octave

Crash of a Consolidated PB2B-2 Catalina on Lord Howe Island: 7 killed

I have fond memories of Lord Howe Island. When I was a musician in the RAAF, we made many visits there. The landings and takeoffs in a C-130 were always exciting. These trips were in the 80s, and from memory, we used to perform at "Founders Day" events. Back then it was a big deal, and we seemed to have some celebrity status. We would be put up by the locals and shown a good time with boat trips, etc. On one occasion, I was able to get my wife on the RAAF flight. On another occasion, after takeoff, the crew put a cargo strap across the rear of the aircraft, and they opened the back ramp as we flew past Balls Pyramid.

Nah, not offered but I am not particularly a "sausage man" In and out as quickly as possible. Another observation is that it seems to me that most people don't take "how to vote" material from the party people outside the booth. I haven't done this for many, many years. I used to take a brochure from the party or candidate I wanted to vote for and then one from all the others so as not to signal my vote. We did our research before we went, and I suspect this is what many people are doing.

Well, we voted this morning. We were discussing the popularity of early voting, which a large percentage of the population seems to like. At the polling booth, there are signs listing the acceptable reasons for voting early. At no point were we asked if we were eligible. It seems to me that in practice, it doesn't matter. I think the days of having 1 day in which to vote are outdated. Given that many more people work on weekends these days, a voting window of one day seems a little restrictive. Rather than maintaining the fiction that voting early is only for people who would be overseas or otherwise unavailable to vote, perhaps the voting window could be one or two weeks, and political campaigns could cease before this voting period. I get the idea that significant announcements in this present campaign might be made after my vote, however, I don't tend to vote on individual promises that may or may not be kept anyway. I tend to vote on a candidate's philosophy. I am, and have always been, progressive, therefore, I am unlikely to vote for a party whose values are conservative.

I have relied on a refund from a credit card company refund for goods that did not turn up or were not up to standard on a couple of occasions. The process was quick and simple.

Because in Australia in 2022 (3 years ago), only 13% of transactions were made by cash. Logically (and logic is very important to me) it is a big ask to expect a company to invest large sums of money in the technology required to take cash and to pay people to go and retrieve that cash and do the accounting and then deposit that cash in the business's account. I suspect that those for whom operating only with cash are very unlikely to adopt new technologies like EVs.

Red, that sounds correct. The Tesla network is easier because it requires no apps, you register the car and the charger knows which car is being charged. I saw a YouTube clip this morning about Norway. They have had, I think for about a year now, a law that says all new chargers must have a card reader or tap and go facility. This avoids the need for apps. In NZ I have noticed that there are loads of petrol stations that are unstaffed. These stations, which appear in towns and out in the sticks, are just like a normal petrol station minus the building. In other words just the pumps and an awning. You swipe your credit or debit card, put the fuel in and then it spits a receipt out. I think one of the reasons this is not more widespread in this country is that petrol stations want to get you inside so you might buy other items.

We did exactly this. We were in an air BnB. My son rang the owner and asked if they minded us charging overnight. They were fine with but this was a granny lead maximum 10 AMPs this is not a problem compared to running a heater all night. Using a standard PowerPoint imposes limits. Motels sometimes have proper chargers that do use larger quantities of power. These are a business decision, and either it is a third-party installation in which case I suspect they take a cut of the profit or they supply it to attract customers. I don't really care whether people here want to buy an EV or not. I won't buy one until my present car dies, it is simply not economically viable given the few km I drive. I do think people tend to come up with a multitude of reasons why they are unviable; often, these reasons are not based on real-world experience. Likewise, it is easy for enthusiasts to not understand to downsides. This is why I posted my original post (which I regret now)

That is not quite correct. My point was that whenever we needed to stop for the toilet or food we also took the opportunity to stick a bit of charge in. It always not a case of wondering around blindly hoping to stumble on a charger. The route planner gave numerous options along with co located facilities such as food or toilets etc. We stopped twice in 4 hours one of these was to buy supplies and coffee and the second for tor a toilet break. This at least for me was little different from a petrol driven trip I posted of an account of the trip because I thought it would add some useful input.

Onetrack that does seem a little paranoid. My electricity bill comes straight out of my account as does my internet. I can assure you that I am astute enough to monitor these things. The car keeps a record of electricity purchased. It is not true that you can own it charge a Tesla without a credit card.

Just another thought on battery swapping. My son has a Tesla 3, and his girlfriend has a BYD Atto 3. These vehicles have different battery chemistries and, of course, are physically different in terms of size, weight, attachment methods, etc. In order for battery swapping to be the common way, there needs to be standardisation. As well as being a complex task for every manufacturer to use the same standard, there is also the problem that this could stifle progress. If a battery has to be in a specific location. What if a manufacturer wanted for reasons of handling and weight distribution, to put some of the batteries in the front and some in the back? Whilst battery swapping in optimal cases can be done in a few minutes, EVS are also getting much quicker to charge. As they do get quicker, the case for battery swap will diminish.

Can I ask if this is a researched assertion, or is it your gut feeling? My post, which was intended as part of a debate. I was talking about NZ. I don't have practical experience of travelling around Australia. I know there are EV drivers who have travelled around Australia. If your argument is that we should be rolling out more infrastructure, then I am in agreement with you. Although I had no particular point to make with my initial post, if I were to make a point, it would be that we are lagging behind other countries. Whilst I believe battery swapping may be part of the solution, especially for larger commercial vehicles, I don't believe that they are the main solution. If you believe we can't build a charging network quickly enough, what makes you think we can build a battery swapping network (including remote) quickly enough? How does a remote battery swap centre ensure an adequate supply of batteries? If I swap a battery in the middle of the Nullabor Plain, I would presumably swap it again at another swap centre many miles away. How does the remote swap centre maintain a stock of batteries when people are taking them away and not bringing them back? Sure other people coming the other way might be dropping off batteries but it would be a bit of a balancing act. The solution to having enough chargers is to build them, not to avoid EVS. Interestingly, when you actually have a look at charging centres, they are often provided by private businesses. We use one at a Westfield shopping mall car park. Why was it there? Well, we went inside and bought some food. The charging centre at the golf club I assume, utilises some of their carpark and presumably gets a share of the revenues, and I suppose it benefits their members who drive EVs. Whilst in NZ we got a bus from Christchurch Airport into the City. Many of the buses are electric, and all of the airport buses are EV. They can drive around the city all day and they charge over 2 hours at night. Electric buses – all you need to know

I can say that NZ is way ahead in terms of EV adoption. Charging facilities are everywhere there are not queues to use them anymore than there are queues for petrol stations. Yes if everyone suddenly bought an EV overnight then there might be a temporary problem. I am sure back when Henry Ford started producing the Model T, people might have worried that there would not be enough petrol refuelling points. Countries like Norway seem to cope with a much higher percentage of EVs than either Australia or NZ. Fun fact In a significant milestone for the state, California now has 48% more public and shared private EV chargers than the number of gasoline nozzles. California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates there are about 120,000 gas nozzles in the state, compared to 178,000 public and shared private chargers. Your question, "what about when EVs are the majority," seems to presuppose that the number of petrol or electricity refuelling points is not driven by demand. In Australia, the majority of new cars are petrol at this point. I haven't checked this figure, but I would imagine that this year there are more petrol cars on the road than last year. OMG what will happen when there aren't enough petrol stations? Of course, demand creates supply. I wasn't really expecting my post to "fuel" a debate; I just thought practical experience was of interest.

I thought I would give a quick review of some practical EV experience. As an EV enthusiast who doesn't own an EV, I can only go on what others tell me, but in this case, this is first-hand experience. We have just arrived back from a 3-week trip in NZ, visiting our "favourite" offspring (he is an only child). We spent a week driving around the South Island in petrol-driven rental cars. I have often been told by the anti EV crowd that it takes forever and it is impractical to go outside of the city coz it take a fortnight to charge - Bollocks! From my son's home we departed with around 90 something per cent charge. This was from his overnight charging, which due to a deal from the electricity company (they have to much power overnight, I think they sell it for about 10 cents a KWh). This electricity is generated from hydro. We had to make a stop in town because son and business partner had to pick up some merch to flog at the races. Mrs Octave and I opted to stay in the car rather than to go with them. Although it was not super hot, the sun was quite strong, so my son put the car into "dog mode", which kept the aircon running. Actually I am pretty sure you can do this some other way, but I think he thought "dog mod was humorous" We then drove for another hour and stopped at a supermarket which had a Tesla supercharger in the car park. He plugged it in and because it was a Tesla charger, there is no need to muck around with apps or credit cards, just plug it in and it charges the car and your credit card. From memory, the car was around 85ish %. We went into the supermarket to buy some nibbles for the journey and then located a cafe for the caffeine requirements. We probably would have been about 30 minutes. When we returned to the car, it was at 100%. We drove for a couple of hours and then needed to stop for a toilet break. We stopped at a Tesla supercharging site, plugged in and by the time we had all relieved ourselves, the Tesla was back to 100% ( charges about 280km per 15 minutes in ideal conditions). When we reached our destination, the power was down around the 20% level. The car directed us to a Tesla charger, and we plugged in and went to find somewhere for dinner. We found a pub with a rooftop dining area overlooking the lake. My son had one drink and then went to retrieve the car as it was approaching full. You can just leave it, but it is bad etiquette to leave a fully charged car taking up a charging spot. The next day the car was not needed by my son, so Mrs Octave and I went on a bit of a jaunt in it. We got back with 85% left. The car was plugged into the power point supplied by our accommodation with a 10 amp "granny lead" Next morning car at 100%. We drove from Taupo to Napier and stopped for a late breakfast. I was assuming the car would have been charged whilst we went to breakfast but this was not necessary. We later had a toilet stop at a golf club where the car was charged for a few minutes. A couple of hours later, we stopped at a town whose name I can't recall. We drove into a shopping mall car park and plugged the car into the Tesla charger whilst we went in search of more caffeine. I don't recall how much charge this gave us, but it took us the rest of the way home. It seems to me that at least with this car and in NZ, which is possibly ahead with charging infrastructure, road trips are incredibly easy. Now I imagine someone is going to say that in Australia we have much longer distances, and this is true. This is somewhat balanced out by the stupidly steep terrain in NZ and my son's shall we say, "enthusiastic" driving style.

You missed out Bi. I will take a doctor of any gender.