onetrack

Well, it looks like the Chinese apologist is back. I can show you any number of Chinese "quality" products here that are basically landfill after a short period of time. And when you say "specced" by Australians, does that mean the Australian purchasers get to control the quality of the material going into the end product? I think not, and "quality fade" is a uniquely Chinese product description - produced by a Western manager who worked in Chinese manufacturing for 20 years.

Profit without regard to quality drives all Chinese operations, and not for nothing is the accent regularly on Chinese sayings, that always include the words, "gold" and "treasure".

I can remember when Alan Bond owned an airship, and they drove it from Sydney to Perth (you can't really say it flies", I reckon - although the CAA controlled its movements!). I think it was a pretty slow trip! - it only did a bit over 90kmh.

I can remember sighting it floating past our mining lease just off the Coolgardie-Norseman Rd, 60kms N of Norseman, at a relatively low altitude. They were obviously using IFR to navigate, because they were basically following Hwy One!

My memory is a bit hazy, but I seem to recall the trip was done about the same time, or maybe a little earlier, as the 1988 Bi-Centennial Balloon Race, which ran from Perth to Sydney.

The Bond Airship was stationed in Sydney in 1987 and drew a lot of complaints about engine noise, invasion of privacy, and upsetting all the local dogs.

......billy goats into his hut for reasons unknown - but it seemed rather revealing that the Hindi was later seen with a curry food cart in the backstreets of Kabul, selling a very, very spicy dish, with mysterious content and ingredients, that Cappy actually purchased one night, when he was tired and hungry after a long day up the Khyber with Turbo - and this then led to a disastrous and serious inflammation of his...........

Yeah, I was wondering how many pax they were going to cram into a 16 foot supersonic rocket. I think Turbo's on the money, let's see the full-size version before we start crowing. Anyone can send a toy rocket into space.

Police are eternally suspicious and any event involving major loss, major injuries and deaths will often be considered a potential crime scene and placed under restrictions for evidence gathering, until it can be proven that no suspicious circumstances exist or evidence-gathering is complete.

If you have a house fire, even one which is obviously accidental, expect interrogation by the police as part of the trauma and investigation.

The dreadful European freight/postage costs will kill the deal. The only gain is, you can acquire them VAT-free as an overseas purchaser. But the transport cost will blow you away.

What a joke, talk about rort of the century! Just eight cup-shaped rubber pads and eight cupped, pressed washers. They're worth about $200 in total.

See a rubber mount manufacturer, they will more than likely be able to knock them up for you.

There's nothing special about the mountings, they're as simple as they come. Their correct technical name is centre fixing isolators, have a chat to Mackay Industrial (Derwent Industries).

The main thing that needs to be established is the Duro (Durometer measure) grade of the rubber. The Duro governs the rubber hardness/softness and it's important the correct Duro is used for the application. Too soft and the rubber will chew out, too hard and too much vibration is transferred to the frame/fuselage/chassis.

.....known to be fond of kickbacks as regards free air tickets (some long-overdue avref), and to this end, Cappy went out of his way to acquire a number of free business-class seats to well-known holiday destinations, where said judges could frolic with the barely-clad native women, without fear of bringing their office into disrepute. In fact, one judge was so enamoured of the "local talent", he was found with his trousers.............

I've never seen too many young men who didn't think they were invincible - especially when it came to driving something with an engine in it.

.....an offence against the order of Nature, which meant that the offence was moved to the Supreme Court, where it could be dealt with under more appropriate legislation, which was..........

If you want to cut a piece of rubber with a knife more easily, you wet it down thoroughly.

With all the information provided, especially relating to the total engine hours, I'd expect the problem is related to an intermittent fuel flow blockage. The inlet hose problem is indicative of age-related problems.

Floating debris in fuel tanks will cause intermittent blockage, the inner lining on hoses separates, and can either peel back and create flow restriction, or simply bubble away from the join between inner and outer materials, and thereby partly block the line.

I've seen a tiny circular metal remnant from hole punching, slip into a fuel line out of the tank, and then act like a butterfly valve. Gun it, and the fuel flow went to near zero. Ease off the throttle, and the fuel flowed. It took a piece of wire shoved down the fuel line to remove the piece of metal.

Correct link in Turbo's post is here....

https://electricmotorglider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CV-Carb-Web.pdf

Russian disruption operatives checking to see what kind of damage they could do to British aviation? The Russians have already been caught placing incendiary devices on cargo aircraft, with the intention of creating serious damage and loss of life to Western/NATO countries, who they believe are conducting war on Russia. There has never been a more dangerous time for Western aviation than the present, with an angry and embittered Russia intent on creating havoc amongst its "enemies".

.....immediately saw the losses mounting at DG International, and promptly investigated the possibility of re-purposing the vast amount of DG rabbit warrens into underground runways.

Despite his intensive knowledge of rabbit numbers, behaviour and warren locations, CT was blown away when his warren investigations returned indications that the rabbits had already moved enough dirt to make 3 underground runways at DG - just with a little extra excavation work.

As the rabbits are masters at excavation, on a par with highly qualified miners, CT was intrigued to find that all that was needed was the removal of a number of pillars, and not only would there be room for 3 underground runways, all with different orientation - but there would also be room for an underground airport hotel, a DFO, several major retailers, plus extensive warehousing abilities, as well.

CT couldn't believe the figures, even though he went over them and re-checked them again, several times. It was just amazing, the numbers were out of...........

But it's not just one wheel, Skippy, it's between 6 and 20 wheels. Ever tried to give a fast spin to a wheel on a hub, say a truck wheel (comparative size) and noted how much effort it took?

The amount of energy required to spin up a stationary set of wheels (and hubs - in total, a sizeable amount of weight) would be very substantial. You can notice the retarding effect in your passenger seat when you hit the runway.

But the only requirement for a military drone, is that the engine be reliable enough - and cheap enough - to last just one mission!

Bit of a difference to expecting your aircraft engine to perform 100% reliably for 2000 hrs, until overhaul!

Quote

I may have this very wrong - Once airborne, unless subject to turbulence/wind shear/ gust, the aircraft does not "know" or care from which direction the wind is coming from. The aircraft will perform just the same with a 20 knot tailwind, as a 20 knot  headwind. The ground speed will differ but the air speed remains the same

Skippy, I've got no problem agreeing with your correct understanding of how an aircraft travels in a pocket of air, and does not "know" where the wind direction is from. 

But time and again, we see pilots crash at low level, and especially when banking or changing course, and they're looking for and acquiring a ground reference, which can distort their perception of air speed.

As Facthunter has pointed out, close to the terrain is risky operation, and things can go bad very quickly, if you're not expecting bad things to happen.

I'd have to opine, you can't put an old head on young shoulders, and youthful inexperience must have been a feature of this tragedy. I'm talking inexperience in total logbook hours, inexperience with low level flight and possibly gusty conditions, and inexperience with a relatively new (to him) aircraft.

Just to put a name to this crash and to flesh out the man, the gent was Mark Andrew Freestone. His story could be any one of us, he loved motorbikes and flying, and life in general.

He did a lot in his 62 years. His funeral streaming link is below, he was obviously admired and well thought of, not the "cowboy" one immediately expects from air crash events.

Maybe, as many motorcyclists do, he liked pushing the boundaries of performance. We just have to remember that aircraft are very unforgiving of pushing the limits.

Mark Andrew Freestone | Vivid Stream

WWW.VIVIDSTREAM.COM.AU

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Mark Andrew Freestone

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"20KTS of wind is a high wind component, compared to the published stall speed"

 

Please explain this comment

Doing a 180° turn, going from a 20KT headwind to a 20KT tailwind, with a heavily loaded experimental aircraft, with a reportedly low stall speed, while you're at low altitude, looking for something on the ground - what could possibly go wrong? Then make that a 20KT crosswind for landing, you've got a real handful!

200L of fuel capacity, if near full, and 3 POB, could make for a low speed manoeuvring trap for a new owner. How many times have we seen pilots stall and crash when looking for something on the ground, and they overlooked adequate airspeed for too long? 20KTS of wind is a high wind component, compared to the published stall speed.

The aircraft appears to have been VH-registered, as the ATSB has initiated an investigation.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/2024/tinamba-west-aircraft-accident

.....sewn up, as his best mate Turbo had seen a wide business opening in the Patersons Curse harvesting, and had set Cappy straight, on how to organise with farmers, which paddocks would be harvested, and in what order - and of course, he would also arrange payment to Turbine Inc's major subsidiary, T.I. Patersons Curse Harvesting And Removal Services. 

Cappy was to told by Turbo to explain to the farmers, that as Patersons Curse was a noxious weed, TIPCHARS was assisting the farmers greatly by harvesting and removal of the nuisance weed, and thereby increasing farm profits and values - so it was only right that TIPCHARS was properly re-imbursed for their efforts.

Of course, Turbo had realised, after some study, that the pyrrolizidine alkaloids found in Patersons Curse were in great demand in both traditional medicine treatment, as well as in regular medical cancer treatments. Turbo quickly realised he was onto a winner. He would get paid handsomely for weed removal, and also get paid handsomely for the chemicals extracted from the weed.

It was easy money on two fronts, and Turbo had always hankered to get into the Pharmaceuticals side of things, as he was well aware the profits in Pharmaceuticals were only something he could dream about, with his run-of-the-mill, cat farming operations.

Turbo and Cappy returned to Shangri-La with cartons and cartons of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. They would not only make massive profits selling the pyrrolizidine alkaloids pills, they would also present themselves as Shamans! 

It was to this end, they both went hunting for Eagle feathers to manufacture their Shamanic cloaks, as feather cloaks are a crucial part of being a Shaman. It wasn't long before Cappy found some crow feathers. "Hey look, this'll do us!", he cried.

Turbo was disgusted, but he hid his disgust well, because Cappy was his Khyber Pass mate. He replied, "Mate, we need, eagle feathers, to give us street cred - and besides, if we.......

It would've made a nice old mess of that turbine, if it had been ingested! How many other slack workshop procedures have crept into their workshop?

Well, not as expensive as the real thing, as Bob pointed out. The high HP Merlins were very delicate pieces of highly-strung machinery, they needed constant mechanical attention, and valve lash adjustments on the Merlin were every 25 hrs, as well as re-tensioning head studs every 25 hrs. The Merlin was going well to reach 500 hrs before needing overhaul. A lot were shot at 250 hrs, especially if they operated in the desert, and weren't fitted with Vokes Aerovee filters.

As Bob pointed out, the Allison only needs valve lash adjustments every 200 hrs. The DC-3 prop and Hamilton Standard quick-feathering hydromatic propeller were a much cheaper option, than the Curtiss electric propeller on the genuine Spitfire.

Yes, it's only 3 blades instead of the 4 blade version on the genuine article, but who's going to make a hullaballoo about that? It's like show visitors complaining that your restoration isn't a genuine factory colour.