Bonus

Earlier in the week I posted about an Air Canada flight that blew a tyre on takeoff from Madrid and was circling for quite some time before landing again safely. The Spanish Air force sent an F-18 up to help the Boeing 767 Pilot assess the situation. He got pretty close and took some nice pics of the damage and sent them to the pilot and the people on the ground. "These are the photos taken by the Spanish Air Force F-18 (Capitán Macías) showing the damage on Air Canada's 767-300ER, flight #AC837.‬"

What a great place to live for any kid! We were in Van Riebeek park way over the other side when we used to ride to the airport.

Check out this "short landing". It was during aircraft testing, so an empty plane being pushed to it's limits - but 14 seconds from touch down to stop is amazing. You can see the plane rock on its suspension as it actually stops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqSTVWw7twU

Things I never intend to do in my life: Stick my finger into a live electrical socket. Try to cut my toe nails with an axe. Drape a snake aound my neck!

Ja I hope so! Otherwise the end of Runway 03L is in Midrand!

As LWB says . . . .

Regarding JATO, this old story that was circulating on emails back in the 90's was a fav of mine. Turned out to be an urban myth in the end, but at the time it made good reading .... The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. the wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened. It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off – actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts, as best could be determined, are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles [4.8 kilometers] from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH [560 km/h], continuing at full power for an additional 20–25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles [4.0 km] (15–20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles [2.3 km] and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet [38 m], leaving a blackened crater 3 feet [0.9 m] deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

Kick the tyres . . . . . . etc . . . . . ;-)

it's been circling for some time now . . .

Seems like an Air Canada flight lost a wheel on take off from Madrid to Toronto airport earlier. Plane circled Madrid burning fuel for half an hour before landing without incident. Edit: plane still in the air preparing to land . . . .

Yeah lots of info in there that I missed or didn't realise the importance of over the years . . . .

Ainsa and Zona Zero - as usual! Enjoying the early Spring . . . .

Sunny skies, snow topped mountains, dry trails . . . . I love my life!

Had a couple of rides through January and also did a bit of Guiding. Now we're into February and the sun is warm enough to ride in short sleeves and get this years tan going! What an amazing place to live . . . .

It's a good point patham and I know exactly what you mean. In the UK when the "housing bubble" started to expand back in the mid 80's this exact problem occured. People who had aquired houses failry cheaply (ex council houses were a prime example) and were now wanting to sell them to cream-off a massive profit (the value of houses and flats were going up by a thousand pounds a month at the time!) would borrow £10k or £15k secured against the existing equity of the house to put in double glazed windows or add a conservatory to the back of the house etc. They would assume that they could add that amount (if not more) to the value of the house they were about to sell. In some cases, depending on the Supply Vs Dmand of the area, it worked. But in many cases it didn't. Estate agents would generally say that a house with double glazing would sell more quickly than the same sort of house without double glazing, but not usually by a higher enough price to cover the cost of the "improvment". Same for conservatories. Another thing about double glazing that people didn't realise was that when the salesman says "you'll save so much money on your energy bills it will pay for itself" that wasn't a quick thing. "It will have paid for itself after ten years" became pretty much the accepted rule of thumb. In our case, we're starting with an empty agricultural building and turning it into a habitable property with the added ability of it being able to make money as a business. We have a reasonably priced builder and we're doing as much work ourselves as possible to help keep costs down. As long as we avoid, as you say, gold plated toilet seats and mahogany stair cases, we'll be ok. Thanks for the feedback. I have no problem with having to double check my own thinking or my own numbers. Helps keep us pointed in the right direction!

The song did come to mind when I was typing that post out :-)

One of the people we're talking to re Private Investment asked us if we could provide some sort of proof of the value of the property we own, since that is going to be the security against anything we borrow. I asked our Architect, who also owns the local estate agent that we bought the Barn through, and he's come back to us with an official valuation document. I'm happy to say that the current value of the property equals What we paid for it + the cost of the Architects Project + the cost of the Council Planning Permission + a bit of normal growth in the time since we bought it. This was good to hear. Since any and all the money we borrow will go directly into the repair and refurbishment of the Barn, the value of the Barn will increase directly in line with whatever we spend on it until, at the end of the project, the finished property will be worth more than all of the costs involved in buying and renovating it. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"..... So whatever loan we manage to find will always be secure. As a bonus, because there is so little property for sale in this area (and none at all in Guaso village) once the property is finished, if for any reason it didn't make money as a "B&B" we could sell it for enough to get everything we put into it back again, clear any loans or debts and still make a bit extra for ourselves. Win Win!

Do you know what the dry weight of a Std SAA A340-600? In terms of the jack sizes necessary?

Same for the A380 - which really is a massive plane!

Landing gear tests....

Cargo plane conversion . . . https://thepointsguy.com/news/a-look-inside-the-747-that-evacuated-americans-from-wuhan/?fbclid=IwAR1It-6sxn2uuYMOQLXsoy776zLimO8LOBY27hpzrZhqWjNpRKoHHPuoTUI

Looks like BA have cancelled flights to China....

Snow capped mountains in the distance 6 months of the year here. I never tire of looking at them!

All over the news here. Basketball is big in Spain.

Was the guy so in love with the pillowcase that he couldn't bare to let it go? The correct method would have been to have the snake in a tied shut pillowcase that you hate, drive 100 miles away from your home, untie, or get a friend (preferably someone you wouldn't particularly miss if they died) to untie the pillowcase and heave it into the veld somewhere. Before the pillowcase even hits the ground, be back in your car driving full speed home. Never give the snake or the pillowcase a moments thought ever again.