onetrack

.....Recreational Rabbit Shooting (RRS), right through to Recreational Aerobatics (which included bursting water-filled balloons with propellors). But it was when Morton applied to have a Paddy Drifter Recreational Passenger permit, with an estimated average of 11 passengers every trip (because no-one wanted to miss a trip in a Paddy Drifter, and they'd all go along for the ride, regardless of whether they wanted to go somewhere or not), CASA started an inquiry into just how 11 people would fit into a Paddy Drifter. "It's easy!", said Morton. "Dey all just hang onto sumfing, like a wing strut or a landing gear leg, and as long as the.........

A grading for operational condition must be specifically related to the subject. You cannot have a universal grading system because it doesn't cover specific applicable features of the item you wish to grade. Here's a Canadian grading system that shows gradings for different municipal assets. Note how each grading system is different according to the asset being graded. https://pubsaskdev.blob.core.windows.net/pubsask-prod/92458/92458-Asset_Management_Condition_Grading_Standards.pdf The military produce the best grading systems, but once again, they're only applicable to the asset classification being graded. All military items receive classifications under their type and use. This is a standardised NATO system and is in use in all NATO countries. It is called the NATO Stock Number (NSN). Along with the NSN, NATO forces use coloured tagging to indicate equipment condition. The coloured tagging is limited to 5 colours, which covers the essential 5 stages of equipment condition. https://www.creativesafetysupply.com/articles/military-equipment/

...... Cappy was arrested for begging and vagrancy and for impersonating a toll booth position (he'd set up a fake toll booth and was fairly raking it in) - by a police officer who bore more than a passing resemblance to a well-known NES character. The officer placed Cappy in a Paddy Wagon, which in size and shape and colouring, made Cappy a bit suspicious. For a start, it didn't have..........

Vans has begun emailing clients informing them of alterations to current purchase agreements. In some cases, prices have increased beyond the 35% originally estimated and Vans have also been adding sales taxes to agreements where the owners are liable for sales taxes. Kit builders can agree to the new prices or decline to pay them, whereby their previous deposits then join the pool of unsecured creditors. Vans will also soon release its final engineering review of the laser-cut parts, which review includes fatigue testing of the laser-cut parts to determine if they're any more prone to fatigue-related cracking, than the punched parts. The administrators of the company were also awaiting a judges decision on 19th Dec 2023, as to whether the company can use cash collateral and whether it can obtain credit. It appears the ability to acquire credit was approved with no objections, but the proposal to use cash collateral has been deferred for 4 days as the administrators require extra time to complete the Schedules and Statement of Financial Affairs. https://www.kitplanes.com/vans-begins-informing-builders-of-new-agreements/ https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/51583745/Vans_Aircraft,_Inc

"Tire" wear? Only in America, we have tyres here.

And still no country in the world has a scheme to deal with nuclear waste. Everyone thinks it's a great idea to bury nuclear waste in the centre of the Outback, because it's so isolated. However, after Maralinga, and the Poms generally treating inland Australia like a nuclear waste dump, no-one is ever going to get approval from the Indigenes to bury nuclear waste in the Outback.

Found a little more info - but still nothing on what "low level radioactive waste" actually is. I gather from other sources it is cleaning equipment, safety equipment and tools that have been lightly irradiated and which cannot be re-used, as they're then classed as radioactive. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-18/aukus-americans-western-australia-radioactive-storage-facility/103239924 https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/australia-hasnt-figured-out-low-level-nuclear-waste-storage-yet-let-alone-high-level-waste-from-submarines

More info below .... but not a whisper from anyone in Govt about that "low level nuclear waste" in all the trumpeting over the AUKUS deal. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-14/aukus-deal-jim-chalmers-hmas-stirling-expansion-perth-wa/102092058 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2223a/23bd081 https://theconversation.com/australia-hasnt-figured-out-low-level-nuclear-waste-storage-yet-let-alone-high-level-waste-from-submarines-201781

JCB already have one of their standard diesel engines re-engineered to run satisfactorily on hydrogen. More than a third of Perths buses are diesels running on CNG, and they have been doing this for around 15 years successfully. CNG is readily available here in the West, hydrogen is in limited supply everywhere - the problems centre around developing processes to produce viable amounts of low-cost hydrogen, and installing distribution networks for alternative fuels. Carbon fibre tanks appear to be the answer to hydrogen storage. Either way, alternative fuels still have a long way to go to meet the current cost of fossil fuels. The Japanese Govt and Japanese industry have a monstrous size R&D fund, dedicated to finding sources of cheap hydrogen and developing distribution networks for it, and I can assure you they won't hold back on the spending to do this, it is a national aim of the Japanese.

7.5 mins operational time? What were the Huns thinking? That just the sight of a rocket-powered aircraft coming towards Allied planes at near supersonic speed, would make them turn tail and run?

C.E.W. Beans, "Illustrated History of the War" conveys WW1 in, I think it's 12 thick volumes. You struggle to find any online information about this official record, but you can occasionally find it for sale online, or in bookshops. Many libraries have a set. It is truly a staggering work, and the photos convey destruction that is nearly incomprehensible, and makes you wonder how anyone survived the War at all. But what is not covered, is the civilian misery that accompanied the War, and which would probably fill another 50 volumes, if it had ever been recorded.

Corporate America is full of companies that got fat and lazy, lost sight of their objectives, ignored their customers demands, and fed on their own image. Their boardrooms bred their own leaders - myopic, pathetic, greed-driven operators, intent on rewarding executives and shareholders with staggering unjust rewards, while they treated their employees like the enemy. They let sharemarket scammers and bankers and oil companies rule their decision-making. They talked loud and long about "corporate ethics" - but there are virtually none in the corporate world. It's purely a greed-driven, dollar-driven, "what's in it for me" mentality. There's a large tome been written about the failure of International Harvester, one of the worlds biggest and most profitable manufacturers. The book is called "IH - a Corporate Tragedy". It's a worthy read. There's another one been written about the GM corporate disaster, it's called "Overhaul" by Steven Rattner. In both the cases of the IH and GM bankruptcies, the revelations in the books are stunning. CEO's and executives who had no handle on what the company was doing, or where it was going. Dysfunctional accounting systems. Bad product decisions (caused by out-of-touch company leadership). Poor labour relationships. Shockingly bad corporate investments. Poor employee controls, with executives playing extended golf sessions during downturns, instead of addressing the real problems. Vans will never be the same because of the many poor decisions taken. The future of Vans is now in the hands of a ruthless bunch of lawyers, financiers and liquidators, who are all in for what they can scarf out for themselves. They'll leave the picked-clean skeleton of the bullet riddled duck for the Vans aircraft owners to huddle over, because these people are the ravens of the corporate world. Vans will never be the same company again - and even more so if outside bean-counters are installed in any new, revamped board. These people will target Vans aircraft owners as the new fat duck to be sucked dry.

It just makes one wonder why a pilot of a light aircraft with no anti-icing equipment, would fly through a zone where he would've been advised in the weather advisory, that there were icing conditions likely.

.....restart the Voice referendum. However, all this news-making talk, reached the ears of the management of the Lions Club of Victoria, who immediately called a top-level meeting. The Chairman opened the meeting with the Lions Prayer (and accented the "weak" part) and went on with his speech. "Lionesses and Lions, we have gained knowledge of a problem affecting our esteemed Brotherhood, whereby it appears at least one of our dearly esteemed members is being treated like an animal, and is being bought and sold like a captive circus entertainment creature. He's being used and abused for political purposes, and he has even made it to the pages of the infamous NES. This outrageous situation cannot continue, and as our Club policies and aims are to protect our brotherhood and the weak, we must now take action to........

The interviewer is being pretty gentle, and asks about a "best case scenario" - but he needs to be asking the hard questions, such as a "worst case scenario". One thing is for sure, any Vans aircraft owner is going to be paying a LOT more for a kit and parts, and there's going to be a huge delay in supplying both, as new production will have to be financed - and I didn't see any mention of where that financing might come from. If Van's Aircraft is re-constituted as a new corporate entity (almost 100% likely), then any production by the new entity is likely to be hobbled by demands for COD payment by suppliers for materials/components supplied, or hobbled by a lack of funds because neither the owners of Vans nor any financier has supplied enough funding for production to continue at the previous pace. And it is very likely that the "new Vans" will have a substantially lower number of employees, to keep costs down - so this will mean lower production levels, and higher costs per unit produced, by the new entity.

It'd be great if someone produced an affordable gyrocopter - but every time you look at something interesting in the gyrocopter market, it doesn't take long before you're looking at $100K in costs.

That would be a great little unit for shipwreck rescues relatively close to the coast.

Geez, the bloke was a B787 Captain!! You'd think, of all people, he would be most aware of the risks of low flying. This would have to be a case of total complacency, where "familarity breeds contempt". https://bizjetjobs.com/pilots/lanekokshoorn/

Spare a thought for the mother and wife. What a dreadful way to start your Christmas, burying a child, as well as a bloke in the prime of his life. The problem it seems, is pilots continue to crash in exactly the same way, despite their training, and despite all the crash report summaries. How many times this year, have powerlines caught aviators out? There's probably 3 or 4 I can think of, straight up. All is takes is 10-15 seconds of inattention or distraction.

I wonder if the designer got his ideas from the Bugatti Model 100 aircraft? I wouldn't have liked to have been in a crash with one, that Elektron alloy was 90% magnesium, and any fire that started after a crash would have been massive. https://www.key.aero/article/sleeping-satellite

Well, the police have determined the problem - it was one of those "home-made" aircraft. Jeez, you'd think a copper would have more intelligence. https://www.9news.com.au/national/lilydale-plane-crash-two-dead-in-northern-nsw-plane-crash/2c25a84c-5c69-4b12-939c-24f8d50379cb

......which, in an amazingly roundabout way, led to CT9000 becoming greatly interested in the movie and then realising the great value in Hondas, and then buying a well-worn Honda 600 - which, when cut down to a roofless version, provided CT9000 with the ideal bunny-popping outfit to keep the runways at DG International Airport totally free of rampaging, copulating rabbits. Just the very sight of a copulating rabbit sent CT9000 into a rage every time, and he'd reach for his best bunny-popping artillery, which also comprised a cut-down.........

The temperature of the exhaust gas going through the turbo affects its output - because of gas expansion. So the hotter the exhaust gas, the more power the turbo produces.

....."You likeee lice? We got big lice banquet set up to honour outstanding pilots and we are offalling you plime seat at table, in honour of your flying skills!" Turbo thought for a moment - and the memories came flooding back of the time he had that huge Chinese banquet in HK and how it contained many mysterious ingredients deep-fried in batter, or hidden in dumplings - and how his stomach had suffered for days afterwards, as he...........

And the company has gone belly-up? Because nothing exists at any of their sites, and even their last Farcebook posting was in 2019.