[AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

Thu Jul 21 00:29:32 PDT 2005

Dean,

Interesting about the redundancy ... I understand the underlying philosophy
for why commercial jetliners have redundant fuel quantity sensors to give
the flight crew and flight management system a very high integrity real time
indication of the amount of fuel onboard.  If a fuel leak develops, for
example, the flight management system will alert the flight crew when/if it
determines that there is insufficient fuel to reach the target destination
and, in most cases, the crew can then elect to abort the flight and return
to the departure airport or divert to an alternate landing site.

I don't understand space flight but it would seem to me that it does not
have these abort options.  If this is so and I was onboard I think I would
vote for dispensing with all the fuel quantity sensors, gauges and
electronics and just throw on a few more pounds of fuel instead.  Of course,
if the spacecraft did run out of fuel the NTSB or whatever would want to
know the reason for the accident so I guess if fuel quantity data were
measured and telemetered down this would benefit them ... sort of a morbid
design requirement.  I think this is what George was saying in his post -
that is, so what is the crew going to do anyway if it finds it is low on
fuel?

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Dean VP
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 8:52 PM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: RE: [AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

George:

NASA thinks that they may have an intermittent ground problem acerbated by
the cooling of the liquid fuel in the tank. Current rumor is they are
switching two of the four outside electronic units and if the problem
reoccurs they may allow flight with only three of the four redundant sensors
working. Intermittent problems can be a real bear to isolate but I would
think they would have a little better test equipment than a Simpson VOM!
:-)
Maybe they could try the kaleidoscope troubleshooting methods that are now
so popular. Keep switching components until it works. Apparently the problem
only shows up when the tank is filled with the cold fuel. Maybe wiggling the
wires is also a good test. Probably related to the tide coming in and out.

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door

www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of George Willer
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 7:52 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

Dave,

I watch very little TV, so there may (Certainly) be more to the story than I

understand.  I think from what little I know the problem is with a fuel
gauge.  They were hoping (desperately) that they could get it working by
wiggling the wires!!!  That brings up the question... if the gauge starts
working and they find they are running low on fuel, Who is going to bring it

up to them?  :-(

The CA can wait, but Portland will run right on schedule... count on it!
:-)  See you there.

George Willer

----- Original Message -----
From: "David A. Laughead Jr." <daljr at bright.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 8:11 PM
Subject: [AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

> Sounds like NASA needed to take Farmer's age old advice.
>
> I just watched a NASA press conference. They beleive a weak ground caused
> the faulty reading of the sensor that caused the scrub of last weeks
> launch.
>
> They are hoping for a launch on July 26th. They have extended the launch
> window to Aug 1st with the possiblity to Aug 4th.
>
> NASA TV is great!.
>
> Other news...
>
> Bad Day on the lake here. Took ye ole boat to Lake St Mary's, after about
> 15
> minutes We had a catastrophic failure. What I beleive happened, a crack in
> the lower unit formed then through vibration split a peice of trhe
> aluminum
> casting off creating more vibration which cause a bolt to snap under
> increased stressed which in turn caused another bolt to snap. When I
> pulled
> the boat out of the water the prop wasn't inline with the motor anymore.
> Big
> Thanks to the nice man who pulled us back to the launch ramp.
>
> Found another LU on ebay that I think will work so in the end everything
> is
> OK.
>
> Portland...
>
> Due to a recent shift change for the worse at work, I  may have opened up
> some extra time for me at Portland so I may now be able to bring the
> camper
> up and stay a few nights.
> The bad news is that the Allis CA is still in a million pieces. Maybe next
> year.
>
> Hope to see ya'll at Portland,
> Dave Laughead
>
>
>
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