onetrack

An interesting story below about the Australian-built Cicada radial (by CAC) that came close to being fitted to the Winjeel. The Cicada was produced using half of a P&W R-1830, with 7 cylinders on a smaller bore and stroke than the R-1830, giving 795 cu inches, and producing 450HP. But the Cicada project was cut off by the ready availability in large numbers, of R-985 Wasp Junior engines, which ended up being the engine used in the Winjeel. https://www.enginehistory.org/Piston/CAC/cac.shtml

And you didn't get video footage, complete with the radial song? Shame on you! 😄 And Nev's right, it's actually a Winjeel, built in 1955. It was originally A85-407, but is now displaying registration as A85-443. http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a85.htm

He might have been an exceptionally adept pilot, but his personality traits of continued arrogant risk taking, deemed him an exceptionally bad risk for him to be issued a pilots licence/certificate. It's just fortunate that he only killed himself, and not others as well. It's telling that even his girlfriend wouldn't get in the Jabiru with him. People with these type of personality flaws are on a path to a short and spectacular life. Their self-preservation skills are way behind their "pushing the boundaries" aims.

......promptly crashed into the top branches of a huge gum tree that he hadn't seen, as he was too busy "middle-fingering" the people on the ground. The Jacka lost its undercarriage, one elevator, part of the tailplane and 100mm off the end of the prop blades - but it was still flying! - as bull found out, whilst hastily pulling his finger out of...........

It appears one single factor resulted in a good outcome for the relatively uninjured passengers - after the aircraft nosedived into the ocean, it sat vertical for quite some time, because the water at that point was only 8 metres deep, and the nose of the aircraft was sitting on the seabed. This vertical positioning enabled a large air pocket to remain in the rear of the aircraft, thus enabling the rear door to be easily opened, and for boaters, that were promptly on the scene, to break a cabin window, to rescue others. I have no idea why someone didn't try to rescue the pilot and the remaining passengers, who were underwater - maybe someone tried, and it was too hard to get to them, and release them from their harnesses. It was no doubt quite a chaotic scene, and the emphasis was probably on helping survivors who were O.K., and helping obviously injured passengers who were accessible. It only takes a short time to drown, around 3 minutes. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/strong-winds-central-to-fatal-rottnest-island-seaplane-crash-atsb-20250227-p5lfma.html

I presume you meant to write "causal factor", as there's major difference in meaning between casual and causal. Yes, the primary cause of the crash, in physics terms, was the aircraft stopped flying and stalled. But no aircraft does that by itself, so it was essentially pilot error that was the primary cause of the crash. He made more than one error of judgement, and you cannot afford errors of judgement, when multiple numbers of people lives are in your hands. His chief pilot correctly advised him against making decisions if he was feeling pressured, but I believe he was intent on taking off regardless, and failed to appreciate just how marginal the takeoff conditions were. Rottnest Island is noted for extremely blustery conditions developing in the afternoons, and they often develop from mid-morning. It's no place for poor judgement when flying.

(OT notices that Cappy has failed to ID the big bloke trying to beat Hilary to the BRB - he should've advised all the NES readers, that it's actually Turbo.....) ......ensure that it OT couldn't reset the WO, instead. Meantimes, bull was seen running away, with a message on the back of his T-shirt, that read.........

There would need to be an unacceptable impost on RAA members to cover the cost of RAA-run aircraft crash investigations and subsequent reports. It cannot be justified. The bottom line is the telling Coronial witness evidence given in the email written by Iain Clarke (page 50 and 51 of the Coroners report). Iain Clarke describes Matthew Farrell as an accident looking for a place to happen, with a brash and arrogant attitude that he knew everything, better than anyone else. The question remains as to whether the RAA pilot training syllabus needs to be modified to weed out people who suffer major personality defects, that makes them unsuitable for pilot training. It should be noted that the commercial pilot of the Metroliner that crashed at Lockhart River managed to escape detection, as highly unsuitable for commercial flight operations, due to his personality defects.

......all breathe easy, and not risk world annihilation!! "NO!", cried Turbo, retreating further from the advancing and threatening figure, which figure was truly terrifying to Turbo. "This Briefcase with the Big Red Button, is my only protection now!! I'll only give this briefcase up if you stop advancing, and tell me who you really are!?" OT stopped advancing, pulled off his Patton face mask, and grinned widely. Turbo promptly fainted and collapsed, and OT promptly rushed forward and picked up the Briefcase with the Big Red Button, holding it high in triumph. "Look at this!!" he said, "Now I've got the Briefcase with the Big Red Button, and I'm going to...........

The ATSB released their initial report into the crash yesterday. Indications are the primary causes of the crash were:- 1. Marginal conditions for takeoff 2. A decision by the pilot to alter the normal takeoff track to a more Easterly direction, instead of the regular Southerly takeoff direction (likely due to rough water N of the takeoff zone) 3. Taking off into a strong quartering wind, which was possibly on the limits for the aircraft type The ATSB reports the aircraft lifted off at 57kts in a nose-high attitude, which seems to point to the pilot trying to get airborne urgently. The right wing dipped, then the left wing dropped in an aerodynamic stall, within 5 seconds from lifting off the ocean surface. All the indications are, from Cessna 208 floatplane performance figures, that the aircraft really needed another 10 kts airspeed to avoid stalling on takeoff. https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/news-items/2025/atsb-releases-rottnest-island-floatplane-accident-preliminary-report https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2025/report/ao-2025-001 I was surprised to find out how new the Cessna was, it had only done a little over 1100 hrs TT, and it was a 2016 build, so flight performance should have been very close to "as new" flight performance.

And the same bloke probably assembles Zhonsen engines (or Zongsheng, or whatever name it is, this month), in his off-hours, when he's not scaring bus passengers out of their wits!

....throwing off her burka as often as she could, which resulted in practically all the blokes losing interest in her straight away, once they could see what she really looked like. But OT was made of sterner stuff, and knew that looks weren't everything, and especially when Shirley's Dad held a 4% shareholding in Saudi Aramco. It was just so easy to utilise Shirley to find out when the next OPEC meeting was going to held, and by how much the oil price was going to be ramped up. As a result of this valuable information, OT bought up a sizeable volume of oil futures, and when the..........

Skippy, let me know when you find a comprehensive service manual, written and illustrated in excellent English, for your Chinese manufactured product - which product has continued to use the same brand name and logo for 30, 40 or 50 years - and maybe then I'll change my mind.

You can very quickly find the reputation and standing of Chinese manufactured products in the used equipment market. I deal with vast amounts of industrial equipment, everything from tractors, to forklifts, to gensets, to electric motors, to pumps, to workshop equipment. The Chinese products turn up in auction yards by the truckload - broken down, suffering from catastrophic failures, suffering from bad design, suffering from quality failures, and suffering from a lack of support and parts, that stops them from being rapidly repaired and put back into use. They bring low prices at auction, as against "brand name" Western or Japanese products that are highly sought after by purchasers looking for viable used equipment. Even the Chinese built, "Western brand name" products fail far more quickly than the Western-built products. Chinese-built Cummins engines ventilate blocks fairly regularly with conrods. Stamford and Le Roy alternators made in China regularly turn up used, with "fried" electrical or electronic components - and often at low hours. It's well known that all the Chinese electronic genset control panels have a reliability rate that makes East German Trabants look like the pinnacle of reliability. The Chinese still have a fair way to go, to establish durability and reliability, in their manufactured products.

The principles correct name is the "désaxé Principle" and it can be designed into an engine via crankshaft offset of the cylinder bores, or by gudgeon (wrist) pin offset. To produce a simple comparison, imagine a bicycle crank. When the pedal is at 12:00 o'clock, it's hard to start pedalling. When the crank is at 1:00 o'clock, it's a lot easier to start pedalling, because the angle of the pressure stroke has improved. The désaxé Principle was known about in the earliest era of steam engines, and the word is not a particular Frenchmans name, it is a French word that translates loosely as "nutcase", or "off-centre". So it refers to the conrods positioning at the start of the power stroke. No offset in either bores or gudgeon placement in the piston results in "cold idle clatter" as the piston rocks in the bore with excessive clearance, prior to becoming fully warmed up. Henry Ford insisted that his first V8 automotive engine in his 1932 cars, was to have piston offset, to improve performance. Jabiru probably erred seriously in using VN Commodore pistons in an aircraft engine, as GM's (or GMH's) aims would be based around far different requirements to Jabirus aims, with cost-savings and ease of manufacture being GM's major priorities. But the cost of designing and manufacturing specialised pistons for the Jabiru engines would more than likely have been far too expensive for Jabiru, with the relatively low production numbers required.

The words "product quality and product support" are not compatible with Chinese-built products. The Chinese totally fail to understand Western countries mindset, as regards the requirements for build quality, traceable manufacturing points, manuals that are well written in accurate English, parts supply that is guaranteed, and adequate factory backing. The Chinese fail to understand the principles behind the Western "name brand and image", whereby a manufacturer establishes their name, their company image, and their logo, firmly in buyers minds and backs it with complete customer support. The Chinese are happy to indulge in regular name and brand changes, manufacturing being done in numerous unrelated factories, that all have different aims, and levels of build quality. There is a vast reliance on ISO 9002 amongst the Chinese manufacturers as gold recognition some kind of Western build quality standard. Not a lot of people understand that ISO 9002 (since replaced by ISO 9001:2015) still doesn't guarantee Western build quality - the standard merely ensures there's a written paper trail covering manufacturing processes. ISO standards do not guarantee that employees have the necessary skills and training to carry out their technically skilled jobs. We all know that the Chinese happily reposition peasants, from fields into factories as a standard process for continued employment or compensation for their agricultural land being taken for manufacturing. We know that many of these peasants have little by way of manufacturing training and skills, they're used for "simple assembly tasks" - but "simple assembly tasks" in factories require skills and mechanical insight, that many Chinese peasants lack. Until Chinese industry comes to terms with Western processes and training skills levels, and a complete understanding of what Western buyers basic needs are, as regards durability and complete customer support, they will always come second in the build quality and reliability stakes.

I was under the impression that the core aim of all pilot training, is to avoid panic when upsets occur, and to avoid the ensuing disastrous mistakes, that panic would bring about.

You're confusing insurance policies with a coronial inquiry. Telling lies to a coroner does not affect insurance payouts. The original mistake was issuing an RPC against CASA requirements. That was not a criminal act in itself, it was misinterpretation or error, which is covered under the policy holders insurance. The problems started when a cover-up was initiated to hide the error or misinterpretation of the regulations.

Blueadventures, I have never found a product yet where the manufacturers warranty applies from installation date. It always applies from purchase date. It's false economy to keep perishable components on a shelf, on the basis they "might be required one day". Murphys Law says the day you pull that part down from the shelf to use it, after having stored it for some time, you find the item is U/S because of aging. 6 mths is the maximum you should store parts/components that contain perishable constituents.

Not necessarily a true and correct statement. Public Liability insurance covers negligence of the policy holder. Insurance payouts may be refused, only if criminal acts are found to have occurred, or false declarations were made by the policy holder when the policy was issued.

Another similar one on eBay, with similar hand-etched markings. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266636543203 And another one below that was recently sold, with the description stating the hand-etched numbers are a "store reference" number. https://www.oldnautibits.com/stock_php/infopage.php?catalogue=AIT&stocknumber=6635&frompage=share

The referral for potential legal action by the DPP, by the Coroner in this Mt Beauty case, is to see whether the actions of one particular member of the board of RA-Aus indulged in criminal behaviour that warrants charges and a trial. The DPP has to consider the merits of the case, and whether there is any chance of success. A referral to the DPP does not necessarily mean charges will be laid. The courts are full at the best of times, and the merits of the case need to be weighed, as to its outcome, and whether it's in the public interest and benefit. IF a charge (or charges) are proceeded with, and a case mounted and the defendant is found guilty, then the costs and penalties would normally be borne only by the defendant, not the organisation he/she works for. I would expect that for the outcome of any legal decision that lays blame and costs and penalties on the entire organisation, then the prosecution would have to prove that there was a concerted and planned effort by the entire board (or a majority of the board) to indulge in criminal or obstructive behaviour that impeded a coronial inquiry. In my personal opinion, I struggle to see how the entire RA-Aus organisation could be held accountable for the actions of one board member, if that board member is found guilty of criminal behaviour.

It could've come from one of the RAAF's Hawker Demons? They crashed on a regular basis in the 1930's, the RR Kestrel appears to have been somewhat unreliable. Interestingly, the Demons had Kestrel engines that came with engine serial numbers that started with a K, followed by 4 numbers. http://adf-serials.com.au/CMS/index.php/raaf2/2a1

eBay Aviation Supplies is your friend for this kind of stuff! 😄 https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=electrical+pin+tools

He's stuck in reverse gear!! 😄