onetrack

Kevin, I think you missed the sarcasm in Area-51's post.

......famous piloting jacket (which you must have one of in Tasmania, or you'll freeze into an iceblock in the cabin at anything over 250 feet), but bull had kicked up such a commotion at someone trying to filch his famous jacket, that the cops arrived in force, and the melee subsided, as several well-known members of the NES were arrested for affray. However, no-one had yet noticed that OT was throttling the judge at this point. OT was very possessive of his bulldozer business, and nothing made him angrier than seeing it all handed over to useless Indigenes, who OT knew full well, would simply wreck his Cats and then abandon them. Meantimes, as OT vented his fury about his Cats being simply used and abandoned, a member of the public asked a question loudly, "What about Turbos used and abandoned cats? He's abandoned more cats than any Indigenous tribe would in a 100 years!" The room turned silent and OT stopped throttling the judge, who beat a hasty retreat to his chambers and who locked his doors. The silence was deafening as all eyes fell on Turbo, who was starting to turn the colour the judge was turning, after 2 minutes of OT's grip on his throat. Turbo cleared his throat and started to speak, "Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ears! - and here's a bag to put them in. I know you all feel aggrieved, angry, affronted, annoyed, anxious, acrimonious and alienated, but let me tell you......

Hasn't this already been discussed at length? - just last year? The utter stupidity of the security cards fiasco comes, when you read the CASA website and it states categorically that ALL pilots must hold an ASIC or AVID card. https://www.casa.gov.au/operations-safety-and-travel/aviation-safety-and-security-pilots/security-requirements-pilots#ApplyingforanASIC But then it only points to the Border Security/Home Affairs website, which has nothing referring to any such law. What Home Affairs DOES have, is a form titled "Airport Operator TSP guidance". This document clearly points out that there are "security controlled airports" and airports/aerodromes/runways that are NOT security controlled, because they haven't been declared SCA's. Right there is the fiasco in the ASIC card. It's all about TRANSPORT security - not airport security. We've got probably a thousand airstrips and runways where no-one cares what you do, when you arrive there - they are not security controlled airports. It's pretty obvious the expectation of CASA is that once you acquire a pilots licence or certificate, you'll be visiting security-controlled airports. But I reckon you could fly with a licence or certificate for a long time, without ever having to go near a security-controlled airport. https://www.cisc.gov.au/reporting-and-compliance-subsite/Documents/airport-operator-tsp-guidance.pdf

I used to hire 55cfm trailer-mounted Atlas-Copco air compressors, to operate jackhammers on rock drilling, that used a VW engine (I STR they called them VolksAir) - with two cylinders altered to pump air, while the remaining two cylinders ran as normal to drive the other two. I cannot ever remember an engine so rough-running and unbalanced, I'm still amazed today, that the engines didn't fall out the trailers, they were that rough. And they were pri**s of things to start, too!

Brake seals should not expand from contact with brake fluid. If they are expanding, I'd suggest it's a sign they're adversely reacting to the mineral-based brake fluid. Did you actually check with the brake components manufacturer as to whether the seals and other rubberised braking components are compatible with mineral-based fluid?

A little thread drift - but re the Ford Ranger diesel injectors - the latest common rail injectors utilise what they call DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) coating. This is a super-hard coating designed to resist and reduce wear between close-fitting components that move against each other - such as injector pintle valves in injector bodies. Many modern injectors are going over to disc-type injector valves rather than pintle style - but regardless, all these components do suffer wear after 120,000 - 150,000kms - even despite DLC coatings. Disc holes become enlarged with extremely high injection pressures and pintle seats wear in a similar fashion, all aided by the fact that clearances between injector components have halved with common rail systems - typically down to 0.01mm as against 0.02mm previously. It's all made worse by tiny rust and dirt particles (yes they do get through filters, albeit in tiny dimensions), and tiny amounts of water, making the high-pressure injected diesel, abrasive. Toyota and Isuzu actually recommend injector replacement at 100,000kms. I think that's a worse case scenario, but in my experience, diesel injectors in CR systems really do decline in performance in a noticeable manner after 160,000 - 180,000kms. There are two choices when you can't stomach Ford pricing on injectors. They're virtually all made by Bosch anyway, so you find an aftermarket source for Bosch injectors to suit Ford. eBay is usually worth a look for Bosch injectors, you can even find NOS injectors on there. I've sold NOS injectors for Nissan on eBay, I picked them up as mining company surplus, brand new in original boxes. It's important to ensure you have the correct part number or cross-reference for your injectors though, because there are often many variations in part numbers and fitment - and then there are "upgraded" injector part numbers too, as improvements are made. The second choice is to install low km injectors from a wrecked vehicle. These are commonly available from diesel injection specialists, and are normally guaranteed for 3 mths and usually cost about $200 - $250 each. There is one more important item in a diesel CR system - there is a relief valve on the rear of the rail that holds the high pressure in the rail when the engine is both stopped and running. When this relief valve starts to fail (and yes, they fail with age, and corrosion), the pressure in the rail drops quickly after engine shutdown, then when you go to start the engine again, the high pressure fuel pump has to generate the required pressure to get the injectors to fire up. This rail fuel pressure loss can take up to 10-15 seconds of cranking to get up to the required pressure level, and this is not only annoying, it is hard on starters and batteries. The relief valve, once again, is a Bosch item, readily available new from eBay and at a cost of normally around $75 - $80. It normally takes all of 10 mins to fit this relief valve, it's easy enough to access, as it's mounted high on the engine and doesn't require major component dismantling. There's plenty of videos on YooToob that offer good explanations and trouble-shooting on Ranger fuel injection - none of it is rocket science, but it's just a bit more complex than the simple old mechanical fuel injection.

....far-reaching. The daytime Aurora added to the hot Qld sun faded the curtains in Qld, and the Tasmanians couldn't get over how much brighter daylight was in Tasmania, thanks to the extra light adding to the dull Tasmanian midday sun. The social media pages filled with complaints and abuse as to who was responsible for this major cyclic stuff-up, and what needed to be done about it. Turbo saw the increasing level of complaints and realised there was an urgent need for him to return to Tasmania to switch off the Aurora - not a trip he ever looked forward to, because flying to Tasmania was like going back 70 years in time, to the era when even Victoria was......

If you've ever pulled a steam gauge apart and tried to fix it, you would probably be aware the average steam gauge has relatively cheap and poor construction, and I wouldn't trust them to any serious level, either. Of course, I'm not talking about "proper" certified aviation gauges built to an expensive standard and which have been QC'ed to the nth degree. But a lot of RA flyers appear to be reliant on automotive steam gauges, and the fact that the vast majority of these are manufactured in locations such as China, India, and Mexico, should be enough warning to not become 100% reliant on them. I doubt whether glass screens are commonly failure-prone, I would expect the bigger problem with them is wiring and connector faults.

The 4 MA's in the last 12 months may be a cluster - but over a 12 month period, I'm not so sure it could be called a cluster. Over a much shorter time frame - Yes. However, operating aircraft is all about following procedures strictly and rigidly, and MA's only occur when failures to adhere to strict procedures, or to understand set or agreed procedures, happen. For high hour pilots to ignore or fail to follow procedures, resulting in MA's, shows either complacency, or bad habits becoming regular habits. Either way, there appears to be a serious adverse trend developing, that if not addressed and arrested, can only lead to more MA's.

Is it not feasible to manufacture these trim panels using 3D printing? 3D printing processes and machines are advancing very rapidly in capabilities. https://formlabs.com/asia/3d-printers/fuse-1

Does this now mean the aircraft will need to be renamed a MaZenith, or a ZeniMaz?

That may be all very well, but what is needed is regular examination of how effective, cost-effective, and functional, various tight controls of the population are - especially long after the situation that led to those (often excessively) tight controls, has changed greatly. One could draw a comparison between the COVID-19 strict controls and the ASIC card controls. Both were introduced when current events were in need of serious action to curb an outbreak that threatened the fabric of our civil society. With regard to COVID-19, it was a rampant spread of a disease that needed serious action taken to limit population movement and thus try to control major outbreaks of disease. With regard to the ASIC card, it was in response to an outbreak of extremist Islamic terrorism that caused the 9/11 event, and which terrorist actions threatened all aviation activity worldwide, where security was non-existent. Now that Islamic terrorism and the groups that promoted it have largely been neutered by both war actions, and the killing and jailing of the vast majority of its promoters, it must to time to re-assess the threats posed to aviation, and to wider society, from that Islamic terrorism threat - due to a massive change in circumstances surrounding the size of the current threat, as compared to 20+ years ago.

I was under the impression they were doing an air-to-air photo shoot? Why are we having so many mid-airs involving pilots with outstanding abilities, experience, and huge hours in their logbook? 4 MA's in the last 12 mths? Something is seriously wrong here.

But ... but ... but ...... The ASIC card is supposed to identify you as a verified person, who has no malicious intent at aviation facilities? So, if you have an ASIC card, CASA doesn't believe what it says? You couldn't make this up, "Yes Minister" would have a ball with this card scenario.

.....the massive hack into the Heineken website, which MS had organised the website security for - whereby the hackers placed a fraudulent order for 3,000,000 cans of Heineken beer to be delivered to a remote island. It was only after the delivery was done, (at huge cost to Heineken) that the payment was found to be fraudulent, and the listed recipient of the beer, named as "Loxie" on the manifest, could not be found - and in fact, appeared to be a fictitious character from some long-running story on a little-known aviation forum reportedly located in Australia. Of course, when the fraud was discovered, and Heineken set out to recover the beer, it was all gone! - apparently flown out (avref) overnight in a clandestine operation. Immediate Interpol investigations were to be launched into the fraud, and there was specially-targetted law-enforcement interest in also identifying and exposing numerous other shady characters, who could found on the aviation website story - and who used strange forum names, and claimed special knowledge, and amazing powers - and who also declared they had friendships with high-ranking and rich and powerful people. It was becoming obvious this obscure website and long-running story was possibly all a front, for a multitude of players who were like chameleons, with an ability to change positions, relationships, and powers, in an instant - all of these being signs that not only was the long-running story outrageously unbelievable, but that it was being used for........ (And below, my friends, we have the now-sad story of MS bragging about how secure the Heineken site was - before the beer hackers sneaked in ......) https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/1476165856303568991-heineken-consumer-goods-microsoft-security?culture=fi-fi&country=fi

A major lack of Govt handouts to develop industry and ideas. America is the country at the forefront of innovation, technological development and excellence, because the U.S. Govt pours trillions into private R&D, innovation and ideas, subsidises new factories, and hands out grants by the billions for anyone with good ideas. There's actually an entire U.S. Govt website dedicated to the huge range of U.S. Govt Grants. Here's just one U.S. agency handing out mega-millions for R&D. https://www.nsf.gov/ Meantimes, Australia pours billions into important things like the vastly inflated property market, more skyscrapers on the Gold Coast, the Aboriginal "industry", and massive sports stadiums - sells all our vital raw materials (including energy) at low cost using imported equipment, and lets other countries manufacture everything for us. Hopefully, I won't be around when the piper calls the tune, as eventually will happen.

I was under the impression that anyone airside of the security perimeter fence HAD to have an ASIC card, no exceptions. You mean to say, a planeload of armed-to-the-teeth Islamic terrorists could fly in and land, and shoot up and take over an airport, without all of them being fully compliant with ASIC cards?? Nahh, couldn't possibly happen, that's too far fetched. Like something out of that fictitious "Entebbe" film!

Spacey, I doubt very much whether there's any worthwhile level of auto-rotation available from those small propellors - and the AMSL Aero VERTIIA uses propellors, not rotors. A helicopter rotor is built as a "rotary wing", with wing design and lift ability in the rotor blades - those VERTIIA propellors have little lift ability. Plus, AMSL Aero are a "start-up company" with zero track record in aircraft design. They're a couple with a glitzy website, they're full of ideas, and they just want 50 billionaire investors to give them lots of money so they can experiment with their fancy-looking ideas for the next 20 years. Their website is very short on engineering principles and design as regards the wings and motive power, just big on the aircraft cabin design "potential". There's hundreds of these "revolutionary aircraft" websites in existence, they all have one major feature - they still need another 20 years and 2 billion dollars to convert their ideas into viable working products. https://www.vertiia.com/

There have been more than one SB or AD with regard to the Cessna seat locks and seat rails. Cessna introduced the Pilot Secondary Seat Stop, P/No SK210-174B, which should have been fitted to all applicable Cessnas by now. https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-09/airworthiness-bulletin-25-032-cessna-pilot-seat-track-locking-pre-flight-check-maintenance-and-mod-status https://the195factory.com/products/sk210-174b-pilot-secondary-seat-stop

Scott Reeman, a LifeFlight Rescue Aircrew Officer, said the plane was coming in to land on the private airstrip and “ended up somersaulting and crashing into a tree”. “It clipped a palm tree in a house yard while it was airborne and then cartwheeled end-to-end across the yard and clipped another tree,” he said. The pair were able to get themselves out of the wreckage, Reeman said. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/347798 The wreckage of the light plane that crashed in a Sunshine Coast backyard. CREDIT:RACQ LIFEFLIGHT

.......the positioning of spies close to the Khyber leaders homes. The spies soon reported back that sheep were also needed, because anytime the spies went near the Khybers homes on spying missions, the Kelpies raced out and rounded them up, thus seriously compromising their position. Very soon, a semi-trailer load of Merinos arrived at the spies designated unloading location, and then came the problem of......

That may be the case with some "alternative" dubious additives, but MMT has an excellent track record as a fuel additive over a generation or more, enough time to find any problems. The car manufacturers wouldn't approve additives simply because they claimed they'd damage catalytic converters. No CC, no problem.

.....the final, excoriatingly painful ending to the Kelpie Suicide Pack Scheme (KSPS for short - and a natty, short acronym is always necessary for every programme devised) came when Turbo pressed the button - and the switch broke. The simple reason behind the switch breakage was simply due to excessive enthusiasm on the part of one of the Turbine Inc accountants, who found he could save 3c on each switch purchased, if he went with a little-known Chinese switch-manufacturing operation, Fuk Yu Tu Manufacturing Enterprises. It was a mind-numbing blow to the KSPS programme when it was found, that not just a few switches broke, when tested - EVERY switch broke, when tested. Turbo was furious and demanded that.........

I don't understand why a valve seat recession protection additive wasn't used by the flight school. MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl) is a Manganese-based fuel additive that provides excellent protection against valve seat recession - and it boosts the octane rating of the fuel by 2 or 3 numbers at the same time. In addition, MMT has been in use in Canada for over 40 years, with no detrimental health or environmental effects. Manganese is a naturally occurring element in Nature and is needed in trace levels by plant life to improve nutrient uptake. In the U.S., Millers VSP additive is readily available, and I'm sure a big flight school could have acquired the product at a discounted price for bulk purchases.

....they got to the Lebanese South Western Sydney suburbs, the bus was hijacked, the passengers all robbed at gunpoint, new plates and a new VIN were installed on the bus, the speedo was rejigged, and it was rebirthed as a 2019 model with low kms, for sale on Farcebook at an exceptionally good price, cash only. The Khybers were stunned. They thought this kind of thing only happened in the high-altitude passes of Islaministan. "I guess we should consider ourselves lucky we weren't the victims of a bomb chucker!", one said, as they ruefully thought collectively about their fatal mistake of driving through South West Sydney after dark, without a 15-strong motorcycle escort armed with AK-47's, and blacked out windows. "Don't worry", said their leader, Abdul-Hakim, "At least we've still got our sandals!" .... but no sooner had he spoken, than a......