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Long ago now I flew interstate or overseas three or four times a week. I refused to fly economy. No one should have to suffer that.

A couple of random thoughts. For those who visit AircraftPilots, you will have noticed that I've added more aircraft profiles. They now total 1930, so I only have 70 to go to reach 2000. I have a few more lined up but it is getting harder. I go through airport-data.com where they have a listing of aircraft by manufacturer. You select a manufacturer and it displays all registered aircraft loaded onto the site for that manufacturer. Not all have photos attached. Often, when you select an aircraft, it turns out to be a licence built version of an aircraft which is already on this site. Also, many are owner built with no photos and only the flimsiest basic data, and only2 or 3 built. So it is getting harder to find new aircraft to add. The other random thought relates to comments by @Jerry_Atrick about the camera on the Samsung A17 phone I bought. These photo and video don't look too bad. 20251208_112529.mp4

I have to pull you up on that. There is no equivalence. The facts are that Trump did exhort his insurrectionists to fight and made a heap of inflammatory statements to them. All TV programs cut sections out (imagine the run time if they didn't) but in terms of changing the facts, it didn't. And the BBC, instead of apologising, should have told him to f*ck off. If Sky News and ABC were soccer teams, the ABC is getting a red card for accidentally bumping another player, while Sky News gets it for machine-gunning the opposing team.

For those not familiar with airport-data.com, here is an example of part of the manufacturers list (for the letter J), with the number of aircraft listed in brackets: This is part of the listing of Mini-Max aircraft. The full list contains 19 aircraft. Note the multiple models, and only one with the camera icon indicating a photo. There were only 2 with photos on the full list. I personally have over 1200 photos I have taken on the airport-data website.

They interviewed Albo on Sunrise this morning and he said she and her support staff were originally meant to travel with him when he went to meet Trump, along with the press etc who went with them. But due to the introduction on the social media ban for under 16's, it was decided that she should stay here to deal with that which is why her booking was late. He said these matters are handled by an independent committee and he wouldn't be drawn on whether the rules needed reviewing.

We can surely walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes there will be an opportunistic pile-on by the usual suspects, but that shouldn't stop us from calling out overly generous entitlements that do not reflect what the majority of people would consider fair. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/pollies-charge-taxpayers-for-family-travel/106122328

There are many trials of agrivoltaics going on in Australia and overseas. I My assumption is that with all these trials going on and some already operating agrivolatic farms that things like the stock damaging the accuators or other parts is a known quantity. I am sure it would not suit every farm type or location, but a search of the net does show sheep and cattle and crops (mainly veges and grape vines, etc where partial shade is preferable.

There has been some asbestos found in the brake pads on the service lifts. we have received some safety alerts regarding this. Contained inside a sealed housing I believe. Actuators are used for the panels to follow the sun. Some of these have rods that control more than 1 panel.

I am quite settled. In terms of asking questions, usually the answer is freely available. For example, off the top of my head, I did not know if wind turbine blades contained asbestos. It is not something I had heard, so I sought out the answer. Perhaps I should have said "people instead" of "you" to make it more general and less personal. There is a common trend to only question the new, whilst ignoring the problems of the old. Yesterday, in my local area, a car burst into flames. There was a flurry of comments about EVs being unsafe, or "I would never drive one of those things" As it turns out, the vehicle was a petrol Hyundai. As soon as this was established, the outrage and concern evaporated.

Settle, petal. Just because someone asks a question does not mean that they are attacking another person's beliefs. Why did I ask about asbestos? Because I had heard something about it. Your response clarifies that what I heard was most likely journalistic hype. Asking a question is the first step in identifying if a problem exists and is the first step in planning to deal with an identified problem. I expect that the question of dealing with coal ash and other stuff coming from power stations has been asked and some sort of plan developed. How effective any such plan is can be determined by monitoring. What we must realise is that everything we do from gathering food to space travel creates some pollutants. That is inevitable. Our task is to minimise what is produced.

Make the travel rules the same as for the public service. @Jerry_Atrick while there is some truth in your post, it sounds like you were working for private companies. They can waste money however they like, or at least as much as the shareholders will put up with. The government is a different beast. We can't choose to be "shareholders", our taxes pay for everything they do. A higher standard is expected and should be adhered to. While no one is arguing that cabinet ministers should travel in economy, we should ask whether the benefits of the 6 minute speech outweigh the cost - ie should the last-minute fares have been purchased at all. That trip aside, the overly generous family travel should be scrapped. Yes they have to spend a lot of time in Canberra, but any FIFO worker does the same thing and doesn't get their family flown out to visit them. As for the sporting event tickets, and any other gifts from companies - this is something that wouldn't be acceptable in the APS and shouldn't be acceptable to politicians. I'm not just picking on Wells here, there's a lot that spend more, on every side of politics. They should all remember that 99% of the people they represent get a lot less income than them.

They are saying on Sunrise this morning that her trip to NY for a 6 minute speech at the UN cost taxpayers $190,000. She also charged taxpayers to fly her from Brisbane to Sydney and back for her own birthday party, and another occasion where shw and her kids flew interstate so one son could take part in a boxing match. Back in 1986-87, I worked for the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd, which had just merged with the Bank of NSW, forming Westpac. I was a systems analyst working on the personnel system for CBAL which had to integrate with the BNSW system. For a couple of months I flew from Melbourne to Sydney on the Monday morning. Taxi from home to airport, bus into Sydney CBD. Worked until about 8 pm, taxi to Hurstville where the bank owned a group of flats normally used by relieving staff. There were a group of us, 2 to a flat. Stayed over the following weekend, then flew home after the two weeks, then start all over again. Cooked our own meals at the flat, took care of housekeeping ourselves. The bank picked up the bills, but it was no holiday.

I sort of agree with Kev on this.. Wells is the minister for communications and sport. So what the news isn't telling is is whether she is at the sporting events in an official capacity or not. If she is in an official capacity, it is understandable, for instance, that the commonwealth cars are waiting for her (it's not like they can discharge the driver for the day and then have them come back, I wuld guess - they aren't a taxi company). And if two tickets are given - then it is sort of natural her husband comes along.. Sort of... The trip to New York were for her and her two staffers. I am not sure how long they were for, but it is $33K for each, on average. So, flights are likely to be at least business class.. say $10 - $15K each. First class, which one would expect a minister to travel will be c. $20K (they should get a discount, but lets just go with the numbers). That is between 30 and $60K gone. Do we know the number of nights she and her staffers were there? Grand Hyatt hotel web lookup starts from USD $272/night. No doubt the rooms for the staffers can be the more basic room, but the minister should have a decent room, woth probably a separate living/working room to her bedroom for some privacy. So that won't be am Air BnB.. That is, of course, unless there are suites in the embassy - but the embassy (or highh commission) is probably in Washington DC. Now, before you fellas shout, yeah, she can go cattle like the rest of us, and why shoudl dhehave a fancy suite, as someone who extensively travelled for business, the aircraft and hotel rooms are like mobile offices. You do work in them. I have written a whole budget paper between London and Prague; prepared for meetings, presentations, and the like; after leaving the office and usually some dinner with clients/colleagues, there is the recapping the days events and preparing for the next day. At the same time, you have to deal with things back at the office and other sites/clients you deall with. It seems glamorous and a jolly to many, but a proper business trip (I don't mean attending conventions - and I have never done them) is hard graft, or yakka in the Aussie vernacular. However, I do miss it. So, so what if she had a few chateau de Hoity Toity wines or something else.. But that is for her only. We used to get (and give) tickets for 2 to events - I would always take a work colleague. They also worked for the firm and did a lot - so it was only fair. And I can't recall ever paying for my family to go on a holiday - even if it was to bring them along with me for the ride. That shold not happen, unless it is exceptional.. like a carer relationship or come extraordinary circumstance. In fact, I used to bring my partner along with me for business trips and pay for the flight - the company poicked up the hote because the room was the same price whether it was one or two people. Occasionally it was more for two, in which case I paid the difference. I did use frequent flyer miles for her sometimes, but, these are a perk, not used by the company and thankfully here, not fring benefits taxed. But that is the thing. Real business travel is taxing, you can't get a lot done with your personal life that you can at home. Some perks should be tolerated - it is a question of proprotionality.

One of the beauties of running stock around solar panels is they keep the vegetation short, so it has less chance of carrying a big fire.

They chose to put themselves in that position. Oh my, I work so hard. sniff, sob. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. They might be on less than the top public servants, but it's better than Joe Bloggs, who has to cover his own expenses. (ps.) Meant to send this reply this afternoon, forgot to press Submit.

Base salary $233,660. As a cabinet minister she gets additional 72.5%, so add $169,403. Puts her a bees dick over $400k. Are you saying that someone on $400k, who already gets her own free travel and prime seat at any sporting event she wants, can't afford to pay for her family out of her own pocket?

not in the turbine blades; however, some components are found in turbine brake pads. There have been concerns with wind turbine blades in the past; however, new blades are recyclable. Do you also question what parts of coal power stations are recycled and what is left over when the coal is burnt ? https://www.siemensgamesa.com/global/en/home/explore/journal/recyclable-blade.html Acuators? I am not sure exactly what you are referring to. There is no shortage of videos and even long seminars on the net. I will happily post links. Also, a search of farms al; already using agrivoltaics will show many examples both here and overseas. There are loads of examples both here and overseas. Here are just 2, but do a search yourself. This is a win-win situation. Change can be hard, but it is necessary

I grew up on farm so am aware how good drought proofing is. Solar farms need to be set up to take stock under them as far as guarding around actuators, cable etc. I am just wandering how many developers are actually doing all the time, or just for the farms where the cameras frequent. The windfarm I worked gave all weather access to the top of a ridge, and has allowed fire fighter access. The road across the top also acted as a fire break for a fire caused by a header. We had to stop some turbines and apply the brakes to stop the rotors turning for the air tractors. The smoke from the fire had tripped some of The HV switch gear which meant some were not able to be braked.

She might be good, but if she's so disconnected to the general population that she thinks taking kids to ski trips and sporting events on the taxpayer dime, when she gets a substantial salary herself, is a good idea, she's either out of touch or greedy.

Anika Wells has to go, she makes Chopper Bronnie look good. What a prime "snout in the trough" merchant, Wells is. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-09/wells-spends-thousands-on-comcars-for-grand-finals/106117742

It's no fun travelling long distances by Air and you Must arrive in a shape to front up Prepared and Fresh.. The trip was a Late decision. Hence NO discounts. She would feel obligated to attend the Football as how does it look if she doesn't? When you're in the Lower House you are always conscious of the Value of Public Appearances. .She's also entitled to some family life. Canberra is hard on that. Recognise THIS for what it is. A Bloody great OPPORTUNISTIC Beat up by the usual Hypocrites. Nev