onetrack

In the golf course crash landing, Harrison Ford incurred a broken arm, and head injuries that weren't life-threatening. https://simpleflying.com/harrison-ford-plane-crashes-history/

......there were a few stray rabbits running for their warrens, which CT promptly cursed, as he was sure he was taking out all the Pass rabbits, as well as the turban-wearers. However, no sooner had he reloaded, than he heard........

........leader of the Afghan Taliban, as he was leading a charge of suicide bombers up the Pass. Cappy simply flicked his towel and the Taliban leader just fell over like a pole-axed steer, once he got a whiff of it. Once their leader was gone, the suicide bombers fell into disarray and promptly blew each other up. Of course, Cappy claimed the win as a personal victory, ensuring that the precise details of how he nailed the Taliban leader remained a secret, until Turbo........

Dear NES'ers, it has come to our attention that some contributors to the NES fail to refresh their web browser, and pick up posts from a week ago, to add their contributions, thus leading to much disconnection and confusion in the story thread. If this continues to happen, the Moderators need to seriously consider whether those offenders should be sent to an NES re-education camp - or at the very least, sent to a computer training authority to bring them up to speed from 1986 and MS-DOS. This is an issue that demands serious action. Thank you.

.....this time there had been an abject failure in procurement. However as the telephone box conversation proceeded, it was revealed from the box labels, that OT had outsourced the supplies procurement to a little-known company in Kapooka, curiously titled, "Cappys All You Can Eat Pte" - a company with its main office in Singapore, and sourcing its products from a wide range of el-cheapo, dubious street food suppliers based in China. Some of the boxes still had Chinese labelling, such as "Happy Treasure Golden Time Chinese Bao Buns" - all dated pre-COVID. "I can't believe this!" cried Turbo to Cappy. OT was obviously relying on you supplying good tucker with your contract, and you've sub-let the supply to a bunch of street food hawkers in Shenzheng!!" "What do you think this is going to do to the troops morale, when we get to the Khyber and open the boxes and find this rubbish?" "Well", said Cappy, "I was hoping I was going to be far away when that happened, so I couldn't.................

......being shined into the darkest areas, to more clearly display the level of looseness, and to confirm the correct approach to tightening up the looseness, until offending parts are once again stiffened to the required level for......

.....rocking and bouncing, which can lead to........

It's obvious he married the wrong model, then!

Well, they've got a Cobra symbol on them, that should give you a clue that they've been manufactured exclusively for Cobra, and there is no "previous life" for them, in other uses besides aviation.

.......pumping system, which involves hand operation of the primary member until it........

The 236 kg EW is apparently correct. Wood and fabric construction, plus no starter or electrical system, plus a hand-cranked retractable undercarriage is what all keeps the weight down. Don't you just love the "ash tray" in the "optional equipment" list? Nothing like having the necessities of life fitted! https://mooneymite.org/articles/mooneyspecs.htm

236kg doesn't seem like a realistic EW, for an aircraft that has retractable undercarriage. And yes, targeting ex-fighter pilots for a market, seems like a brain-dead idea from the word go.

The demand for such an aircraft would be extremely limited, and confined to areas with a large volumes of smooth water, mostly inland lakes. Australia is one of the driest continents on Earth and as such, contains very little by way of large areas of smooth water suitable for such an aircraft, so virtually no demand here. North America and Canada would be the areas with a small potential for such an aircraft. Amphibians are quite restricted as regards rough water and wave heights (and winds, which are normally higher across expanses of water), so they start off with serious use restrictions before you can even start to define their area of operations. I fail to see where an aircraft of this design would promise great usefulness. Are you proposing a rescue unit that is capable of major water rescues? In that case, if the jet ski operator finds survivors from a marine disaster, what is the jet ski operator going to do with the survivors? Multiple survivors need to be taken from the water to a life-sustaining situation, so that means a liferaft at least - but it's better that they're taken to land, or another large watercraft that is close. I cannot see a situation where this design would provide a high and effective level of rescue ability, as compared to fast rescue boats, that would be much more capable of rough water operation. Remember that poor weather is responsible for many disasters, and aircraft operation is limited by poor weather. Add in rough water precluding the use of a small amphibian, and the field of operations is very small. The flying boats of WW2 were very capable of water rescues, even in open sea conditions - but these were extremely large amphibians, and shared more on-water abilities with boats, than a small amphibian would.

It is the design that will eventually rule. Why buy a fixed size and style battery that is a major construction part of your vehicle, when you could have the choice of sizes and styles of batteries, according to your requirements or needs? With a swappable battery, there will be no more having to scrap your EV, simply because the battery is at the end of its life. Buying an EV with a fixed inbuilt battery is like buying a BBQ with a fixed inbuilt gas bottle, and the BBQ becomes worthless when the bottle become out of date.

It's incredible what the machining abilities are, of the new types of cutting tips. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) coatings have revolutionised machining with their ability to cut like diamond-tipped tools without the level of breakage that DTT's suffer from. Cylindrical grinders have become obsolete today, as you can now acquire tips that will machine chrome like butter.

Link to the auction - https://www.slatteryauctions.com.au/auction-catalogue/AN-1-4-1-04854

"Foot impaired"?? He was a totally legless double amputee, not just "foot impaired"!!

It appears so - but the reverse is the case - were forged, now billet. The article says "Jabiru has now reverted to machining crankshafts from imported (solid) billets". The suspect crankshafts were forged. It's a curious decision, because I was always under the impression forged crankshafts were superior, with a better grain flow in the metal, leading to improved strength and durability and better resistance to cracking. Crankshafts machined from solid billets mean the metal grain is cut and discontinuous, caused by the machining, and as a result are generally regarded as weaker. I would suspect the faulty forged crankshafts have been produced from a substandard metal that either failed to meet specifications, or it contained internal flaws - or it was heat-treated and tempered improperly. I would opine that Jabiru have taken over direct control of the crankshaft manufacturing, possibly doing the machining in-house, whereas previously, it's likely the forging was outsourced and therefore less ability for Jabiru to keep control of product quality. Ongoing and constant checks are very necessary in repeated production, as errors can creep in, resulting in large-scale disasters. Even robotic manufacturing is not immune, someone has to keep a watch on the robotics parameters to ensure they don't move from their settings.

My personal opinion is that any "flat-tyre-fix-in-a-can" is a substandard, very temporary repair at best. The only sure way to repair flat tyres is disassembly and repair with vulcanised or adhesive-type patches.

It appears the crankshaft design has been fine, up until this particular batch - so the problem is in the batch of crankshafts, not in the crankshaft design.

It appears the recall is being managed very well, with the 6 cyl engines most at risk being repaired first, and the remaining engines dealt with as time and ability permits. As the new crankshafts are being supplied at no cost to owners, I would think this was a very worthy and laudable exercise. Remember, Jabiru still have an aircraft manufacturing operation to support and keep in production - replacing faulty crankshafts is something that must be managed, so it doesn't interfere excessively with the manufacturing side of the business. The 6 cyl engines affected were built April 2017 and June 2024. Jabiru announces SB re crankshaft replacement - https://www.australianflying.com.au/recreational/jabiru-issues-service-bulletin-for-crankshafts#:~:text=Jabiru Aircraft last week issued,April 2017 and June 2024.

......a big, gaily-decorated bus to run the mini-skirted miners around the aerodrome, and to carry the multitude of aircraft spares needed for their equally-diverse range of outrageous aerobatic aircraft, some of which were obviously very "girly", which led to jeers from the.........

Doesn't anyone manufacture "thornproof" tyres for aircraft? When I was a young teenager, riding a bike everywhere, "double-gees" (or "three-cornered jacks") were a curse to us for causing flat tyres, as they were in sizeable quantities in numerous places. But Dunlop made the "Thornproof" bike tyre (specifically because of the aforementioned seeds, I believe, from the early 1900's) - which tyres I bought, and they were a Godsend, no more flats from spikey plant seeds! - and they were very effective at resisting punctures from other sharp objects, too. The Americans produce a bike tyre liner called "Mr Tuffy", and this liner is effective at resisting flats from spikey plant seeds. Surely, someone has produced a liner for small aircraft tyres to improve puncture resistance? The tyre repairers hate the "Fix-a-flat", "Tyre Goo", and other puncture-curing liquid products, because they make such a mess, and make tyre repairs so much more difficult to carry out.

It's been a long time since gelignite was manufactured, Turbo! You obviously haven't blown out stumps for at least 40 years! Nowadays, using explosives for stump removal is not exactly an "approved purpose", there's any amount of earthmoving equipment will do the same thing, without breaking all the windows in neighbouring houses!

Despite Skippys regular praise of Hengst inline fuel filters, I have found from long experience (60 years of fixing mechanical things), that those small inline plastic housing filters containing cellulose-treated paper as the filtering medium, are a prime source of fuel flow restriction and blockage. Even a partially-plugged inline filter increases the load on a fuel pump and shortens its life. Remember, these little filters are the cheapest filter you can purchase, and it's hard to find specifications on them as regards construction materials, because they are cheap, and the lowest level of filtering you can acquire. A fine mesh screen filter is a preferred choice for primary inline fuel filtering. https://www.industrialspec.com/about-us/blog/detail/screen-versus-paper-small-engine-fuel-filters/