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onetrack

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  1. onetrack
    The Gypsy Moth is a DH60 Moth and was the first de Havilland Moth, it first appeared in 1925. The Tiger Moth is the DH82 Moth, it replaced the DH60, and it first flew in 1931. Geoffrey de Havilland built two DH71 Tiger Moths, but these were just prototypes, they were monoplanes, built to test new engines for de Havilland aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.60_Moth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Tiger_Moth
  2. onetrack
    C4 is not Ammonium Nitrate, and yes it does burn without exploding. C4 is a plastic explosive that is composed of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine) as the main explosive ingredient, along with a plasticizer and a binder. Ammonium Nitrate purchases, storage of it, and transport of same is highly controlled here and it is extremely unlikely the aircraft was carrying any of it. You need a permit to buy more than a small amount of Ammonium Nitrate, unless you can prove you have a specific approved need for it, such as agricultural use. In bulk amounts, it is classed as Dangerous Goods. Every State has Dangerous Goods (Security Risk Substances) legislation which oversees everything to do with products that can be explosive and which can be sought out by criminals and terrorists. The aircraft fire does seem to have been exacerbated by additional flammable or oxidising material. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the crash report. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-ammonium-nitrate-the-chemical-that-exploded-in-beirut/ https://www.police.wa.gov.au/Your-Safety/Counter-terrorism/Ammonium-nitrate-and-explosives#:~:text=Ammonium nitrate is commonly used,sought by terrorists and criminals.
  3. onetrack
    I have always used an Insurance broker, because they're working for you, not the insurance company, and if they understand what you're doing (by way of risks)) and what you actually want by way of insurance, they can pick the company best suited to that particular insurance field. Some companies specialise in aviation public liability insurance, some won't even have a bar of it. If you get a company that is in the middle and don't understand aviation insurance risks, you'll get them asking a high insurance premium. We're having a similar discussion on an American forum, and virtually all the Americans operating light aircraft recreationally won't even bother with hull insurance, but they make sure they have PL - and it's not anywhere near as expensive in the U.S., as it is here, so it's pretty obvious insurance companies operating here, see Australian aviation as a ripe tree to be plucked.
  4. onetrack

    eVTOL industry prepares

    onetrack commented on Admin's article in Articles

    You wouldn't find 45° slopes all that often in Australia, and why would you want to follow the ground contours precisely?
  5. onetrack

    eVTOL industry prepares

    onetrack commented on Admin's article in Articles

    I'd have to opine the Israeli startup Air One is possibly closest to a fully operational, relatively simple and stable design, with their EVTOL. Their version utilises a simple wing - nothing on it folds, rotates or otherwise needs complex, troublesome mechanisms - and the wing provides stability in flight. The company is leveraging knowledge they have gained from making UAV's. They have a 60% scale working model, and it appears to be meeting all the necessary aims and projections. Their rig uses 8 electric motors with counter-rotating propellers, and it has inbuilt redundancy - if one motor fails, it lands itself. It holds 2 people and has a 250kg load capacity. The U.S. Air Force is currently doing testing of this EVTOL, and it appears that certification and regulatory controls is about all that's holding it back from production. https://www.airev.aero/
  6. onetrack
    ........glasses if he did this, which would be a disaster, as Nobu really needed those Coke-bottle glasses. Right about then, Onetrack strolled up and said, "You can get up without any worries Nobu, because that's one of our fake IED's that we make, to keep the enemy on their toes!" Nobu heaved a massive sigh of relief, and holding onto his precious glasses with one hand, he pushed himself upright with the other hand. However, as he stood up, he heard a scary sound. It went "RI-I-I-I-I-PPPP!!! .... and right about then, he felt a big portion of his posterior exposed to the cool air of the evening by the jagged barbs of the fence, and this brought on a cold sweat, as he knew that.........
  7. onetrack
    Nev, the Honda GX390 is 390cc in it's original form, they bore them right out, and fit new steel cylinders, and then stroke them with a new crankshaft. So the engine goes from 390cc to 460cc. https://www.nrracing.com/searchresults.asp?Search=460cc&Submit=
  8. onetrack
    Just more corporate greed in action. Good luck to them trying to enforce charges for entering "their" airspace, someone needs to tell them about the Airspace Act 2007.
  9. onetrack
    Here's some pretty unique uses for choppers in the U.S. and Canada .... 1. Rice pollination, Danbury Texas. Apparently the rotor blast does the job much faster than bees. https://verticalmag.com/features/how-helicopters-give-rice-growers-a-helping-hand/ 2. Blowing excess water off cherries in Canada to prevent fruit rot; https://www.bccherry.com/helicopter/ 3. Picking Noble Fir pine cones with a neat harvesting cone dropped over the tree; https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/blog/sustainability-stories-noble-fir-cones/
  10. onetrack
    There's an error in the caption, the aircraft in the foreground is a Hillson Praga, not a Hillston Praga. There were only ever 3 imported into Australia. They were a beaut, lightweight, sporty little machine - but unfortunately, none of them survived WW2. One was destroyed in a crash in 1943, and the other two were lost in fires in 1944 and 1945. https://aeropedia.com.au/content/hillson-praga/ Here's the newspaper story of the Hillson Praga that crashed. It was being flown by two Inspectors from the CAC, and they both climbed out of the wreckage relatively unscathed. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49545239
  11. onetrack
    .......great glee amongst the many scrap dealers who had gathered to watch - because they all rushed out as one, and collected so much scrap steel and aluminium that was littering the countryside, that the local council issued an announcement that they had ordered an award plaque be given to the scrap metal merchants, for their "Keep Australia Clean" beautification efforts, and that they had raised the bar for all those who.........
  12. onetrack
    Nev, at 40HP for 460cc, that's just under 87HP per litre. Still a lot of output for a little industrial engine. The single cylinder level of vibration would be my main concern, in such a lightweight airframe.
  13. onetrack
    A GX390 Honda single-cylinder industrial engine, producing 40HP?? For how long?? They produce 13HP in their industrial form! You'd think they could've souped up a V-twin Honda GX690 at least - with twin cylinders and 688cc, there's better inherent balance, and more cubic capacity for upping the power output.
  14. onetrack

    eVTOL industry prepares

    onetrack commented on Admin's article in Articles

    So ...... what's happened? We're into the second month of 2024 and I don't see these VTOL machines appearing everywhere as they claimed they would, in 2022 and 2023? Once again, the marketing hype exceeds the ability to deliver something that works. I'll wager they've all stalled at regulatory and safety hurdles.
  15. onetrack
    ........made a Commander, not a Commando, as he thought it was named, and this had led to huge confusion amongst the suppliers as to the correct ranking of the...........
  16. onetrack
    They rotate because any movement of a gas or liquid not restrained, is subject to the Coriolis effect. However, the Coriolis effect is minimal when gas or liquid speeds are slow, or the travel distance is short. It doesn't long though, for heated rising air to start to spin. Ever seen a willy-willy/cock-eyed bob/mini-tornado, crank up? They will start to spin only 15 to 20 metres above hot ground. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coriolis-effect/ Interesting fact: A friend who was an artilleryman during the Vietnam War told me how they had to calculate the Coriolis effect on the target point of 105mm artillery shells that were fired at long distance targets. Even more interesting was the fact that these calculations were done manually, longhand. No hand-held calculators back then.
  17. onetrack
    ..........the Cinglish language build instructions. It was at this stage that suddenly everyone realised it would have been much better to get the build instructions booklet properly translated into English, rather than relying on Cinglish, which was even more obtuse and mangled than Chinglish. As a result of the Cinglish instructions booklet, there was a rather large pile of surplus parts littered around the floor. In addition, when the flaps lever was pulled, the brakes came on; when the control column was pushed forward, the.........
  18. onetrack
    I watched a pelican soaring over the house this morning in thermals at about 500 feet (a quite unusual sight, I might add, I've never seen one here before, I'm quite a few kms from open water) - and he was going CW.
  19. onetrack
    He was either one lucky pilot, or a very skilled pilot, to be able to get her down in one piece, and get out before it burnt. That one won't ever fly again. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13026787/Dundowran-beach-fraser-coast-aircraft-incident.html
  20. onetrack
    C'mon, he's spent $11M of his own money - not from "contributors" to a "search fund", that's "guaranteed to find the wreckage"! - so cut him some slack, I think this bloke deserves a hearing.
  21. onetrack
    The silicone-based sealants are notorious for forming globs on the outside of the seal surface, that break off and block oilways. A mate had a Cat engine in his truck grab a piston in the bore. The repair crowd replaced the piston and liner, and 3 weeks later, it grabbed again. Second time, he gave it to another repairer, who found a glob of RTV blocking the piston-cooling oil jet. He cleaned the engine out properly, replaced the piston and liner again, and it gave no more trouble.
  22. onetrack
    There's still a lot of WW2 aircraft unaccounted for. The wing sweep doesn't look right, but maybe that's because the wings fractured at their roots as it hit the water. Maybe we need to get this bloke to find MH370, with his kind of tenacity.
  23. onetrack
    It must be powered by a Junkers-Jumo 209 - that's why it's signwritten, "Wiesel".
  24. onetrack
    Loctite 518 doesn't form globs, any excess protruding from the joined surfaces dissolves on contact with oil, and Loctite 518 retains a level of flexibility when set. Henkel describe Loctite 518 as "semi-flexible".
  25. onetrack
    Loctite 518 is actually a superior product to Loctite 574 in the case of sealing crankcase halves. You can compare the two products - including the TDS's - on the Henkel-Loctite site. https://www.henkel-adhesives.com/au/en/product/gasketing-sealants/loctite_5180.html https://www.henkel-adhesives.com/cn/en/product/gasketing-sealants/loctite_5740.html
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