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61

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Internal lights & seat adjustment not working.

« on: 18 October 2023, 19:20:58 »

That rings a bell. Also the rear aux. socket isnt working either and that runs off a timer. Drivers seat adjustment doesnt though.

I think the aux socket is X68, which runs off relay K154, both of which are on lines 1344-1345. The relay is turned on/off by the CSR (K153 lines 1327-1340). Again, that points to fuses F29 and/or F7. If it's not them, then the CSR itself. Dunno where that lives though- it's not a simple relay - it has at least 9 terminals.

62

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Internal lights & seat adjustment not working.

« on: 18 October 2023, 19:04:34 »

Does the passenger electric seat stuff work? Up down, back, forwards etc. Looks like the passenger seat isn't a "memory" seat (lines 3844-3849 on the circuit), and it's only fed from fuse F5. If the passenger seats work, then it's not related to F5.

The memory seat is lines 3800-3842 on the circuit diagram. Fuses involved are F5, F12 and F15. If F15 blows you lose the dashboard instruments - all of them - speedo, rev counter, fuel gauge etc. Since you've not reported that, then we can assume F15 is OK. The memory seat ECU is connected to the diagnostics, so Tech1/2 might (but probably won't!) give you some clues.

So F12. That seems to supply a shedload of stuff, including CID/MID/GID, alarm, and about 20 other things. I suspect you'd notice if they weren't working.

The light switch is S2, on lines 422-449. Does the light in the light switch itself illuminate?

The sunblind lamps are lines 1318-1323. These are driven from the light switch (S2).

The reading lights are E27 and E28 on lines 1220-1247. The consumer delay unit (CSR) is K153 on lines 1327-1340. The consumer delay unit uses fuses F29 and F7.

There is a link between the CSR and the electric seats - traces 1207[TKS], 1306[CSR], 3804[MEM]

So on balance, I'd agree you need to be looking at the CSR - specifically fuses F29 and F7.

63

General Discussion Area / Re: Israel

« on: 17 October 2023, 20:46:19 »

The Spanish Airforce have F16s based in Gran Canaria. Not a massive stretch to think that the Portuguese do something similar. All NATO partners and all that...

The Spanish don't operate F-16', but they do have F-18's at Gando in Gran Canaria. Nothing at Lajes in the Azores though, coz that's a Portugese territory.

The Portugese do operate F-16's (although they've flogged half of them to Romania), but they are all based north of Lisbon at Monte Real - only a few Search and Rescue types based at Lajes. However, it was a big USAF/NATO staging post over the Atlantic quite until recently, and still gets a lot of transient traffic.

64

General Discussion Area / Re: Israel

« on: 17 October 2023, 18:27:04 »

Bit of digging - on 3rd October around 10pm it was callsign "Canforce 2514", C-130J tail number 130614, and yes it came in from Lajes and landed at Waddington. Don't know why it came in that way, but if it was carrying spares for the dead F-18 it's possible it didn't start out from Canada - it could have come from one of the logistics bases in the USA where the spares are stored.

65

General Discussion Area / Re: Israel

« on: 17 October 2023, 17:53:05 »

Here's one for you Malc.

Late one night last week, about midnightish I think, I heard a large aircraft go over quite low. When I checked it out it was a Canadian Herc coming from the Azores and went to RAF Waddington.

Wonder what they were doing? 

There was an exercise up at Waddington last month, and the Canadians deployed 6 F-18 Hornets from Canada to Waddington for it. Whilst there one of the F-18's was (and still is I think) broken, so they've been shuttling C-130's and C-17's backwards and forwards from various locations with spares trying to fix it. The Azores (specifically Lajes AB) is a common stopping off point mid Atlantic.

There has also been a Canadian C-130 deployed to Prestwick for the past several months. It typically runs from Scotland to somewhere in south east Europe fairly regularly, and your guess is as good as mine as tomwhat it's carrying.

66

General Discussion Area / Re: Israel

« on: 17 October 2023, 16:43:47 »

Munitions runs for the IDF? 

Zelenskyy must be looking on enviously and nervously... 

No, the munitions are going in on normal transport types - C-17's and C-5's, and they show on the normal aircraft tracking sites.

The Hercs are special forces types which seem to be being positioned 'just in case', similar to when POTUS went to Kiev last year. These don't show on the tracking sites.

67

General Discussion Area / Re: Israel

« on: 17 October 2023, 15:52:19 »

Getting him off the aircraft isn't a problem... straight drop/slide/steps/ambilift are all pretty effective.

For getting back on, a belt loader will get the job done if you use the straight drop disembarkation method

AirForce1 - or more accurately the two B-747 based VC-25's - have two sets of built in steps allowing people to get on and off via the (what were on ordinary B-742's) cargo doors...

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1196803354/biden-air-force-one-short-stairs

The rear steps are normally used by the on-board press entourage so they can get off quickly and then scurry round to the front steps to photograph POTUS as he descends the front steps.

However, there is speculation that the VC-25's won't be used into Israel, although that would cause some loss of face for the Israelis. The VC-25 will probably bounce through somewhere like Ramstein, before carrying on to Israel, but POTUS may get there on a less conspicuous type. There's certainly a lot of 'dodgy' C-130 Hercules passing eastbound through Europe at the moment. 

68

General Discussion Area / Re: Luton Airport

« on: 11 October 2023, 23:35:43 »

I was at an ABS club meet at South Mimms many years ago when a car (not one of ours) started smoking in the car park. After a few minutes it was clear there was an under-bonnet fire. We used our own personal in car fire extinguishers to try and put it out - but after perhaps 5-7 of them it was clear we were having little effect. In the end we had to all back off and wait for Hew, Pew, Barney McGrew et-al to turn up. By the time they did the car was well alight inside and out. It took them a few minutes to put out the fire once they arrived, and AFAIK no other cars were harmed.

I know the airfield fire service at RNAS Yeovilton do respond to (very) local incidents around the Yeovilton/Ilchester area, but civil Fire Brigade also have to attend. I don't know what happened at Luton, but if you drag the airfield fire service off station then the airfield may have to stop plane arrivals and departures coz there is insufficient fire cover. Places like Heathrow have (IIRC) three separate fire stations so they can continue flying even if one station is dealing with a shout. Luton, being only one runway, may not have sufficient cover to handle two events at the same time.

69

General Discussion Area / Re: Luton Airport

« on: 11 October 2023, 12:20:39 »

Initial fire is supposed to be in a Diesel Range Rover Evoque. After that a number of EV's were involved and the fire brigade then fought the fire from a distance.

70

General Discussion Area / Re: Brent crude down...

« on: 08 October 2023, 10:56:08 »

Incidentally Malcolm, who do you rent with? Have only used Avis this far as we get a pretty good deal with them...

i book whoever is cheapest of the big guys via sites like holidayautos, rentalcars, travelocity etc. However, I do avoid AVIS wherever possible. For whatever reason they always have huge queues and long waits for cars (Vegas, Phoenix and LAX in particular). I had a slow puncture on one AVIS car this trip, and went to the 3 nearest AVIS sites for an exchange. None had any cars. In the end I had to go to the hell hole known as Phoenix Airport, and 3 hours later I eventually left with an exchange car.

One of the tricks with lo-cost airlines is to NOT book with their own 'preferred' company. You get off the plane with 200 other PAX, 95% of them renting a car at some portacabin of an airport nowhere near the city it's named after (Milan Bergamo for instance), and the queue for  their preferred partner is out the door and round the corner. Book with one of the other suppliers at the airport and you walk straight up to the desk.

Met some Dutch guys this trip - they'd flown into Atlanta, got to the car hire desk to pick up their pre-paid rental, and AVIS had no cars. They waited 4 hours, and still no cars so booked a local hotel and came back the next morning. Still no cars, except an electric VW UP I think it was. They had little choice, but still got charged extra for the upgrade! Met them at Savannah Georgia (excercise William Tell), and we both left around 3pm for the trip up to Virginia Beach (Oceana Air show) - about a 7-8 hour drive. I was in bed in the hotel by 22:30. They arrived at the hotel between 02:30 and 03:00, after 3 different 1 hour charging stops and slipstreaming lorries at 60mph for the whole trip.

And remember that AVIS=Budget, Hertz=Thrifty=Dollar and Enterprise=Alamo=National. If AVIS haven't got any cars, then Budget won't have any either. 

71

General Discussion Area / Re: Brent crude down...

« on: 07 October 2023, 00:04:30 »

Petrol varied between about $3.80 a gallon (in Virginia/Delaware/New Jersey) and over $6 a gallon in California when I was there last month. Have just seen my credit card statement and it was well over £100 to fill up in CA, and it would only do about 500 miles on a tank.

So on the west coast at least it's every bit as expensive for petrol for a given journey length as it is here, given the generally lower MPG of their cars, the smaller gallon, and the smaller miles. Also all those f*&ing Prius's and Tesslas flying in formation at 69.9 MPH blocking every effin lane got right on my t1ts..

72

General Discussion Area / Re: What has P*ssed you off today?

« on: 05 October 2023, 16:30:15 »

Great news from Rishi , more money to be spent on the roads , yeah & I've just seen a pig fly past..😀

The 'saved' money that could be spent on the roads will be pissed away buying off those who had their snouts in the HS2 trough.

More likely that the £36Bn will go in management fees - after all they're supposedly stopping one project (HS2 North) and spending it on hundreds of other smaller projects. Hundreds of smaller projects will require hundreds of smaller management commites to administer, not just the one required for HS2N.

And initially they said all the money would be spent across hundreds of projects in the north, but in Sunaks' speech he mentioned the M2. Since when has the M2 been in the north, unless you live in Dover? And the local news down here in Sunny Zummerzet seemed to be saying 'we' would be getting some funds for various rail branchline upgrades and re-instatments.

I suspect this £36Bn is just going to go missing.

73

General Discussion Area / Re: Wagner leader Prigozhin.

« on: 23 August 2023, 22:02:18 »

There was a second Wagner owned jet following it, and that Jet landed safely. If I were Prigozhin it might be a good way to do a Reggie Perrin.

So the truth might come out if they were flying close enough....

I don't think "the truth" is a concept that the current Russian administration understands. It's doubtful that the official Russian explanation will resemble the truth.

There is little doubt the aircraft was shot down. Some debate about whether it was shot down by a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) or by a fighter jet. I was hoping there might gave been a USAF/RAF RC-135 and/or E-3/E-8 loitering over eastern Poland which might have given those that need to know some info, but I can't find anything online about todays taskings. The U2 went north of Norway, so that probably won't give any info.

74

General Discussion Area / Re: Wagner leader Prigozhin.

« on: 23 August 2023, 20:33:45 »

Shame 100 odd other people had to be shot down with him.  But he must haver known he could never get on a plane over Ruski land again....


...or is it all a big ploy to allow Putin to save face, but still have his military problem solver...

It was an Embraer legacy 600 (serial RA-02795) , which typically has about 12-15 seats, and was owned by the Wagner Group. Unlikely there would be any 'civilians' on board.

There was a second Wagner owned jet following it, and that Jet landed safely. If I were Prigozhin it might be a good way to do a Reggie Perrin.

75

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 23 August 2023, 20:14:49 »

MOT on the LC. Passed wohooo.

Excellent.  Surely that worthy of some show-off photos of it

Err - you've obviously never seen my car. Showroom it ain't. Used and abused it is.

Burning the cobwebs off the rear tyres perhaps 

Given that the size (265-40-17) is now discontinued by everyone, and these are my last pair from my stash, I don't think that's a particularly good idea.