Tales from the South Pacific - All Comments

re: AVIATION SAFETY --Risk Management. (Or how to avoid becoming a statistic!)

Maverick — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:48:16 GMT

Hi Dakota,

Hope the tea was good, i look forward to reading more!

re: Air New Zealand not windy when it comes to managing its gas emissions.

General Eclectic — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:16:36 GMT

Erm, I think the idea is that Mr FlyingFans pays Mr LargeFixedFan not for the forethought of having built a big white whirring thing (BWWT), but in order that he build another BWWT; on the assumption that he wasn't going to anyway. Thus the new BWWT reduces even more the need for fuel oil and reduces as much CO2 than Mr FlyingFans could have done by staying at home.

At least, I THINK that's how it is meant to work. At some point, I assume, you run out of places to put the BWWT so you have to find a way to reduce your emmissions in order to only need to pay people to build Small White Whirring Things.

re: TODAY'S EDITORS BLOG..Re. use of S*X for marketing purposes.

Chipmunker — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:49:41 GMT

ha ha - lol.

Have faith, my dear Dakota!

I suspect it will return to talking about sensible metallic flying machines on the Editor's Blog before too long.

re: THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! Is the F.A.B. mystery really solved?

steve111 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:24:51 GMT

For years I thought it was 'Firing and blasting'. I seem to recollect Gerry Anderson saying this in an interview . But then the whole series was VERY 1960s. I could never get over the Hoods cousin working for the Tracey's , hows that for a coincidence?

re: Arguably the greatest unsolved mystery in aviation history.

Chipmunker — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:24:07 GMT

ahh - found this on a fan site:

What does "F.A.B." stand for?

Perhaps the most frequently asked question by new THUNDERBIRDS fans, the definitive answer came from Sylvia Anderson herself during her promotional tour for her book YES, M'LADY. According to Sylvia, F.A.B. stands for...

...absolutely nothing.

It was something they made up on the spur of the moment during a writing session, Sylvia says, and it was never intended to stand for anything other than to spell out the letters of a popular British slang word--"fab"--during that era. Many people have attempted to find other meanings ("Filed, Actioned, Briefed", "Fine--Acknowledge Broadcast"), but it never meant anything other than "fabulous".

re: Arguably the greatest unsolved mystery in aviation history.

Chipmunker — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:22:24 GMT

i always thought it was just a "witty" play on the word fab. however will investigate for you!

re: Southwest Airlines/FAA situation. A comment from down under.

dakota67 — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:04:22 GMT

Yes thanks. I do know approx. how the FAA functions. Same out here really but the NZCAA do execute spot on-site checks of actual hardware. But we have a FAR/JAR Rule Part system based on USA and Euro practice. Our Audits are largely Paper work checking. It is all such an avoidable mess and so easily rectified. I really suggest that the fine be waived and a serious co-operative attitude come into play. We have an Infringement Fine system also...but in serious cases, the Judicial system comes into play. Hope it all works out well in the end.

re: Southwest Airlines/FAA situation. A comment from down under.

airlinescapee — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:03:09 GMT

I resigned from United Airlines Airframe Maintenance in 1999. I don't know how you do it in New Zealand, but in the U. S. the FAA does not actually inspect airplanes. They inspect paperwork.

Elderly airframes develop cracks all the time. Some are big, and in improtant places, like passenger door openings. Some are small in in less important places

like landing gear door hinges.

I have not worked on Southwest airplanes, but if their 737's are like United planes, the FAA might have exaggerated the problem to gain publicity to show the public and the U.S. Congress they are doing something. Watch what the ultimate fine turns out to be. If it is over $100,000 dollars U.S. I will be surprised.

re: ORSTRALIAN AIR CRASH MAY BE WORLD'S WORST.

Chipmunker — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:28:38 GMT

great minds think alike!

www.flightglobal.com/.../light-aircraft-crashes-into-anthill-7572.aspx

Blogging on Airspace

Jetwashed - The latest developments from AirSpace — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:49:50 GMT

Blogging may seema new fangled thing but it really is an area for you to discuss and debate opinions

Blogging on Airspace

Jetwashed - The latest developments from AirSpace — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:36:41 GMT

Blogging may seema new fangled thing but it really is an area for you to discuss and debate opinions

re: Have you ever wondered what were the World's most useless/horrible aircraft?

dakota67 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:13:25 GMT

Now that is an interesting start above. I am working away on the text for an entry on the Blackburn Roc; a type which has long interested me. It is going to take a while as, the more I delve, the more useless and ludicrous the machine appears to be.You might like to Google it and prepare to be amazed.

re: Have you ever wondered what were the World's most useless/horrible aircraft?

airlinescapee — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:50:36 GMT

In my opinion the B-2 bomber, while not strictly useless, was so expensive to build and performs so limited a function, as to rank low on the value for the money scale. It cost so much, no one feels comfortable deploying it far from its' homebase.

How about the Russian Ground effect planes (Ekronoplanes?) produced during the cold war. How many people wish they had one of their own?

re: Have you ever wondered what were the World's most useless/horrible aircraft?

Chipmunker — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:51:22 GMT

Hey Mike,

great to see you blogging. think Maverick might start promoting your posts on the AirSpace home page.

might be an idea to tag up your posts with a couple of relevant keywords each time. That way they get picked up by users browsing by search term, as well as being more friendly for search engines such as Google.

Keep up the good work!

Chipmunker

re: How to keep DC-3s flying in Europe on Air Transport Operations?

dakota67 — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:12:47 GMT

Just had a further thought. What if the old girl is over on its nose? Long way down from cabin door! But most of those events were with empty or very light load (forward centre of gravity). With cabin load, machine would tend to fall back onto its tail. There is always the front left crew door but it is very small and only had a rope in old days. Not really a lot of fun for largeish or elderly passengers. I presume the overwing window exits are still in use? And there was an exit above cockpit which we did not play around with in case we induced yet more leaks onto ourselves. It rains a bit in Papua New Guinea............