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'The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.' - Unknown Author
That may true in military aircraft, but that is definitely not true in civilian aircraft.
I was flying a particular low wing aircraft that I rarely flew and stopped for fuel at an airport. The line guy asked if I wanted the tanks filled "to the tabs" and I replied, "No, full please." In many smaller civilian aircraft the engine doesn't have enough power to take off with both full fuel tanks and passengers in all the seats or with a lot of baggage. So the aircraft manufacturer installs tabs in the fuel tanks that are visible when fueling. When the fuel tanks are filled to the these tabs, that generally means the aircraft will have enough power to take off with passengers in all the seats and little or no baggage. In this case, I had one seat empty, the passengers all weighed significantly less than the standard weight used for passengers when calculating whether the engine has enough power to take off with passengers in all the seats and full fuel, and no baggage, so I told the line guy to fill the tanks full.
When the aircraft had been fueled, I paid the fuel bill, and I was ready to go again, I got permission to taxi to the runway and was immediately given permission to take off. The runway was paved, a length commonly found at smaller airports, the airport was less than 1,000 feet above sea level, and it was a cool day, so there was no need to configure the aircraft for what is known as a "short field" takeoff. A short field take off gets the aircraft off the runway using as little runway as possible and the pilot flies at a specific speed so the aircraft climbs at the steepest safe angle possible to clear any obstacles that might be at the end of the runway. I configured the aircraft for a normal take off and opened the throttle. The aircraft started down the runway but it seemed to take a little longer than usual to get up to flying speed and when it did I lifted off the runway. The aircraft was climbing rather slowly and the trees at the end of the runway were getting larger and larger in the windshield instead of disappearing out of sight below the nose of the aircraft like they normally do. It was at that point that I realized that something was wrong. A quick check of all the gauges indicated the engine was developing full power and I was flying at the proper speed to climb at the best angle possible. I needed to climb more quickly or there was a good possibility we would end up in the trees. The only thing left to do was to configure the aircraft for a short field take off. Once in the air, if one is flying at the proper speed, the only thing left to do is to change the flap setting to the short field setting and hope the additional lift would get us over the trees. I moved the flaps from the normal takeoff setting to the short field setting and we cleared the trees with a lot less altitude that I would have liked.
Once we got up to a safe altitude and headed towards our destination, I started trying to figure out why I had such a hard time clearing the trees at the end of the runway. I had one empty seat, light passengers, and no baggage. What was the problem? Then it hit me; this particular aircraft had air conditioning installed. The weight of the A/C unit, the motor and stuff needed to lower the unit into the operating position, etc., had added several hundred pounds of weight to the aircraft. I had failed to take this into consideration when determining how much fuel to put in the aircraft at the fuel stop.
So yes, you CAN have too much fuel and NOT be on fire.
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A sucking chest wound is natures way of telling you to slow down..
When the pin is removed Mr Grenade is not your friend.
Friendly fire...isn't.
Friendly armour...isn't (from an Infantryman).
You can never have too much ammunition...unless you're on fire or trying to swim.
If your advance is going well...it's probably an ambush.
The Hastings is .. ten thousand rivets flying in close formation. (RAF Flight Sergeant to Para recruits)
Incoming rounds have right of way.
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Issue 20 of the excellent online FREE Raspi mag, "The MagPi" is now available.
For those who haven't heard of this, it is a great magazine with good article on beginner to advanced topics. Did I say it was Free? You can view it online or download it as PDF to consume at your own leisure offline.
http://www.themagpi.com/issue/issue-20/[^]
You can get all the issues here: http://www.themagpi.com/issues/[^]
Everyone likes free things.......
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Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
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You turned me on to this a while back and I just got my first, well actually 20th issue of this excellent magazine. Look forward to many more and also in receiving my Pi in the next few days.
Thanks Dave
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What an absolute pig of a day I have had.
After going round to pal from works house yesterday to see what tools he had to potentially remove my locking wheel nut that is mashed and subsequently giving up, I headed to the shops this morning to get some new drill bits and extractors etc.
Couldn't find any high cobalt bits or tungsten carbide so had to settle for titanium coated.
After what was hours of hunched over drilling a progressively larger hole in the knackered wheel nut (which is unfeasibly hardened, even a centre punch barely made an impression), I eventually got a decent size. I tried hammering in a hex/torx socket, and it did get a really good hold, but there was so much torque it started turning the bit inside its parent socket.
Next thing to try was the coarse thread extractor, after various attempts eventually got a really good bite on the wheel nut. Slowly increasing the force through the breaker bar, whilst still trying to keep it square the damn extractor shattered and yes it is jammed in the hole
I'm going to try and clear the hole tomorrow and then leave it till I get back from offshore in a couple of weeks then either order up some fancy bits and some hex-spline sockets (haven't found any in the UK yet only on Ebay from the US) etc.
If that doesn't work, then it will be trying to weld a nut on or just book it into a garage and let them do their damndest.
On top of that, I have a pile of 3 about 4 shipping blankets on top of the stored winter wheels, went to take one of them to kneel on, and found it was full of peanuts. Also, some of the others were also full of peanuts and really chewed up. Looks like a mouse had set up home and was stockpiling peanuts from the bag of bird/squirrel nuts I have in the garage. It would also explain why when I went to the bag at the weekend and lifted it up, it start spilling nuts on the floor. I thought I had just torn the bag with some timber that was against it.
Wish I could roll back to 24th December when I think the first damage to the wheel nut occurred and things might have been different now.
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I hope you have a better day tomorrow! And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. And.... well, you get the idea.
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
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On the positive side, this didn't happen to you on Groundhog Day[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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That my friend is a very good way to look at it!
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That's why they call me Mr. Sunshine...wait a second...
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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I missed the start of the saga... what type of car is it? Is (was) the locking nut flush mounted to the rim?
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It is a MB C63, the locking nuts are recessed into the alloy (by about 1.5inch), are flat faced with a groove cut in them and also have a spinning ring round the edge. There is next to 0 space between them and the recess wall.
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Oh... you won't like my suggestion then!! (FWIW, I was going to suggest grinding the stud off from behind the hub.) Perhaps not with that car!!
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This is interesting. Are these wheel nuts genuine MB?
Peter Wasser
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
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So are the nuts a pos or has human error played a part here?
Peter Wasser
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
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I think that the bolts were originally over torqued or have seized over time. Then when I tried to release them using a standard MB tyre iron, it slipped and dogged the nut. Had I used a proper breaker bar I probably would have been OK.
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I'm not familiar with the vehicle, Dave, but is it possible to get to the backside of the studs? On US cars and all Asian vehicles I've seen, the studs are pressed into the axle plate. If there's any thread left, it's SOP to use a nut and puller, but in extreme cases, the studs can be driven out from behind. You'll probably have to drill out the part that engages the nut from the front in order to get the wheel off and expose the axle plate, but from there it should be reasonably easy to replace the studs.
Alternatively, you could drag it somewhere distant from your house, set fire to it, and file a stolen vehicle claim with the insurance company.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Easyouts seldome work, they often break leaving the very hard metal that it is made of behind. Which is wosre.
Weld something to it. A big nut often works well, if not a bolt. At the very least the heat will denature the steel rendering it drillable, and will break the bond with the hub making it easier to get off.
Of course you could just take off the upright and brake pipe and get another one from a breakers yard.
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Like Fat_boy says.
Fit a thin piece of rolled up brass sheet around the bolt/nut to protect the rim, and arc weld a large bolt onto it. The heat itself might also help to loosen the wheel.
The question is,is there enough space?
Is it really wheel nuts? I thought MB used wheel bolts
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Yes it a wheel bolt.
The generally adopted term whether it is a nut or bolt, is 'wheel nut'.
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It's one of these linguistic features you just have live in the country to know about.
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My brother had an Oldsmobile F-85 once.
When he was changing tyres on it, he had no problems on the first side, but on the other side the nuts where completely stuck.
So he put two pipes on the rim cross for leverage. When he had twisted off the bolt he realized it had a left hand threading.
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