Area-51

I did 6000hrs working at a Citroen dealership in early 2000's, never experienced an engine internal failure on PSA petrol and diesel engines, but the timing belts and water pumps would fail leading to catastrophic failure. Oil leaks around the engine were also common and occasionally a welsh plug would let go on +300k unit. The engines are very light for their output and very well balanced with the turbo diesel in a Belingo punching out over 300hp and a bucket load of torque from 1200rpm up to redline. All from 65kg

Well legally some pilots will not be covered under insurance policies due to their "voluntary" participation in a medical experiment... just saying, not a political statement, just a fact; its a clause in most all professional and life insurance policies - voluntary participation in a medical experiment automatically cancels the insurance policy; check it out for yourselves 🤷🏼‍♂️

Roo is softer than cow hide but tougher than sheep and pig skin... Steak is lean and tastes of full iron; unique taste and smell.

Yeah mate flown through way worse than all that... just last week found myself hanging onto the transponder mast at the back of the tail; lucky i had my lucky leatherman belt on. It snagged on the antenna and saved my life... it was rough; real rough mate; plane was bouncing around all over the place like a mad mouse; wouldn't be here now if my lucky belt hadn't grabbed the throttle as i was thrown back out through the canopy; selected full throttle and off it went charging ahead like thunder... i was hanging on for dear life clambering back along the fuselage using my leatherman to grip the phillips head screws in the fuselage and haul myself back to the cockpit in the hail; they were the size of a slazenger footy; no joke... was almost in the cockpit when lightning struck the scene; the carbon sr22 exploded into a cazillion pieces... lucky the brs hit my head and knocked me clean out; it must of got tangled around my arms after and saved me... ... woke up in a back ally surrounded by empty broken bottles of jack daniels 027... gees i was so lucky that bin of bottles was there to break the landing.. real wild night it was...

This is a great diagram regarding optimum CG... correlate the image to dynamic pitch stability at best glide. The optimum CG position will result in a stable constant decent at exactly the 'best glide' velocity, with neutral pitch trim... moving the CG rearward will cause the airframe to gradually pitch up until airspeed bleeds off and the nose pitches down once again; and this can repeat all the way down to an actual hands off landing in a perfect environment... moving the CG forward will pitch the airframe nose down, and into the ground.... positioning the CG too far from the optimum best glide position amplifies these effects until dynamic stability collapses... depending upon the individual airframe optimum CG will change either side of Best Glide; which is the primary purpose of pitch control/trim surfaces... A longitudinal sliding mass is the simplest pitch control device, and things can go very wrong when the mechanism fails. Test proofing an airframe design within Xplane is a great way to study affects without getting dead.. one design recently looked at had a violent tendency to barrel roll immediately if the CG was moved beyond the rearward position by just 5.0mm; the spin was mostly unrecoverable when affecting full pitch up deflection during the upper quadrant of the manoeuvring speed in straight level flight moving the CG 5.0mm forward again allowed for instant recovery of a controlled barrel roll. The perfect CG position on the perfect theoretical airframe will see the airframe return to a stable straight ahead vector immediately at any speed through any vectored direction of fluid (air) when all control pressure is released back to a neutral position.

Magnet Marelli and next Lucas were always the winner and first choice for everyone in europe... They were guaranteed to fail at dusk; leaving the rider/driver at the side of the road to be rescued by the farmer on their tractor who would offer a fresh stable to sleep in and to affect repairs... And the farmer always had daughters to make the whole adventure complete... So failure was not frowned upon in the old days... 🤷🏼‍♂️

Tell me about it... take away was, "learnt something new", received some valuable feedback from military trained influences and mentors. Outcome, planned "operational information circular" to be distributed to all surrounding out of area flight training providers.

Last most recent flight... busy day, lots of training flights entering the frequency area... One aircraft calling rolling 05 departing, visual of departing aircraft confirmed; frequent airfield op's of individual departing aircraft; flying neighbourly. Call "xyz joining downwind 23 full stop"; field and area visual, clear. Foreign aircraft responds; "entering back tracking 05". Flying downwind, visual the field, no aircraft sighted entering and backtracking 05... respond "xyz to xyz, confirm last transmitted position"... no response... Situational awareness raised to alert level... no aircraft sighted at transmitted position... continue flying downwind leg for 23. Late downwind, foreign aircraft transmits, "backtracking 05"... visual field again, no aircraft sighted; look for possible powered parachute on field, no aircraft visual at transmitted position... Situational awareness raised to High Alert, visual circuit airspace, no aircraft sighted. Call "xyz base 23 full stop" status high alert... "xyz to xyz, please confirm present position", still no response... Extreme alert, prepared to bank hard right full power if required. Call "xyz final 23 full stop"... "foreign aircraft responds "xyz to xyz, we will hold to the side of 05 for you"... "xyz to xyz, thank you appreciated"... still no visual of foreign aircraft at transmitted position. Call "xyz late final 23 full stop", then spot foreign aircraft, cessna semonile twin, 50 metres off port side 11 o'clock at 500' AGL flying dead side of 05... (i.e 50 metres off port side flying opposite direction at same altitude while on late final for 23). WTF???? Requested debrief from command pilot of departing aircraft for confirmation of event... not an isolated event situation. Shared the story with club CFI... Club CFI personally contacts owner/instructor of seminole for incident discussion... Seminole owner/instructor response "he (me) never made any calls". CFI's response, "that's impossible". Seminole "why?" CFI's response "because he's (me) anal retentive, and he always makes calls"... Somebody screwed up, and it wasn't me... Somebody will eventually die.. hopefully it won't involve me... Nothing further to add...

Design the system for 400VDC then you can use lighter gauge wire all over... but the aeronaut prices will be the same... maybe more because there is less material weight and an extra digit in the voltage level; so higher price 🤷🏼‍♂️

Everything should be made of gold; zero corrosion, excellent conductivity, remains soft and pliable if 24ct... and when you pay the aeronautical related prices it will be good value for price!! ... and if you get grounded in a war zone you can pull the cable and use it to barter for your life where the guy in the cessna with copper cables won't

Will only consider buying one if its named "Catfish"... and it has to be able to burrow into the ground... so lets get this right... we drive to an airfield or paddock, get out the car, do our DI each time... fly to somewhere, pack it all away, and drive again; look for parking space??? .... 🤔... UBER!!!! 😊

Yes, once upon a time i too thought of the amazing "this will change everything" flying car.... then i became an aviator and have not thought about it any at all since... 🤷🏼‍♂️

They may look the same... you need to strip both units down and measure armature resistance across the windings and compare sizing of copper wire used, and then compare the size of the carbon brushes. The cases may be identical but a heavier rated unit will use heavier gauge copper and deeper brushes. Or just request load operating specs of each unit from Denso if available. Some manufacturers use shallower or softer brushes; so the life of the starter can be reduced some 50% at times; or the brushes just burn out from excessive cycle times. 9 out of 10 starter failure is related to armature brushes only. If a solenoid is used then its generally the copper plate in the solenoid burnt out; poor copper quality is the cause here; not the same as 50 years ago... Replace both solenoid and starter as a unit; not worth saving the $ as the non replaced unit will fail when you are most needing it.

Sarich tech has gone into making more efficient European 2 stroke scooter engines... orbital engine itself has been long shelved.

Solid booster rockets are still much cheaper... And if you are single or in dire need of affecting a divorce, you can make them at home in the kitchen!!

Nobody here has mentioned solid fuel booster rockets for emergency thrust during an engine failure... they are light and powerful and easy to mount; and when your rotax 912 gets stolen by the CIA they can make good use of the rockets too! Pressing a "Boost" button is far far better than waiting for a turbine to spool up. And rockets must be better because Scott Tracey always used them in every episode of the Thunderbirds.. and nobody ever died... and there are no moving parts to fail or service.

Somebody asked who flies downwind... Often practice downwind landings and take offs; sometimes gusting; up to a determined airspeed at the windsock... its challenging, there is a higher risk of a wing dropping, and provides a greater appreciation of the aircraft's flight characteristics along with aspects of dealing with windshear as the aircraft behaves very differently; the controls can suddenly feel loose and sudden altitude drops of 50' can occur instantly... rounding out and approach on final is at much greater airspeed, and adding another 10-15% overall airspeed to mitigate sudden drops in wind speed affects ground speed again... the sudden illusion of speed coming over the fence is deceptive; monitoring the ASI is going to save winding things up in a ball; same with take off... trust the ASI.

There were no post-turbulence pics of the dining room; very biased representation... disappointing performance by ghetty images...

A rare example of a human actually performing the purpose and function of a human; guy's a true hero on all levels.

Yes, these are listed as same part used for non fuel injected Saab 99... So is the bolt pattern and plunger shaft depth off the deck the same dimension as the factory 912 unit?

Its not on many people's radar but testing fuel pump ability to hold both pressure and vacuum over at least 20min minimum time along with flow capacity per hour is a critical area of line maintenance, whether it is mechanical or electrical. It should be part of your 100hr/annual; and you should be recording the results so you can see when its performance is deteriorating. The flow should be at least 50% above your maximum fuel burn rate. 181's facet and 912 pumping capacity are both over 75L/hr through 1/4" lines.

181 has a single 25 year old facet boost pump; still going strong with approx 500hr tsn... valves are still great on pressure and vacuum tests, and it pumps 20% more volume under pressure than the latest edition 912 mechanical pump.

Drill a 3.0mm hole through the bottom casing of the 20 year old pump and force in a bit of brass tube from the local model shop with a bunnings aerospace precision vice press... now it is compliant and still displaying the BRP logo... make sure to add the full details of mod to the aircraft's maintenance release before further flights... attach some 3M blutak to the side of the case so if it starts leaking you can plug it up once you have completed the text book emergency landing on the sports field... carry some flares so you can tell which way to take off once the blutak is all used up...

The simple answer to this situation is simply to fly more often; burn through all of your allowed engine hours before the five years is up and you will never have to change hoses pumps or service the carburettors ever 🤷🏼‍♂️