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Powerin

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Everything posted by Powerin

  1. Powerin
    I've wondered about this too Pud. I've been trying to figure out if it would be possible to make a fully enclosed spat that covers the whole wheel. Perhaps a clamshell type arrangement that you close over the wheel in flight. Of course this brings up the same problems as retractable gear in that you have to remember to retract the spats before landing. But still, it has the potential to reduce drag without the weight and complexity of RG. Edit: damn.....LoPresti has already invented it.
  2. Powerin
    Sorry Bob....king of off-topic am I. Looking forward to the the next episode of the Savvy build....with some nicely resized photos.
  3. Powerin
    Yeah...there's about 20 built in ways to do it in Linux too. Tell me, why is Windows so popular?
  4. Powerin
    Keep up with the drivel Bob . The thread has over 600 views so there's plenty of us reading it. On the subject of photo resizing: I use Google Picasa to manage my photos. If you use the "Export" button you can choose to resize the photos. So I go through and select all the photos I want to post, resize them and put them in a separate folder all in one hit. Microsoft also had an image resizer for WindowsXP that worked from within Explorer. You right click on a photo and you can choose to resize it straight from the menu without having to go to a separate program. If you still run XP you can still download it from Microsoft here. There is one (not from Microsoft) for Vista/7 users that works the same way...get it from here.
  5. Powerin
    Agree Andy. Finally we can see where you are coming from FT. Difficult situation. It reveals a fundamental dichotomy between openness and confidentiality within an organisation. On the one hand we have calls for RAAus to be open and transparent (as FT did in post #24) and on the other hand we have people unwilling to report serious matters for fear of being persecuted because it might get out (FT again). I can see why you want RAA to be opened up in hope that your problem might be exposed FT, but it is that openness that is preventing you from reporting it. Nev, as usual, has summed it up nicely - "It's a tricky question, and a delicate balancing act." At some stage we have to trust that the people WE elected will get the balance right, or we remove them at the next election.
  6. Powerin
    Agree Andy. Finally we can see where you are coming from FT. Difficult situation. It reveals a fundamental dichotomy between openness and confidentiality within an organisation. On the one hand we have calls for RAAus to be open and transparent (as FT did in post #24) and on the other hand we have people unwilling to report serious matters for fear of being persecuted because it might get out (FT again). I can see why you want RAA to be opened up in hope that your problem might be exposed FT, but it is that openness that is preventing you from reporting it. Nev, as usual, has summed it up nicely - "It's a tricky question, and a delicate balancing act." At some stage we have to trust that the people WE elected will get the balance right, or we remove them at the next election.
  7. Powerin
    Well done Carl. I passed my HF exam today....just. I've been putting it off until last knowing I would struggle with it. I agree Nev, I found it fascinating, but its implementation is woeful. In my textbook there was pages and pages of stuff about how memory works, perception filters, SHELL models, arcane acronymns, large and complicated flow diagrams, quotes from psychological texts etc, but precious little to apply it to the cockpit. I was disappointed that the exam asked things like how long to wait after scuba diving before flying (important only for those who dive and fly), but nothing about collision avoidance for example (important for everyone who flies).
  8. Powerin
    Well done Carl. I passed my HF exam today....just. I've been putting it off until last knowing I would struggle with it. I agree Nev, I found it fascinating, but its implementation is woeful. In my textbook there was pages and pages of stuff about how memory works, perception filters, SHELL models, arcane acronymns, large and complicated flow diagrams, quotes from psychological texts etc, but precious little to apply it to the cockpit. I was disappointed that the exam asked things like how long to wait after scuba diving before flying (important only for those who dive and fly), but nothing about collision avoidance for example (important for everyone who flies).
  9. Powerin
    AN EGT gauge would do the same thing wouldn't it? Peak temp I guess would indicate the best stoichiometric ratio (but not the best power or economy).
  10. Powerin
    Storms lately have been reasonably tame around our place. However, earlier this year we got what I think was a direct strike somewhere on our house. Instantaneous blinding flash and bang like a canon shot on the roof. I usually have everything unplugged at the hint of a storm as we are in a fairly lightning strike prone area. This one took me by surprise. I had several TV antennas, an external wifi antenna and an external NextG antenna on the roof, all plugged in to running TVs and computers. All survived without damage and I could find no evidence of a strike on the house or nearby.The only thing that happened was the RCD circuit breaker tripped. Scared the willies out of us though. Must have been a weak bolt or a branch from the main strike. A tree about 100m away also got struck in that storm (knocked a few branches off), which was about 20m away from a tree that got struck a few weeks earlier.
  11. Powerin
    Alan, it is possible to add a pic to your signature, but a bit tricky. Someone else might know an easier way. If you go to the top RH corner of the page and hover your cursor over you username a menu will show up. Click on "signature". This is the signature editor where you add the permanent bit that appears at the bottom of your post. You can add a pic, but it has to already be on the Internet somewhere. You can't just upload a photo into your signature, you have to provide a link. So the easiest way (I think) is to upload the photo you want into the photo gallery right here on RecFly...sorry AirPil. Open your gallery where you uploaded the photo and right click on the photo. In the menu that pops up there should be a choice to "copy image location". Click this. Then go to your signature editor and click on the little icon of a tree up in the top bit. This is the add/edit image button. A window will pop up where you can add a link to the pic. Right click in this box and choose "paste" in the pop up menu (or use Control-V on your keyboard) to enter the link to the pic you copied in the previous step. Clear as mud? Now someone else is going to show you a simple way and make me look stupid.
  12. Powerin
    True, it does look more dramatic in a bigger size. But by the time it's compressed into a tiny avatar you can barely tell it's a bird. There's not a lot of contrast. So I did a fair bit of massaging, enhancing and squashing to get it down to avatar size and still look like a bird, and even then I'm not sure I was that successful. Also, when I first did it, the whole background of the forum sidebar was white instead of framed in blue, so it looked like a bird hanging in space above my name.
  13. Powerin
    I joined the forum a couple years before I started flying, and being a non-pilot I didn't feel right putting an aircraft as my avatar. So I searched through my photos and found this one of a Masked Lapwing (Spurwing Plover) on an attack run, at a range of about 5 metres, expressing her displeasure at me trying to photograph her babies. I thought it was something unique and expressed the purest form of flight. I still like it so haven't changed it. Here's the original photo.... Edit: and deltacharlie...I'm drooling over that steam roller. Wow.
  14. Powerin
    I actually think the cable ties are a minor thing, but put together with the other issues, they seem to indicate a certain standard of manufacture.
  15. Powerin
    With the reading I did before learning to fly (and testing with a flightsim) I guess I have always treated airspeed as a function of angle-of-attack in that a certain AoA tends to produce a certain airspeed. Elevators control AoA and trim sets the elevators. So from the start I've trimmed for airspeed (or more accurately trimmed for AoA) and had a reasonably stable approach speed set up before turning final (if I don't stuff it up). My instructor has never told me to do it differently. Thinking about it I guess I use a combination of attitude and power to get me where I want to be at the right airspeed on final, but attitude comes first usually. The majority of my approaches are glide (which is my instructor's preference) so I don't usually have the option of pulling to idle. More flaps, sideslipping or going around are the options if I'm ever coming in hot. I'm still a student, so I suspect what I do works OK for the aircraft I fly, but won't necessarily translate to another type.
  16. Powerin
    Yep...I think cable ties are one of mankinds greatest inventions and have used them as a temporary clamp exactly in the manner pictured...but only on a stationary motor which stays firmly on the ground
  17. Powerin
    That's what I find most troubling, whichever one it is. Pud, I have found (from experience on many farm machines) zip ties have a limited lifetime before they become brittle and fragile...especially the white ones. Black ones are a bit better. I've also found that chafing is a big issue on farm machinery and it's surprising how often a steel fuel/oil/hydraulic line, held tightly in place by a metal clamp, will wear through at the clamp given 10 years or so. Same for any plastic coated wires, cables etc etc. The point is, like a lot of farm stuff, aircraft are generally also a long lived machine, subject to all the same sort of things like vibration, dust, moisture and extremes of hot and cold. If the manufacturing standards as alleged by the ATSB in this case are true, what sort of condition are those zip ties going to be in in 10 years time? What is a plastic (or even metal) brake line, or a rubber trim bungee going to look like after 10 years of vibration and movement rubbing against metal?
  18. Powerin
    I don't know BP, I sort of think that's exactly what's going on here. Sure, there's a bit of finger-pointing (some of it well deserved), but there's a lot here that will lead to better practices. I think when an accident happens, especially a fatal one, we all think that there but for the grace of God go I. Discussions such as this one help us come to terms with and quantify the risks we take and give us information to mitigate that risk. I don't know about anyone else, but on my next walk-around I'll be paying a bit more attention to the grommet where the brake line feeds through the skin, and indeed be more aware of the problems of chafing anywhere on the aircraft. I'll be checking the fuel (and coolant too) lines more closely for tight clamps in case the LAME was working on it on a Friday afternoon. When I eventually get to fly to an unfamiliar airport this accident and discussion reinforces the need to never take things for granted and always check runway conditions, obstacles etc. no matter what.
  19. Powerin
    Yes...given that the ATSB is investigating this incident we have been given a rare opportunity to be presented with the actual facts, the likes of which we never get in an RAAus investigation. The preliminary report has now given us the facts, and I would argue that the rest of the ATSB investigation is now examining/assessing those facts and "speculating" on the cause. Of course the ATSB has a lot of expertise doing this, but there is also a wealth of experience on this forum that could bring a lot of valuable knowledge to bear on those facts. As long as it doesn't degenerate into baseless rumour-mongering or finger-pointing, speculation is good. Having been given the facts we now have the basis for a healthy discussion.
  20. Powerin
    What about an engine mount breaking in flight? Doesn't bear thinking about.
  21. Powerin
    Congrats MN! It's a cliché, but true, that your lives will never be the same again....mostly in good ways (speaking as a father of 4). In the aviation-vs-new baby stakes, I lay odds on the new baby :p
  22. Powerin
    Too wet to harvest, too wet to fly.....:(
  23. Powerin
    Absolutely.....I wasn't saying it was a bad thing, just giving a reason.
  24. Powerin
    According to one report I read some of the price rise is for increased equipment levels but $20,000 of the increase is basically to make a profit on the Skycatcher.....
  25. Powerin
    You can even use a flat board as a wing. As long as it has a positive angle of attack in the required direction of lift it will fly. Mind you it will have very nasty stall characteristics and will probably stall at a fairly low AoA. Be it an aerofoil or a flat plate, when the airflow separates from the surface in the direction of lift, you lose the majority of that lift...ie it stalls.
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