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106

General Discussion Area / Re: Pay to Play

« on: 24 May 2018, 09:45:05 »

If I was having tea with Mr. Mueller, I'd be very careful not to pick up his cup by mistake at this point.

.. but I think TG has it sussed. A few will be seen to fall on their swords so "something has been done" then business as usual.

107

General Car Chat / Re: Removing a seized circlip

« on: 24 May 2018, 09:39:53 »

But have you lost an eye yet?

I got the (much smaller) circlips moving by levering one end out and then using a screwdriver to 'walk' the rest of it out far enough that it could come flying out like some kind of tiny un-guided missile.. (and then we had to weld bolts on to the bearings to get those out )

So they didn't build the suspension to fall apart! Shame about the bodywork, really.

108

General Discussion Area / Re: might be of interest

« on: 23 May 2018, 18:04:14 »

Whilst, as a glider pilot, launch failures and running out of height followed often by a field landing (and sometimes not a survivable one for the aircraft) are something we train for, I hadn't considered the prospect of an engine that's playing up but not 100% failed and the mental tricks that clearly plays on you. Generally, once the rope has broken, it isn't going to knot itself together again!

I can see how that scenario can well entice you into leaving the relative safety of a good field you've selected with plenty of time into "get-home-itis", and then stab you in the back. I'm not sure if he had already selected that field as a possibility were he not able to make the airfield, and whether he'd have ventured back to the airfield if it was surrounded by forest, but it looked to me like he chose it pretty late, only just made it across the boundary to the field and, had he been at Blackbush, he might have been in the same place Charles Church found himself.

On the other hand, ditching a historic aircraft when there's maybe even the slightest prospect of saving it given enough power would have played on the mind too.

The fact that a 27 litre V12 carried on windmilling on the prop was an eye opener to me. That in itself was losing him a lot of energy!

I guess nobody walks away from a situation like that thinking they did everything right. The important thing is walking away at all - that you didn't do anything catastrophically wrong.

109

General Car Chat / Re: Removing a seized circlip

« on: 23 May 2018, 17:06:57 »

Soak it over night. Appreciate it's not a quick solution, but be less stressful than breaking it

What, the car? In the sea? Following a departure from the top of beachy head? 

Actually, I was thinking that breaking it might be a good option, as long as you can get more circlips, but a bit of plus gas might be worth a try.

110

Omega General Help / Re: Non Starter

« on: 23 May 2018, 15:45:42 »

If it's not even turning over I would suspect the ignition switch or the gear selector interlock. Try holding the key in the start position while wiggling the gear selector - or try starting it in N instead of P.

Could be the starter motor, but they are normally reliable.

Check also the crimping of the large cables into the battery terminals. These often work loose and cause a bad connection.

I take it the warning lights on the dash illuminate. Do they dim when you try to start it?

111

General Discussion Area / Re: The BIG question . . .

« on: 23 May 2018, 15:13:05 »

When I was a student living in halls of residence, a mates Mum visited and left a food parcel. 

In amongst all the goodies was a Fray Bentos pie, but we didn't have an oven.    Returning from the bar late one night with the munchies, we chopped it up and fried it! 

My mum used to give me food parcels with all her old out of date stuff in.

Returning from the bar late one night (you know how it is!) we decided to cook a packet of "rock cakes".

No need for trading standards there! They were like concrete and nobody fancied risking their teeth on them, so I chucked them out in the garden for the birds. They were still there about 6 months later.

The packet had a best before date of 1984. I cooked them in 1990/91.

112

General Discussion Area / Re: might be of interest

« on: 23 May 2018, 12:09:43 »

Very interesting insight into what goes on in the mind of a warbird pilot.

113

General Car Chat / Re: Price of Petrol this week WTF.

« on: 23 May 2018, 11:18:38 »

I used super unleaded when the weather's like this, so the current price pleases me not.

114

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

« on: 23 May 2018, 11:15:08 »

Yep, it's a retarded as a Morris Traveller pulling up and the tester asking what's happened to the side airbags. Still, as there are a relatively small number of cars affected, I suspect none of them picked it up, and now the strategy is probably to obfuscate sufficiently long to make those affected go and buy a cat.

115

General Car Chat / Re: And so it begins

« on: 23 May 2018, 11:10:44 »

Good job I've no intention of ever owning a Panzerwagen, then.

Incidentally, I'm not that familiar with WLan protocols, but, I believe, if you hide the SSID of a network, you force any devices  paired with it to broadcast probe packets identifying that SSID wherever they are, so you're actually broadcasting your SSID wherever any of these devices go - i.e. over a much larger area than the range of your single router!

116

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

« on: 23 May 2018, 11:01:35 »

Mine went through SVA in March 2000, IIRC. At the SVA test, emissions limits were determined by age of engine to be 3.5% CO and 1200 PPM HC. (Non-cat limits were allowable with an engine date up to August 1995, IIRC).

Mine has no emissions limits listed on the V5, however.

I've helped put a few cars through SVA since then, and they did start putting emissions data on the V5 a couple of years after, but there clearly was a period during which they didn't.

I have a very reasonable MOT guy with whom I have a good relationship. He's an ex-westfield owner himself, so I don't push the matter, as long as I'm not heading for a fail.

If that were to happen, my first get out of jail card would be clause 6b of the MOT manual:

Vehicles having a Q plate registration when presented for MOT are to be treated as follows:

    for emission purposes only, they are to be considered as first used before 1 August 1975
    for all other testing purposes they are to be considered as being first used on 1 January 1971

For cars that ended up with an age-related plate that doesn't help, of course.

I also have the SVA manual from the time the car was registered, showing how the emissions limits were derived.

It is completely unreasonable that cars are now being tested to higher limits than required at registration. I suppose the only recourse would be to appeal the MOT result and then press to have the correct emissions limits entered on the V5.

Purely down to the left hand at DVSA not knowing what the right had is doing, IMHO.

117

Omega General Help / Re: X25XE to X30XE

« on: 23 May 2018, 10:20:01 »

Thanks

I do agree all the spare gearboxes I have are marked r25-r25.

Is that a cast-in marking, though? The casing will be common to both, so it probably has (had?) a metal tag or sticker on it indicating the actual spec. Either way, plenty of 3.0/3.2 manual conversions have used the R25 without issue so it's not worth worrying about.

118

Omega General Help / Re: I can do without this shit ............

« on: 22 May 2018, 23:02:49 »

Sounds like the Kwik Fit recruitment department have nothing to worry about.

119

General Discussion Area / Re: Grenfell inquiry

« on: 22 May 2018, 22:42:32 »

TG, please let us know how you really feel.

Unless dealing with the taxman, a judge or the wife  I always believe honesty is the best policy 

You forgot insurance companies.

120

Omega General Help / Re: X25XE to X30XE

« on: 22 May 2018, 16:18:27 »

.. and this: http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=90497.0