MikeyB

AlpineRam,<br> Even though I'm not a fan of Firestone tires the lawsuit ****** me off. Ford recommended airpressure on the Explorer is 26psi! That's way to low for a 4200lb vehicle traveling at highway speed in the heat of summer. People just don't check their airpressure anymore. You won't believe the amount of vehicles I see traveling down the highway with under inflated tires. And the road gators on the road proves it. But here in the states, it's never the owners fault, it's either the vehicle or tire manufacturer. So next year all vehicles sold will have tire pressure monitoring system. <br><br>MikeyB

Mexstan

If the legal system put the blame where it belongs - with the owners etc, then many lawyers would be out of work. So they find a way to blame something or someone else which keeps them fat and wealthy. Some of the stuff allowed to go thru the courts blows my mind.

AlpineRAM

And if you changed the legal system what would you do with all the unemployed lawyers ??? ;D<br>I think that it's really difficult to balance between the protection of customers against suppliers and vice versa- the suppliers usually having more cash to spend on lawyers and the customers seeming to have the right of ignorance. I did own a set of Firestone Wilderness ATs and on the sidewall there was some nice stuff to read: Tire failure due to overloading/underinflation ...... I think that should be enough, because the ability to read is necessary to get a drivers license. <br>Also there are nice stickers in my truck saying to read and understand the owners manual before operating it. And in this owners manual I see a chapter telling me lots of stuff about my tires. So IMHO what has happened with the Explorers was that people didn't read. Bad news for them if they destroyed their cars, even worse if somebody got injured and killed. <br>I am curious when it will be necessary to write &quot;bad end&quot; onto a gun and a whole litany of lawstalk on the appropriate parts- like &quot;Pulling this device can result in a noisy event where a projectile will leave the part of the device called the bad end or muzzle that consequently can severely or fatally injure people or animals, or damage property. Please consult your lawyer before operating this device&quot; on the trigger. <br><br>Wondering about the state the world is in .... <br><br>A completely off topic AlpineRAM

redramnc

AlpineRam - the ability to read is, unfortunately, NOT required to get a driver's license (over here). And the CDL test is now given in Spanish, even though all road signs in the US are in English (Texas may be an exception to that).

Back to GA and its untimely death - an engineer I used to work with had a small plane and he used to lament the rise of lawsuits, the corresponding rise in GA insurance rates, and the attendent rise in GA parts and service prices to cover the increased insurance rates.

His favorite example was the small WWII vintage plane that was flown into the ground by an inexperienced pilot who was used to lighter, less wing-loaded planes. Since the company that made the plane was 40 years gone, the widow's lawyer sued the av gas supplier and Firestone, who made the tires on the plane at the time of the crash. Firestone settled out of court, the av gas supplier folded and the price of replacement GA tires went up in the process.

He eventually sold his plane becuase it became too expensive to operate and insure. I was seriously considering buying a share in his plane at the time as I wanted to start flying lessons. Never quite made it back to flying again.

PS - most (if not all) insurance companies will deny you coverage if you &quot;participate in General Aviation activities,&quot; including sky-diving.

What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

A GOOD START!

Duelin

Alpine Ram said ; I don't think that the automotive diesels will go into planes shortly. First the results from gassers like Porsche weren't too good.<br>The Porsche was a great replacement ! can you say smooth ?<br>It lost out to the bean counters . They were looking at a market of yuppies in the cessna deal and forgot that yuppies want New things, not a refurbished airframe and a Porsche engine while desirable just didn't work for the masses. Their were quite a a few installed in Moonies and the engines in the cessna series were great . They were hoping for increased efficiency and power levels however and ended up almost the same as the lyc and conti-s they were pulling out. They had to run the engines at twice the rpm as the old engines for the same power levels (they were only 1/2 the displacement) They were so smooth to fly in tho, I wish they had kept it up. The economics, however were not there and they would Have never got as far as they did if not for Ferdinand's pushing for it. I was building my homebuilt on the airport while this stuff developed and they had some really sharp people who came over to my hanger quite a bit . They learned some new things and I picked their brains often too, had a lot of fun and made a lot of new Friends.

Mexstan

Duilin, I see that you are from Coos Bay. I remember that place well from that ship that went aground and broke up. Forget the name of the ship. I was in Eureka at that time.<br>Know what you mean about the bean counters. Between them and the greedy lawyers they did a great job of killing the GA industry. The industry will never ever recover and will never be the same. Still makes me mad when I think about it. <br> AlpineRAM, also know about that story you mentioned about the widow sueing the gas supplier and Firestone. Never could understand how things like that even made it into court. Stuff like that boggles my mind and unfortunately it is still going on today in the US and Canada.

AlpineRAM

redramnc: It sounds unbelievable to me that you don't have to be able to read for driving... that explains a lot of the pictograms I find in the packages of stuff I get from US suppliers. <br><br>This lawsuit about the WW2 plane.... I remember I heard of something like that- but I thought this was something for april 1st.... I won't start to argue with these lawyers. <br><br>Over here we do have insurances that will cover you for accidents that you have during activities in GA- not too expensive. Most insurances exclude so called extreme sports. <br><br>Duelin: I didn't want to put the Porsche down- most of the development was done quite close to where I live now. The main fault of this concept was to put it in Cessnas. Over here we have lots of HBs flying with it. In these the advantage of having a smaller frontal area is used- smaller prop, less reduction and the engine shines. The higher revs are part of the concept. The economy wasn't that much better as they hoped, especially when fitted in planes that did not make use of smaller frontal area and lighter weight for the power. I think that for replacing the Lycs and Conties there will be a need for a very high torque at low rpm engine that is compatatively lightweight. All modern small car diesels get into the powerband much too high up and would use a massive reduction if mated to the props in use on a Cessna or the like ( less pronounced than the Porsche but still some) I think the basic design principle for a aviation diesel will be to have comparably large cylinders and a quite long stroke to avoid the need for gearing down too much. I assume that these engines will be built very light, sacrificing resistance against overrevs and also be stripped of all the additional stuff that is needed for a car. I think that they will also operate on very high boost levels since turbo lag is not that much of an issue as in an automotive application. I think that a specialized construction will have very clear benefits over a converted car engine, except if the airframe is construed to match the demands and make use of the strong points of this engine. <br><br>AlpineRAM

Lary Ellis (Top)

I recall reading about a German WWII aircraft possibly a J82 or J86, not certain the designation anymore, but it had supercharged diesel engines with a ceiling of 40,000. It was a medium bomber and ruled the skies early in the war.<br><br> I put this tidbit in here incase anybody wishes to do a search on it. Sorry to be so vague, but it has been a few years since I read about it. I found it fascinating at the time.

AlpineRAM

[quote author=AlpineRAM link=board=8;threadid=16912;start=0#159119 date=1057999754]<br>I think that maybe some company will step up and continue the development of 2 stroke double crankshaft opposing piston aircraft diesels that has been discontinued since WW2. I have seen one of these small powerplants in a museum and was truely astounded that a unit this small and light could produce that much output and still have reasonable efficiency. ( JuMo 207 turbocharged for reconnaissance planes like the Ju88 flying over 10 000 m ( 32800ft) )<br>AlpineRAM<br>[/quote]<br>Did you mean this one Lary ? <br>I know the Ju88 wasn't only used for reconnaissance but also as a fighter, bomber, dive bomber, torpedo carrier, night fighter with radar and in the last efforts as a flying bomb callet Mistel with a fighter connected to it and completely filled with a hollow charge of about 8000 pounds of explosives. <br>The service ceiling of 33000ft was for sustained use, but with the G2, a nitrous injection combined with water inj., it could reach well over 40 000 for a limited time. <br><br>AlpineRAM

Lary Ellis (Top)

Thats the one Markus! I guess I didn't read all the posts close enough. Very interesting design and it was a very functional airframe in it's time,