onetrack

You forgot to add, "Signed, Donald Trump".

Nev, aren't you confusing ships with aircraft now? The Clipper Flying Cloud, a Boeing 307 Stratoliner, is still in existence.

Nev, that dissertation by MacArthur Job on the Amana mystery, is truly both fascinating and enlightening. https://safeskiesaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FSA_sep-oct2010_The_Amana_mystery.pdf

I was quite surprised to learn that the majority of the KTM manufacturing enterprises have gone into administration, and are essentially bankrupt. The parent company of KTM is Pierer Industrie AG, which owns a wide range of mobility companies, manufacturers, and suppliers and logistics support operations. However, the scenario is extremely complex, due to the web of companies and joint ventures indulged in by Pierer AG. However, there is no guarantee that KTM as a motorcycle and power units manufacturer, will survive. It appears that KTM motorcycle racing operations may be axed completely, or seriously curtailed. It seems that KTM's problems originated in an excessive amount of factory production over the last 2-3 years that could not be sold, due to economic downturns in their markets and regions. There were also build quality issues. KTM's corporate structure is about as complex as Sanjeev Guptas, and appears to be about as profitable as well, too (i.e., constant major losses) - so only time will tell, as what comes out of this massive Austrian group restructure. Pierer AG had recently purchased MV Augusta, and also owned Husqvarna motorcycles (but not Husqvarna power products). The ownership of MV Augusta appears to be set to be returned to the original Italian owners. Pierer AG also owned a sizeable percentage of CFMoto. In addition, KTM was in JV with the Indian company Bajaj Auto, and apparently has a big following in India. Bajaj are now preparing to pump 150,000,000 Euros into their Netherlands-based subsidiary, Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV, to assist in support of the KTM-Bajaj Autos JV operations. https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/bajaj-auto-invests-rs-1364-crore-in-bankruptcy-bound-ktm-465528-2025-02-21 One of KTM's dead-loss exercises in recent times, was to buy a family-owned foundry in Sept 2024, that did a lot of castings for KTM. The foundry purchase was almost immediately followed by Pierer AG going into administration. The Vöck­la­bru­cker Metall­gie­ßerei GmbH foundry had been operating successfully for 70 years, and was set to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2025. KTM was preparing to sack all 134 employees of the foundry, when it was saved at the last minute by being purchased as a going concern by another family-owned Austrian foundry, Mettec Guss Metallgießerei und Formenbau GmbH. https://www.rideapart.com/features/746071/ktm-powersports-ties-motorcycle-industry/#:~:text=KTM AG is the motorcycle,undergoing self-administered restructuring efforts. https://au.motorsport.com/motogp/news/pierer-industrie-ag-avoids-insolvency-decision-on-ktm-imminent/10697462/ https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/family-metal-foundry-saves-a-business-the-ktm-insolvency-nearly-killed/ar-AA1zw6iK?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds

OME may have confused Kingsford Smiths Southern Cross aircraft with the Southern Cloud, which was a historic aircraft that crashed in the Snowy Mountains in 1931 with no survivors, and the wreckage was not found until 1958, when it was discovered by chance by a Snowy Mountains Scheme worker. The Southern Cloud was an Avro 618 Ten, a licence-built Fokker, built in the U.K. by Avro Aircraft, which company was founded by A.V. Roe. Amazingly, one passenger (Stan Baker) who planned to fly on the Southern Cloud, cancelled his booking at the last moment and travelled by train. When he learnt of the disappearance of the Southern Cloud, he developed a life-long fear of flying. However, he finally gave in to his fear and boarded the Amana, an ANA DC-4 that left Perth on 26th June 1950. Incredibly, the Amana crashed in the Darling Ranges just East of Perth, only 22 mins after takeoff, resulting in the deaths of all 29 on board. The crash of the Amana was the worst civilian air crash in Australia to that time, and there were no firm conclusions as to the cause of the crash, but corrosion was found in the fuel systems of the aircraft and water in the fuel supplied was slated as the cause of the crash. However, it could never be determined as to how the water got into the fuel supplied.

Those brick and mortar patterns are so easy to install on paving or roadways. They simply spray the surface initially with the "mortar" colour, then they lay down a "bricks-and-mortar" patterned outline stencil, made from a disposable material that looks like heavy paper (I'm not sure of the exact material used). They then spray the contrasting brick-colour material (a heavy paint, often with some type of grit in it), using a hopper gun, onto the surface - then they simply lift the stencil and throw it away, leaving a neat-looking, false brickwork pattern. https://prestigepatternpaving.com.au/spray.htm

I can advise this much, re commercial flights. If I was going to fly international any time soon (and I'm not, I did a lot of it around 10-15 years ago and I'm not inclined to visit a lot of countries today, due to massive upheavals in the intervening period), I wouldn't hesitate to travel with Qatar AIrways again, and especially in their B777 in business class - because they rate as superb for customer service, IMO. In addition, Virgin have now entered into a code-share agreement with Qatar Airways, and that now makes it even easier to travel internationally to and from Australia.

I'm convinced GON must spend all his time getting his information and politics from SKY News. The lack of logic in tying crashes of cars and trucks into shopfronts, and hit-and-run drivers fleeing the scene, to Left Wing politics, is indicative of someone who is simplistic as Trump, and unable to come to logical conclusions. The reasons cars and trucks crash into shopfronts can be directly attributed to a lack of driving skills, which all State road traffic authorities try to address with better driver education, increasing driver regulation, penalties for road traffic law infringements, and generally bad driving skills. By far the biggest reasons for vehicle crashes are inattention, carelessness, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, a lack of driving experience, and outright excessive aggressiveness behind the wheel. There's also a small percentage of crashes caused by medical events (seizures, heart attacks, strokes, mental confusion related to aging). Politics don't even come into this scenario. As to hit-and-run crashes, nothing has changed since the motor car was invented. A dumb driver hits a pedestrian or another car, realises they're in deep sh** because they're drunk, drugged or driving a stolen car - so they do what all dumb criminals do, they run away, in their firm belief that they won't get caught! Once again, politics has nothing to do with hit-and-runs, this comes back to a lack of good parental education, and good peer education, thinking they can get away with criminal acts. Of course, if you're a SKY News watcher, then the SKY News logic is that the sole cause of cars and trucks crashing into shopfronts, is because all those Left Wingers in control of our Nation have let in millions of useless immigrants who obviously can't drive - and the SKY News solution is to deport them all! Woo-Hoo, the Trump solution will stop all car crashes and hit-and-runs, at their source!!

A Devaux, hand built in Australia by one David Clash, and designed along the lines of classis 1930's European/French sportscar styling. I can't find out if they are still being made, but their website is still up. When available in the early 2000's they came with a Jaguar 6 inline engine or a GM 5.7L V8, and cost around $200,000. I have never seen one on the road, or on display anywhere. The few built, possibly reside in millionaire collectors garages. The man has great taste and style, and nothing is surer than the fact that the Art Deco era produced some of the most beautiful vehicles ever built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devaux_Coupe

In todays world, you'd be worshipped by the banks board, given all the funding you required for any item of equipment you needed - and your annual salary would be a seven figure number.

The nicest bike I've ridden was a friends ex-W.A. Police Yamaha XJ750, in the early 1980's. It still had all the Police fitout, such as fairing and windscreen and panniers - and it was fun putting the wind up motorists! 😄 - especially if you wore a blue shirt, dark blue jeans, and black boots!! 😄

I can't speak for other countries, they have their own peculiar hazards, but riding a motorcycle on West Australian rural and remote highways, and sharing the road with hundreds of triple road trains daily, is not for the faint-hearted. Trucks throw up a lot of road debris, birds are a constant menace (saw a story once about a motorcycling bloke in the N.T. who became a paraplegic due to copping a parrot in the face at 110kmh). Never ride at night, the outback roads of Oz have enough roaming animals in daylight. Stations are largely unfenced, and cattle can be unpredictable. Roos are a constant menace, and even a darting rabbit can ruin your whole day. Road debris, especially animal carcasses, is a constant problem. Dusk and dawn are especially dangerous. Lots of stuff falls off trucks - gluts, chains and binders, load straps, even big bolts! I've even come across a complete spare tyre steel framework, lying on the road, as well as hay bales! The trucks have regular tyre blowouts, and you don't want to be anywhere near a tyre blowout on a truck with a motorbike. The flying tyre carcass pieces will make you come off. Roads in Australia are generally good, but that's not to say they're dead smooth, either. Potholes pop up and surprise you, sunken road sections create dips that can throw you off line. Summer heat must be avoided in the Northern areas of Australia, but Winter in the South can make for downright miserable riding. So you track weather like you're flying. Good body protection is vital, insects are a curse, and they get under most helmet visors, so goggles are advisable. Visibility is a major concern, many drivers fail to see motorbikes - especially in rural and outback areas, they don't expect to see them. So, plenty of high vis clothing, and lights on at all times. I've seen less and less motorbike travellers in recent years on long drives. Not to say these hardy members aren't still doing it, but the enthusiasm wanes for motorcycling as you age. There's quite a few outback motorcycling blogs on the 'net. The North of W.A. is full of amazing sights, but many are only reached via unsealed roads, so if you plan to visit them, you'll need a good cross-country bike. https://geoffjames.blogspot.com/2012/04/go-west-young-man-part-3-of-4.html

They're bloody useless, like all drill attachments. A toy attempting to do a job that only the proper tool does. I've got one and concluded within a short time that it's next to useless. I went and bought a proper old Chicago Pneumatic air-operated sheet metal shears, and there's no comparison. 1. The drill attachment nibbler is only good for the very lightest sheet metal, stuff you can just about tear with your hands, the stuff garden sheds are sheeted with. 2. It's impossible to accurately guide the drill attachment nibbler. Sheet metal is not the easiest stuff to work with.

NEWS: Trump fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. C. Q. Brown. From Raw Story - "President Trump's unprecedented decision to oust Gen. C.Q. Brown as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff along with other top military leaders triggered a Trump-era “Friday night massacre” that sent an ominous message to the rest of the U.S. Armed Forces. That’s according to The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, who wrote in an opinion piece published hours after the Pentagon shake-up that the military was “the last piece” President Donald Trump needed “to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government” after installing MAGA loyalists inside the Justice Department, FBI, and intelligence services. And that sobering connection left Nichols warning readers of the dangers the “remarkable move” presents to the country. 'President Trump tonight began a purge of the senior ranks of the United States armed forces in an apparent effort to intimidate the military and create an officer corps personally loyal to him,' the anti-Trump conservative wrote. 'None of this has anything to do with effectiveness, or ‘lethality,’ or promoting ‘warfighters,’ or any other buzzwords. It is praetorianism, plain and simple,' Nichols concluded. The Atlantic commentator subjected Trump’s latest round of high-level firings to intense criticism, noting that under normal circumstances, the chairman serves a four-year term. 'The position, like that of FBI director, is meant to bridge across administrations rather than change with each incoming president—specifically so that the chairman (again, like the head of the FBI) does not become a partisan political appointment.' The end result of Trump’s Pentagon purge is a stark message 'to the rest of the military' that 'could not be clearer,' Nichols wrote Friday. 'Trump loathed Brown’s predecessor, General Mark Milley, and has floated the idea that Milley should be executed for actions he took as Chairman,' Nichols wrote, adding that the president 'believes that every senior official in the United States should be a personal appointee of the president—so long as that president is him.' (end of article)" Here's the takeaway points of the above Trump move. 1. A powerful dictator requires the full support of the military forces of the country. The dictator ensures that support, by appointing loyalists to critical positions in the military leadership. 2. Gen. C. Q. Brown is an African-American. Trumps stated aim was to remove Gen. C. Q. Brown because he spends too much time supporting DEI, and not enough time supporting "true" military aims. 3. Tom Nichols is also African-American and claims that the Trump move to oust Gen. C. Q. Brown is all part of his attempts to remove black and coloured people from positions of power, and to overturn the Civil Rights Act. 4. The group "Blacks for Trump" appears to be having some buyer remorse. I predict a wave of African-American revolt later this year and next year as Trumps wholesale firing of Govt employees turns into many personal losses and setbacks for African-Americans. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/black-voters-trump.html

Not such a far-fetched possibility, and anything is possible in this age of Trump craziness and alternative reality. What gets me is America runs on War and manufacturing War machines and equipment. The Military-Industrial complex has a monstrous grip on the U.S. economy. If the Ukraine war is stopped, the American Military-Industrial complex is going to lose multiple billions and also lose a great testing ground for their hardware. I can't see that happening any time soon, perhaps the M-I complex head honchos are already plotting Trumps downfall, with his "stop all wars" stance. The problem with Trumps stance is, his anti-war rhetoric is not about being a peacemaker, it's all about Trump getting into the oligarchy, in warring nations.

....and whether he can get prime Ukrainian coastal land, for more Trump Hotels and golf courses .... Just watch him do a dog-begging trick when Putler offers him a swag of premium Crimean beachside land, in turn for making Ukraine give up everything it has fought for. I'll wager this much, if Putin "wins" this war without any input or negotiation by Ukraine, Russia will face 20 years of covert terrorism attacks by undercover Ukrainian resistance fighters, making life hell for the Russians.

Whitlam must have had a serious about turn to the Far Right, then - because he cancelled conscription, and gave GON the freedom from those Commo Govt decisions to conscript him against his will!? Oh hang on, wait a minute - conscription was introduced by the hard right wing Menzies Govt! - and continuing hard right wing Liberal Govts kept up conscription! I'm really getting confused here, over who is more likely to take my personal freedom away from me!? - a Leftie Govt, or a right wing Liberal Govt??

Clive doesn't need a Golden Lion blowing a Golden Trumpet, he can blow his own trumpet pretty loudly, on a regular, and nauseating basis. I'm hoping Gabriel blows a trumpet for Clive pretty soon, I don't know how such a grotesquely obese turd can live so long! He's certainly a Gold Worshipper, just like Trump! "More Gold for Clive", should be his Party motto!

I seem to recall Jerrys betting on football outcomes last year wasn't exactly the recipe for how to make a million quickly!

Yeah, and look up "Porsche aircraft engines problems" and get a handle on their track record there. Aircraft owners and Mooney couldn't get rid of them fast enough - horribly expensive, high maintenance, and they only sold 41 aircraft engines in total. Plus, the Texan aviation engineers told Porsche engineers they would have massive cooling problems and the Porsche engineers told the Texan engineers they had no idea what they were talking about. Talk about massive German arrogance.

The sheer complexity of the design is what will make it a commercial failure. Plus, Porsche has few engine laurels to rest on, they've built a lot of crap engines. If they were any good, they'd still be powering aircraft - and if you search out "Porsche engine problems", you'll find a raft of horror stories from Porsche owners.

That's right ... but then they start to whinge about how they need better schools, and better fire depts, and better rubbish collection, and better social services......

So, when he wrote the song, he was writing about enjoying 69 every Summer? 😄

We just need to impose a suitable "entry charge" for every American serviceman coming here to play war games, or for R&R.

No, not in the civilian style. They enter the country on a special Military visa. U.S. soldiers entering Australia have to; 1. Present an up-to-date military ID card 2. Present movement orders that specify travel to Australia as part of their duties 3. Provide a copy of their official orders and passport with SOFA stamp to the 337 ASUF/JA SOFA is a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), an agreement between countries that allows one country to station military forces in the other. 337 ASUF/JA is the 337th Air Support U.S. Flight base/Judge Advocate in Yokota, Japan, which is the support unit for U.S. troops entering Australia. There is a Special Purpose Travel Authority (SPTA) database set up by the Australian Govt to facilitate Allied troop movements into and out of Australia. https://www.yokota.af.mil/About-Us/Units/337th-Air-Support-Flight/ https://www.yokota.af.mil/About-Us/Units/337th-Air-Support-Flight/337-ASUF-Newcomers/Passport-SOFA-Requirements/