individual research and development, of promising and world-beating new processes and inventions.

America does this, and reaps the rewards accordingly. U.S. Govt support for R&D is huge, we need to follow their lead.

My dear old Auntie, despite living in Australia for something like 40 years, never lost her Scottish accent, as did my own mother - even after 60 years here.

Auntie ran a shop in Townsville for 30+ years - and yet, she goes into another shop there, and asks for a "2 pund of tatties, and pirn of threed"!

(2 pounds of potatoes, and a reel of cotton thread, to the uninitiated!)

I'd like to know how many of you can read and understand, "Da Tree Peery Grice"!

SCOTS - Da Tree Peerie Grice

This incident has obviously not yet been fully covered. I have yet to read about the Capt and FO, "wrestling with the controls", yet to read about the "passengers screaming in fear", as the aircraft "plunged off its designated flight path" to "avoid the looming major disaster".