aviatoreb

I couldn't agree more highly. With enough noodles we could build an airplane out of noodles. The big question then would be, angel hair or fettuccini.

Much of what you say is true but some is not my experience at all. I have been around bikes a long time since about 19, and now I am ...oh my gosh... just turned 56...and I used to ride what was then the leading edge stuff - and I broke A LOT of stuff being larger than the standard sized rider. I used to be once upon a time a national level track racer - velodrome. I remember when disc wheels were things you only saw in magazines and I somehow managed to get a Russian built carbon fiber disc wheel when I was racer at the Colorado Springs velodrome and some national team member had somehow gotten it also in a barder. I loved that thing and thought I looked so cool with it, until I traded it for something else. I think that was a rubberized sleek shiny skin suit with long sleeve arms and ridges on the should to trip the Flow. Who knows if any of that stuff helped but we sure looked good! ..and I still ride...less fast, but with a much bigger wallet! So in my lifetime I have broke a total of 4 cranksets - I am here to tell you that when aluminum gives way it just snaps abruptly. I musta been a beast peddling too hard - hahaaa I've broken several framests, and seen several framesets break. I am not counting the ones that break because you crash them. My favorite stupid frameset trick was once in the Davis 4th of July criterium, 1988? and I was third wheel coming out of the last corner which is absolutely perfect positioning to make a run at the line, and like 100 guys behind me. I stood up to crank out my spring and the chain stay separated from the down tube and then that caused the rear wheel to bend sideways, and from there I was going sides ways and both my tires rolled off (glue on tubulars) and well then ... crashed. And a bunch of guys crashed on top of me. In fact it turns out, didn't know until a year later, that one guy broke his shoulder and held a grudge against me and I ran into him in a race in Napa Valley the next year, wherein he pulled along side me and started punching me! Good thing I was lots bigger than him. I have broken soooo much stuff over the years - of all materials, steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber. frames, wheels, pedals, cranksets, forks, seats, seat posts, and on and on. :-O. Sometimes leading to crashes. Sometimes just to nuisances - like having to peddle home 10 miles with only one crank. Or no seat standing up. Anyway since a long time, weight is the last thing I am looking for when I purchase a bike or a part - I am looking for a robust build. And a lot of my stuff is custom built extra beefy - "Clydesdale" build. Carbon is no better or worse than the other stuff. None. Its how well its engineered. And good engineers a this point understand very well how each of these materials is stressed, ages, and so forth and how much margin to build in when selecting materials and selecting how much to build and over build into their designs based on expected stresses. My 25 year old son is exactly the same size and build I was when I was his age. I think he is 210 right now and he measures watts which I was not able to do back in the day since the technology didn't exist yet - he sprints at 1750 watts. He has been riding the same carbon fiber Cervelo since he got it when he was 18 and its holding up great. He is an aeronautical engineering PhD student and well aware of how to inspect his bike for signs of onset of failures so I am confident in him. He did once break a pedal - by Saris power pedal - and that caused a crash and a broken wrist. I kinda wish he hadn't followed this hobby of mine. :-O

They had some pretty interesting low power electric car-things in Europe. I wish I remember the name but there was one tandem seater 5hp electric car that I wish I remember what it was called. Supposedly capable of 45mph - so fine for in town use. It was super cheap - 8k or something like that. But honestly it looked pretty nice.

What happened after 3 min - did you pass out or did you become useless? I am interested since I bet you became useless before that. I've been up to FL25 on a one time been there done that situation but I dont plan on going back in large part because of this discussion. But I do go to FL19 as sort of my last stop reasonable place and pretty much FL21 is my personal limit. 17,000 frequently. I am curious how to read the 20-30 min at FL18. I bet that is before passing out - and one is useless well before then. I've hiked several times to 14,000 in Colorado and I can say - yeah oh yeah you feel it - and its in the head too.

You showed the legs of Robert Foreston Quadzillz and a 700 watt avg 1 min test and said my son's power meter must be off so I was riffing on that because actual power output of cyclists is something know a good bit about. And you talked about Eddy Merckx, the greatest of all time. Also that son of mine is a real sensor geek - more than just a nerd cyclist - he is a phd student at Caltech in aero and he is a real stickler for accurate measurements. He clams he is measuring to within 1% and calibrates often and I believe him. Actually typical untrained people would have a hard time maintaining 250w for a long term ride. If you believe that chart - untrained - 250watts at my weight 100kg and 6'4'' is 2.5watts per kilo. That then FT is the extreme effort of a highest end but untrained cyclist. I was maybe 95kg when I was a young gun. But most people aren't as heavy as me. I would say 150watts is more like something normal folk can do. So 350 watts is a lot for a motor! Especially if added in to a leisurely pedal assist of 100 to 150 watts.

So its the rapid decompression? If you were at FL43 but in stasis it would be different. If in an unpressurized hull wearing oxygen if you stop using the oxygen then would useful time of consciousness be more like a minute or more if you took a big breath before removing the mask? Again in absence of no rapid depressurization.

I've always been confused by tables like that. 9 seconds to not conscious at FL43? I understand its very unhospitable up there, but most of us can simply hold our breath right now sitting where we sit, for maybe a minute. We can go underwater for a minute. Some people can hold their breath for five minutes, and more. How can it be that thin air causes us to go unconscious within 9 seconds? I am not doubting - I know that table is carefully researched - I am declaring this is a point of confusion I would appreciate if someone can explain to me the seemingly contradictory things here.

I think those legs are Robert Foreston. He is called Quadzilla - he is some kind of genetic freak! He is considered a superb olympic level athlete in sprints - but he is not the best in the world despite the biggest legs in the world. https://twitter.com/RFoerstemann/status/928591882447400960/photo/1 No truly - my son's watts in an instantaneous spring - 5s at 1700+ watts is about 18Watt/kg - its good but by no means world class. Its not watts but watts/kg that count for climbers and watts/Cda for time trialists. Here is a table that is considered excellent in the watts/kg scale. 18W/kg is a spring in the transition between cat 2 and cat 1 but below domestic pro and well below world class. I read once that I forgot his name but the Olympic Champion in match sprint (shortest spring event) was 2500 watts instantaneous as a 100kg rider. So 25 Watt/kg to be olympic champ. But on the other end of the time scale - FT means 1 hour. They say it takes 6.4-6.6 watts/kg to win the Tour de France. Your 700 watts toaster test of 1 min.... Suppose its a heavy rider like 90KG then that's 7.7watts/kg is Cat 3 for 1 min. Notice the power levels at 1 min are significantly lower than they are for 5sec. Even lil ol me - I was doing 400 watts for 20 minutes time trial a few years ago. But I am 100kg (97 then) and so its not so remarkable.

Well if you get busted for breaking a TFR and the F16s pull beside you AND you are wearing a cannula at FL19 - then - lookout!

Yes - you aren't a flight surgeon - but you are a doctor and a flying doctor who probably learned more on the topic than most doctors - so I sit up and pay attention.

Really?

Thanks for those details. I have read extensively about that bafang mid-drive setup. Very interesting! But that is orthogonal to my question which is more so about fire risk and you did speak to that very helpfully. Thank you. Others spoke about one wheel which is interesting but I am not interested - but still it does speak to others just not worrying about fire risk of carrying large lipo batteries on board. The reason I am leaning to electrifying our bike Friday's is that we already have them, and they are already excellent for airplane use and they ride well, but also bike Friday the company already did the leg work of selecting safer batteries and also they make a relatively clean conversion. On my road bike by the way - I ride with a power meter - I have for years. Ill say 250w is pretty modest cruise speed. 350w is pretty good high speed cruise. 400w is go fast but cant keep that going for long cruise. About 10 years ago I was good at time trials and my best 10 miler I did 406 watts avg for the tt, just over 20 min. - My son makes amazing bursts of sprint all out and can touch 1750watts for instantaneous top watts.

I resemble that remark. May the techno-dweebs inherit the Earth!

Unrecognizable. In fact Reagan himself would have been laughed out of todays party with a stupid name like little horse stinky pants.

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Mark Twain

I wish I could find the article in the newspaper from early this week - but it was an interesting forecast that was citing how Chinas population already peaked at something like 1.5B and was forecast to drop below 750M by 2050, but the article was about how India is supposed to pass China during this next month!

Hi All, I was just in Europe for work these last few weeks, and well, I really enjoyed the e-bikes ride share thing that's everywhere. Much more fun and much cheaper than taxis. And more legit for a 2 mi jaunt than walking which is yes good, but a bit much. Anyway my wife and I had already been talking about e-bikes in part for the airplane - in part because often a rural destination is 10 mi or such from the town we want to go to and with luggage and all it just seems sometimes we lazy-out and either get a taxi or don't go because truth is my wife and I ride differently. I think this europe trip tipped the scales and I am shopping. We already have bike-fridays which fold nicely into the airplane. They can be electrified even by the company, or alternatively by a kit I would get. But I hesitate still tremendously for one big reason. Fire! I am a bit creeped out about carrying the batteries on board flying. On the other hand there are fire bags - I suppose I could put the batteries in a fire bag for flight. Just in case. If I had such a bike, I would likely ride to work more - I do love to ride but I find often I don't ride to work because i don't like to get to work all sweaty. So I drive more often than I should. AN e bike is less exercise than no electric assist, but it is still more active than driving. And saves a ton of wear and tear on the car over time by using a fun and much cheaper mode of transport. So here's the question - does anyone here fly with an e-bike (or e-scooter) and if so what do you do if anything to mitigate fire risk? Or is it crazy to think of such a thing? Lithium style batteries seem to be the thing used these days but I wonder if older style NiMh batteries could be had for the application - heavier - expensive - but dramatically less fire risk, right?

2-3 deg won't kill "us" as in kill the entirety of humanity. Some/many/millions or billions will still live. But there will be tremendous hardship and famine and drought, and storms, and sea level rise destroying cities, and death and destruction and locusts and angel of death and billions dying. And all sorts of other nasty stuff. :-O Anyway even if "we will survive" it won't be fun. Somewhere between it aint happening, to it aint man's fault and it would happened anyway because we are just minuscule and couldn't do anything to the whole planet, and its not something we want to think about fixing because doing something means awful authoritarianism will rain upon us and that would be a cure worse than the problem, is, maybe just some, just a little, good old neighborly lets each do something about it, each our part? A little? A little bit a little bit if everyone does something on their own then I think that does something that adds up.

I used to consider myself center right. Before that I used to consider myself center left. But left right, up down, liberal conservative, conspiraciasm is another thing as well. Somehow, currently, conspiraciasm (I'm rather proud of that word there that I just made up), seems to have found a home in what was the right. Especially extreme right. But conservative and right need not be synonyms, even though they often associate and now also, conspiraciasm need not at all be associated with right and certainly not conservatism although they seem to associate these days. MOST definitely conspiraciasm can and does live on the far left too and in some times and places is more associated with far left.

Forecasting the past is much easier than forecasting the future.

I'm worse. Im a math professor who is housed in a department of electrical and computer engineering. I thought I could get by but now this thread has declared math unwelcome. Or as my friends in England say, maths.

Darn. I already burned my copy of 1984. Do I need to go buy another copy so I can burn it again?

Does that mean I need to go?

The landing gear doors went through several generations of improvements, eventually leading to full enclosure in a multipart door system.

No kidding! New plane? Enjoy!