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onetrack

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Everything posted by onetrack

  1. onetrack
    I can recall the time when you couldn't get CoA for any aircraft that had ever been in combat, or designed for combat. In wartime, they're used and abused, and taken way beyond structural recommendations as they're thrown around the sky. They're shot up, patched, crashed and rebuilt - multiple times. They patched sections of one airframe onto another - and the LAME's worked in dreadful conditions, often with inadequate tools, and certainly using secondhand parts and components. In WW2 they worked in atrocious conditions, sandstorms, new fresh-made (and often, still unfinished) runways, they took off in deep mud, they spent all their life in the open, alongside the oceans, on decks of ships (from new), and the average airframe life in WW2 was probably 3-4 years.
  2. onetrack
    No B-17 would have ever achieved any more than 2,000-3,000 hrs TT. "The Swoose" is the oldest B-17 preserved, and has probably done less than 2000 hrs. It was built in 1941, and started suffering from cracked wing spars and corrosion by 1944. The B17G "Nine-O-Nine" that was recently destroyed in a crash, had done under 1200 hrs. They weren't built to last, just built fast, to fight a war, and to be quickly destroyed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swoose#:~:text=The Swoose is a Boeing,oldest B-17 still intact.
  3. onetrack
    They still appear to be in business? https://www.atecaircraft.eu/en/news
  4. onetrack
    If you paint the wings and tail a bright purple, you'll have two colours and a pattern that will stand out anywhere. 🙂
  5. onetrack
    How can you be so sure it's drone footage? It could be a screenshot from Google Maps. If I go to Google Maps Street View, and then click on the zoom out ( - ) button, I can get pretty good "drone-type" views of the terrain. I would inquire to the real estate company as to how they acquired that image or images, before making a report to CASA. If they have used a drone, then someone certainly needs reaming out.
  6. onetrack
    Well, that colour is pretty much guaranteed to make sure that no-one ever misses sighting you! 🙂
  7. onetrack
    That's terrible treatment on behalf of your wife! Apple watches aren't designed to take that kind of abuse!
  8. onetrack
    You have to remember that the aircraft was 34 years old, and had done over 92,000 hrs. Despite being fully rebuilt in 2006 when converted to a freighter (MD-11F), it was still a 1991 aircraft build - and it was due to be phased out of service shortly, due to age and hours/cycles. Corrosion in two separate areas of structural members of the hull, was found in the Sept 2025 maintenance check, and along with a crack in a stringer near the centre wing upper fuel tank, these problems resulted in the lengthy repair, when the aircraft was out of service for over a month in Sept and Oct. This was a very old and very tired aircraft, and it should've been retired 10 years ago, especially with its known design faults.
  9. onetrack
    A lot of people learn quickly and easily from images, rather than text. The U.S. military found that cartoon-style instructions were very effective training aids, during WW2, and right up to the video age. Youtube explanatory videos are often very good, although a lot are a bit amateurish.
  10. onetrack
    It's reported the pilot has suffered burns to 80% of his body. That is a dreadful figure, and doesn't augur well for his survival. The docs used to say that if you add your age to the percentage level of burns, and it comes to more than 100, you have little chance of survival. Fortunately burns recovery methods have advanced in a big way in recent years (especially since the Bali Bombing), and the burns victims have a better chance of survival today. Despite all that, the first few days are critical, the body becomes overwhelmed with the repair job it's facing. I've burnt myself badly twice, it sure wasn't fun. Once when I dropped an open 1 gallon can of petrol onto a battery when I was crouching over it (youthful stupidity) - and once when I tipped a full cup of boiling water into my lap at breakfast time, as I was sitting in my jocks. It was made worse by the fact I'd microwaved the cup of water to boiling point, which really makes everything doubly hot. The pain was unbelievable, off the scale, and it took weeks for the burns to heal. I hate to even imagine what it would be like, being caught in burning wreckage. I trust this bloke pulls through O.K., and I wish him all the best for recovery, but he's got a long and painful road in front of him, if he pulls through the first few days.
  11. onetrack
    The news media are reporting a light aircraft crash on landing at Raglan, Qld this morning. The aircraft crashed when trying to land on a private airstrip. The aircraft caught fire during the crash and the pilot, a gent in his 60's suffered serious burns to the face, chest and limbs, from the fire. It appears he managed to free himself from the wreckage, and walked around 2km to a nearby homestead, where the alarm was raised. Paramedics have been treating the victim for "significant" life-threatening burns. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-23/man-suffers-life-threatening-burns-light-plane-crash-raglan/106042294
  12. onetrack
    The reason it's in two pieces could be because that style of design sped up the manufacturing process. The bottom line is, no aircraft engine should depart the airframe, ever. There's just no redundancy when that lug fails, and the lug design obviously has minimal reserve strength. American built machines usually have massive reserves of strength in critical areas, it seems the engineers calculations on the forces applied to that lug under all potentially-foreseeable conditions, were just simply wrong. And they could have engineered some other form of redundancy into the design, such as a safety strap, similar to driveshaft safety straps, which prevent driveshafts that fall off, from flailing about.
  13. onetrack
    Moneybox, there's already a global oversupply of grains, and prices have dropped accordingly. Canola is possibly still one of the bright spots in the grain market, because of strong demand, mostly from Europe, as a fuel additive. The canola price peaked during 2022, and has dropped off somewhat since, but it's still a profitable crop. European countries have set targets on biodiesel percentages, and the European farmers alone, can't grow enough oilseed crops to meet the demand. Plus, canola has a wide range of uses, from food use (cooking and salad oils) to industrial uses (lubricants, soaps and cosmetics) - and the meal left over from oil processing can be used as animal feed, fertiliser, and pet food.
  14. onetrack
    Very nice, how were the yields? W.A. is well behind on harvest, due to a cool and wet Spring. A lot of harvesting will still be going on well after Christmas - and that's with big, late-model harvesters, too. But the overall harvest in W.A. is a cracker, and is going to make a record for W.A.'s total grain tonnage, I reckon it will go over 27M tonnes in total. W.A.'s biggest-ever harvest was 25M tonnes in 2022. The yields are just amazing, some barley crops are going 7-11 tonnes/ha, I've never seen anything like it. I was watching a big harvester video on FB, at Esperance, they were pulling off 80 tonnes an hour on barley! We have harvesting operations here, where 2 double roadtrains can't keep up with the harvester, just on the short haul to the local rail bin. Huge amounts of grain are going to port by road, the rail network can't cope. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1499670794616183 https://www.giwa.org.au/wa-crop-reports/2025-season/giwa-crop-report-november-2025/
  15. onetrack
    There is no wing tank fracture as I presumed, Facthunter is on the money, the fire was obviously fed by the fuel manifolds. The engine aft pylon lugs simply failed, they just broke right through the lugs, and with that support gone, there was absolutely nothing to stop the engine departing the airframe. A very simple, single point of failure, that should not ever have been allowed to pass certification. The lugs had been cracked for some time, and the cracks simply progressed to total failure of the lugs. The airframe was high hours, in excess of 92,000 hrs, and the mandated pylon inspection was determined to be at 28,000 cycles, but this aircraft had only done just over 21,000 cycles, so, as Blanco Lirio says, this inspection period is almost certainly going to change. The interesting point that Blanco Lirio raised, is how gyroscopic procession from the engines rotating components produces increased forces on the engine mountings, right at rotation. The greatest forces applied to the mountings, right at the worst possible moment.
  16. onetrack
    Blanco Lirio is dissecting the preliminary NTSB report, released 20 Nov.
  17. onetrack
    I erred in my previous opinion that the aircraft was on fire before the engine departed the airframe (based on the previously-available limited video footage). Blueadventures photos show the engine departing the airframe first, followed by a rapid outbreak of fire. However, I stick by my original opinion, that major structural failure of the wing fuel tank, caused by the engine departure, resulted in the huge fire. It's amazing to see how instantly the major fire erupted, which could only have been caused by the hot engine exhaust gases at full throttle, penetrating a wide gash in the fuel tank.
  18. onetrack
    You mean you lashed out and bought stainless-steel cable ties?? 🤩
  19. onetrack
    .......make you wish you never came to W.A." Abfullahi grimaced. "Dis sounds like a lotta BS to become an initiated West Australian? Can't I just buy the initiation? I got CASH!!" At those words, OT's ears pricked up. Here was a man after his own heart, who knew how to cut a deal and still keep everyone satisfied. "I'll see what I can do", he said to Abfullahi. "It will likely cost you about 5 new Landcruisers, 28 cartons of Emu Export, a box of bongs, about 15 kgs of weed, and you'd better not forget that..........
  20. onetrack
    ......utt to practice on". Abfullahi couldn't make head nor tail of this message, simply because it was AI-generated, of course - and he sent a message back to OT, saying, "What iz this smooth butt crap, Bro? Are we still on for dis W.A. initiation?" OT assured him he was, and then mentioned, "We got Uncle Morton, Aunty Joan, Aunty Tilly, Uncle Mick, Aunty Jack, and we even got Uncle Wiremu, because he's specialised in initiations and tattoos all his life!" Abfullahi was startled by this message. He messaged OT, "Tattoos, Bro?? What kind of tattoos iz in this initiation?? Dis iz da first I hear of tattoos?? I don't like dose needles!!" OT messaged back, "You don't have to worry about Wiremu and his tattoos, but you gotta watch out for Aunty Jack, 'cos he'll.....................
  21. onetrack
    It looks to me like you'd get a sore or strained neck in a relatively short space of time!
  22. onetrack
    The last thing I'd want in a cramped cockpit is a radiator carrying coolant to and from the engine. Too much potential for leakage, burst hoses, split seams, etc. The exhaust system cuff gets my vote.
  23. onetrack
    Apparently there are three types of materials used in C-130 propellers - steel, aluminium, and composite (on the C-130J). Part II on the website below goes into detail about the various C-130 propeller types. Getting to Know the 54H60 Propeller System CSPROPELLER.COM The four-bladed Hamilton Standard 54H60 propeller system has a rich history powering the Lockheed... II
  24. onetrack
    Nev, the C-130 propellers are made of aluminium. In the U.S. Navy KC-130 crash, the prop maintenance was done by a civilian repair shop, and there was insufficient corrosion inspection, and the shop painted over the corrosion. As you'd know, corrosion leads to stress cracks and eventual failure.
  25. onetrack
    The U.S. Marine Corps had one of their KC-130's crash in a similar manner in 2017. It was determined a corroded prop came off and went through the fuselage, causing a chain of structural failures in the fuselage, which resulted in the fuselage breaking up into multiple sections. The C-130 can be stretched by inserting hull sections, and it appears these joins in the hull make for structural weaknesses which are the first point of failure in any mishap or overload condition. Investigation: Corroded Propeller Blade Caused KC-130T Crash - USNI News NEWS.USNI.ORG The Marine Corps determined that a corroded propeller blade that came off mid-flight was the cause of the July 10, 2017, crash of a KC-130T transport plane.
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