Jump to content

Old Koreelah

Moderators
  • Posts

    6,237
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    55

Everything posted by Old Koreelah

  1. This where it belongs: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59008039
  2. Spot on, Paul, but don’t hold your breath… Without any consultation, our local council recently announced they will be charging landing fees. Later, during a box-ticking meeting I was told this was to ensure equity with other users of council services. I responded by pointing out that council provides costly infrastructure for free camping without expecting caravaners to contribute. The equity arguement is meaningless because my 380kg plane has almost no impact on our roads, etc. compared to an RV setup weighing several tonnes and discharging sewage and waste into our local systems. I also challenged the general misconception that pilots are rich; some of our Aero Club members are age pensioners. My plane cost a tiny fraction the price of a typical car-caravan setup, yet I pay and they don’t. (Even worse, most of our members live out of town and have no access to most of the services our rates pay for!)
  3. Excellent points, KR. Sadly, it seems controllers are being trained to blindly follow strict guidelines, rather than use their commonsense to save lives. Your comments about your RV would apply to many homebuilts. The whole spirit of “experimental” aircraft is surely to allow latitude for innovation and improvement. If I were to prang my plane I fear the Feds would also report that I didn’t comply with any of their rules and standards, despite all my safety features and procedures. (But then, they don’t usually investigate anything with numbers on it)
  4. American movies have car tyres squeeling on dirt roads, so why not?
  5. An interesting discussion, but probably not relevent to my quoted words; I guess I didn’t explain too well. The prop I was referring to had a distinct bend about 100mm from each tip, as if someone had heated the composite prop and bent it almost 90 degrees. At high revs, this would put enormous twisting loads on the outer part of each blade; I presumed the aim was to cause the blade to twist slightly, resulting in an increase in pitch.
  6. I agree, F10. That’s a considerable safety concern, so I added CM steel hoops to my windscreen and canopy. Would they protect me? I hope so, not having tested them, but I built the canopy from acrylic so I can smash my way out. A major design parameter was to be able to safely open the canopy in flight, something I have never actually done, although I’ve taken off with the canopy back. As with many types, air pressure pushes it shut.
  7. Taildraggers can find bunny-holes too! Almost a decade ago I was in a bunch of Jodels that flew into a rough dirt strip in NZ. The last bloke in did a great job of getting his D-11 down among the mudholes and big rocks, but he came to grief right in front of the assembled aviators. His right wheel dropped into a deep rabbit hole and she stopped dead, with the wing almost on the ground . No damage done (except to his ego) and it turned out to be an excellent outcome for his wife, who walked with difficulty because of a stroke; she found it much easier to step down to the ground!
  8. Good point Turbs; a lot of paddock strips would fail that test. Black soil grass strips look smooth and despite being regularly slashed, even small tussocks shake hell out of your plane. I drove my 4WD across a neighbour’s strip that he slashed for a C172 and even at 60km/h (my Jodel’s touchdown speed) it was really rattling my vehicle- and that’s with wheels double the diameter of common aeroplane wheels.
  9. Gravel runways are common in the regional routes these small planes are aimed at. Prop will cop damage.
  10. “…The P-36 was also used by Vichy French air forces in several minor conflicts; in one of these, the Franco-Thai War of 1940–41, P-36s were used by both sides.” In the Wikipedia account, the P-36 was widely used by Thai forces, but is not listed as being used by the French.
  11. Maybe Rex hasn’t donated to the right election fund.
  12. Minor correction, Nev. Aerial Service(s)
  13. Years ago I started to unzip the wing skin to check that SS plate as part of my preflight, but the impatient young instructor said “forget all that bullsh1t and just get in!” What’s really frightening is how far up he’s been promoted since.
  14. Crickey, hadn’t thought of that. (Wash the plane, I mean). But next time I get the urge to sponge it clean, I’ll tape over my static ports. I guess I should also disconnect the hose from the ASI and blow it clean. As many on here have said, we should be able to fly safely without flight instrument. The top of my cowl is level with the horizon at stall attitude, so the forward view is a pretty fair indication of attitude. Clearly hearing engine noise on takeoff is also important, so I don’t switch on noise cancelling until top of climb.
  15. https://www.traveller.com.au/longest-commercial-flight-in-qantas-history-flies-over-antarctica-en-route-to-australia-h1z0qh
  16. But wait, there’s more! There is a persistent rumour that Darwin airport was selected as a possible Space Shuttle landing strip, there being room for 5km without crossing a road.
  17. The best design I’ve seen is the YikeBike, designed and built in Christchurch, NZ. Not cheap, but one model is about 10kg. I saw one at NatFly. http://www.yikebike.com
  18. Old Koreelah

    Junkers Ju 88

    After the war Goering said that as soon as he saw Allied fighters over Berlin “he knew the jig was up”. He knew they’d lose, yet the asshole sent a few hundred thousand more of his young men off to die.
  19. I believe that is a major issue with AI; the machine it will take enormous risks to win- even doing a Kamikase shot- knowing that if it gets killed, the game will be re-started. I fear that among a whole generation of game-addicted youth, a significant few may think they can as well…
  20. Franko how come a cane farmer can create more entertaining content than all the global networks?
  21. Can’t find a thread on this important use of aeroplanes. One just flew over me and I looked it up. It appeared on OzRunways, but not Flight Track Radar. (Hopefully one day everyone will show up). It appears to be a Fletcher (bent wings are best!) modified for survey work. This link explains what the aircraft does: https://www.photoblog.com/beeemmjay/2019/12/16/vh-kpy-pacific-aerospace-cresco/ https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000515962.html Over the years I’ve been fascinated by aerial photos, especially stereos. I bet every bit of our continent has been photographed or surveyed from the air and I also bet that lots of people in other countries have easy access to the results.
  22. Keep ‘em coming, Franco! Lots of us enjoy your videos.
  23. Yes Alan, I agree with that. We seem to have a diminishing number of people working longer hours just to support the rest of society (including old farts like me). Constant changes in the workforce means fewer are qualified for emerging roles, so perhaps that’s why those with jobs get worked harder. My kid’s hubby works long and irregular hours keeping the show on the road and lots of extra time looking for qualified staff. My daughter works long, irregular shifts with little time to recover or enjoy the kids. Not a chance that either of them could get involved in the sports and outside interest that my generation enjoyed. Maybe one reason that volunteer organisations like the VRA have a hard time recruiting. A good point PM, and the people pushing aerodromes far away from urban centres are contributing to this; too many pilots have to get up at sparrows f@rt, then drive hours to their aeroplane.
  24. I tend to agree with your observations, NT. Whether people have less time or not, perhaps its the way they allocate their time that matters. I recall an era when idle tome let to boredom, a great opportunity for reflection, but today there are too many distractions. Now it’s almost impossibe to get people (me included) away from phones and tablets.
  25. We mechanically-inclined males rarely notice the gentle nudges of preminition that females tend to. The only preminition I recall was when I was a kid (perhaps before education had divorced my perceptions from such thiings). I saw a truck approaching half a mile away and instantly developed a feeling of dread, but I didn’t act on it, so my pup got run over. My wife, like many females, is cursed with some sort of affinity for this realm and I take her warnings seriously. There is certainly an extra dimension that some people can tap into- whether they want to or not. Thirty years ago, we took our kid to a women who quickly sorted out an undiagnosable malady she exhibited. We were total strangers to that woman, but she took an interest in me and asked about where I slept. At her urging, I drew a quick plan of the house we’d built; she grabbed the pen and added several water pipes exactly where I had buried them deep under the foundations, plus the location of a staticky old radio. I cannot explain that.
×
×
  • Create New...