Hangar Chat

How Aircraft Navigated Before GPS (msn.com)

What fun! https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-joy-of-a-totally-empty-brain-4fe4a739

Three basic questions on complex aircraft: do I have this right? 1. throttle - controls how much BOTH air AND fuel are getting into the cylinder. Or does it just control how much fuel gets into the cylinder? 2. propeller - controls how fast the prop rotates 3. mixture - controls how much air enters the cylinder Thanks.

The RAF's new killer drone. 😲

This NOVA investigation was first aired in 2021, but I just today learned about it. Scientists now believe they have solved the mystery of what produced the spark that ignited the Hindenburg! A newly discovered 8mm amateur film was analyzed and provided the spark (pardon the pun) for further investigation. Although this is about an hour long, it is well worth watching to find the answers to this mystery!

I love this sort of stuff. It makes me sit back and think beyond the boundaries of what's for dinner, and sparks the lingering imagination of that remaining child within... Will our species make it into a barely imaginable future and fill the universe with life? Or, will something step on us, and brush us off their shoe in disgust, tomorrow? Will we succeed and expand? Or will our obvious weaknesses doom us to darkness, and a blurred patch of space in the museum of forgotten species....? Its not likely I'll ever know. But while I'm here, I can imagine.

Another interesting video by youtuber and glider pilot "Pure Glide" : How Far Can Gliders Glide? Planes vs Sailplanes vs Space Shuttle vs Bird vs Paraglider vs HangGlider - YouTube

The "History Guy" recounts this crash landing near King's Lynn, and goes through the post crash investigation to identify how both engines failed nearly simultaneously. Surprisingly, the pilot and all seven passengers survived the crash, due to the pilot's skills!

Wow!!! How close was that. Surprise!

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/spacex-starship-launch-date-time-b2314775.html The FAA are faffing around of course, and have not yet made a license determination for Spaceship, so that could mess it up. But the planning notice is in for 10th 11th and 12th.

You never know what you'll see in the night sky. https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/04/16/spirals-sky-amaze-alaskans/ Noel

This is a great series. He obtained a "free" Cessna 401 that had been siting around for 15 years. Full of birds nests, mice and all manner of critters. The deal with the owner was that if he can get the engines running he can have it for free. Bit of a weird deal, given that I would think it was MORE valuable if the engines were running but there you go. Well worth a watch. Think there's been about six episodes so far. Did he get Both engines started? I wont spoil it for you.

I like the look of this. 👍

https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/22012271/dad-only-passenger-jet2-flight/ Noel

Hello everyone! I tried purchasing FlyTampa StMaarten in Simmarket, during the 30% off sale described here: However, Simmarket put my order on hold. They say "PayPal is currently reviewing your payment for order #*******. This check has been initialized by PayPal and is solely up to PayPal. The check may take 48 hours or longer. After PayPal has cleared your order, its content will become available". Since I already got the confirmation from Paypal that my payment was complete, I understood that my payment was OK. Or am I expecting too much? Anyway, I opened a ticket with Simmarket, explained the situation and included the Transaction ID. They just replied this…

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/sir-richard-bransons-virgin-orbit-collapses Noel

The problem with electric bicycles is you run out of power away from where electrical power is located. And despite long range capacity in electric cars, people will constantly run out of power foolishly. There's not much reason to run out of gasoline on paved highways and roads. And yet in America, AAA makes thousand or two emergency deliveries of gas to vehicles every day. (Which is one of two reasons that I believe Hydrogen engine is by far the most sensible alternative to ICE. But that technology isn't ready yet. Hydrogen supplies, like petrol, are portable and not hardwired into a central delivery system. The other reason is that Hydrogen is by far, a cleaner technol…

All I ever see in the road is seagulls and sometimes pigeons.

Been keeping an eye on this for a few years, and now they've finally released a free demo. Heads up! Might be interesting to try out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069190/Flight_Of_Nova/

Anybody had issues with them, or is it just in my location? Three times now, twice for me and once for my daughter, they haven't bothered to turn up to pick up a parcel on the assigned day. Frustrating when you stay in the entire day for nothing. No way of ringing them here either. And the tracking number doesn't work on the website. I've got back in touch with Novatech and told them they've not turned up. I'm guessing, like last time, the guy will just turn up randomly without a care in the world.

Well, this caught my attention this afternoon! This would be a first! Props to Steve for his passing reference to "Skynet." 😆

I mean come on, its got to happen. He was in the running years ago but was too young. This MUST be his time. He's perfect. And he's from Jersey of course, a fellow Channel Islander. In fact my daughter knows work collogues who've played rugby against him. In the last two for Bond, so its claimed.

Perhaps adding crews and making up shorter trains in the interest of public safety would cost less than costly derailments and negative publicity. But even if it cost a bit more wouldn't it be worth it? https://www.propublica.org/article/train-derailment-long-trains Noel