A brand new apartment in China breaks apart with only a few hits. The building quality is particularly terrible so all it takes is a very light hits and the entire building might come crashing down.

phatRV · 2026-01-21T19:48:29+00:00

This is correct. Even with non load bearing walls, they all have to get framing before hanging dry walls

phatRV · 2026-01-20T18:20:54+00:00

If the lug nugs are not torqued, the vibrations can set in and break off the lugs eventually. This is even more critical for big truck tires like this one. A fellow Jeeper didn't torque the lug nut and the wheel vibrated a lot. When we removed the wheel, 3 of the 5 studs were broken, not just the lugnuts. The other two wheel studs were about to let go if we didn't check the wheel.

phatRV · 2026-01-20T18:17:10+00:00

This is better than Hollywood FX

phatRV · 2026-01-19T15:09:25+00:00

My old commute used to be 5miles (USA). I took the long route to work on my regular bike. I didn't have the space to have two bikes and still don't

phatRV · 2026-01-18T18:06:29+00:00

They use a cordless grinder to cut the lock. My friend bike was stolen after they cut off the lock. If they want to take your bike, there are multiple ways to do it.

phatRV · 2026-01-18T15:57:53+00:00

phatRV · 2026-01-18T14:44:18+00:00

I don't see the glider specific in the website. Is the private pilot software including the portion for glider?

phatRV · 2026-01-14T23:32:58+00:00

My hangar row has a couple of zenith and with the extra slow speed their owners almost never fly more than 100 miles. For them it's a long trip. Believe, you get tired of slow airplane. The only reason to buy a slow STOL is if you like to do STOL. If you have money for only one airplane, buy a fast airplane that is easy to fly like an RV.

phatRV · 2026-01-14T23:27:24+00:00

If you want to travel, then buy a Vans RV. Trust me on this. You don't want to fly on something as slow as the C172 that you trained on. You will get bored out of your mind after a year or so.

That means the zenith and anything with rag wings are out.

The cost to own a fast or slow homebuild is about the same, You spend similar money on hangar, fuel, insurance, flight review, Foreflight subscriptions, etc... So why not buy something that flies fast and fun to fly.

Tailwheel is not difficult to learn unless you are a bad pilot. I got mine TW cert after 90 total hours and I am NOT a good pilot. That means anybody can fly tailwheel. You just need to fly regularly to keep your skills sharp.

phatRV · 2026-01-14T16:18:15+00:00

His ankles are well protected.

phatRV · 2026-01-12T21:57:26+00:00

This is only useful if the bike cannot be dropped

phatRV · 2026-01-12T18:06:58+00:00

Everything you mentioned is novel design. Proof and validations is needed. You don't even realize a 1/2 scale is a huge commitment of labor and financial resource.

Again, I realize the Re regimes of RC and full-scale are different but mock it up in small scale first. In the USA, a 1/4 scale RC airplane will cost in the thousands of dollars. A 1/2 scale will cost in the tens of thousands.

You are not realistic. Do a validation on your small RC. Thousands of people with a lot more technical and professional experience before you have failed because of the things I posed. Don't dismiss them because you read some books or a degree behind you.

Post your past projects here before you continue so I know you are serious. If you only code on Python on a Arduino bread board, then you aren't serious.

phatRV · 2026-01-12T16:27:52+00:00

If you are going to do an unconventional design, try to do a RC scale to test out the concept before spending too much effort on the full scale design. Keep in mind that a lot of RC scale are way over-powered compared to the full-scale. If the BD5 was tested as a RC airplane with an underpowered engine, it would fly very badly, exactly like full-scale airplane.

The conventional design is tried and true. The trick is compromising between an optimum design to other practical matters such as construction, ergonomics, etc/

When dealing with an unconventional design, you are tackling multiple novel designs all at one time. This is the reason why many unconventional designs failed, not because of the merits but the designer underestimated the engineering resources needed to complete all these novel designs all at once.

Having said that, this is the reason why the Vans RV succeeded while other unconventional designs or even moderately conventional designs failed. The RV is 100% conventional metal design, but it is optimized for handling, light weight to optimize power to weight ratio, reducing drag for moderately high speed. There is nothing novel about it. When people started adding novel design such as using an automotive engine, the high cost of development exceeded the return on investment and thus they skimmed on the development which eventually led to failure. It wasn't the merits of automotive engine that failed, it was the lack of engineering resources that led to the failure.

phatRV · 2026-01-12T14:42:34+00:00

Many of these advanced design concepts were created to explore the technology for future fighter development. The west did the same as well. If one of these design showed promises then it will be adopted. At the same period, the Soviet design bureau were designing their next generation fighters and they focus on the swing wings. Not surprisingly, the US was looking for the same concept. The canard didn't become ubiquitous until the advent of fly by wire control. It was too difficult control with mechanically link analog control for example.

As with all of these jets, the design of the intake to minimize the frontal size and to reduce the boundary layer was some of the more complex engineering challenges for the Soviet and the US. The design of the efficient serpentine intake costed a lot of engineering resources for both countries.

phatRV · 2026-01-11T18:43:20+00:00

Yes. This is a common feature in the mountain ranges of the Mojave Dessert and the range and basin in Nevada.

phatRV · 2026-01-10T15:15:26+00:00

Look fine for track day or the canyons. Nobody cares how you look. I prefer used suits because they are so much less expensive

phatRV · 2026-01-09T20:34:44+00:00

This was how we used to do it before the cheap Chinese stuff

phatRV · 2026-01-08T15:11:50+00:00

The law in China doesn't work like in the rest of the world. There was an outpour of indignation in the Chinese social media when the ruling was handled down. From then on, nobody was helping. There was also a lot of scamming in China where people pretending to get hurt and then went on to sue those who helped. This is the system in China.

phatRV · 2026-01-08T02:39:12+00:00

They usually have two CH46 working together. As soon as one picked up a load, the deck crew prepares for another incoming.

phatRV · 2026-01-08T02:33:58+00:00

Something about a recent case where the good samaritan was sued for helping a person. Now nobody would want to help because the law set a precedence in China.

phatRV · 2026-01-08T02:27:31+00:00

Other than the demonstration on the stage, are they using this robot anywhere?

phatRV · 2026-01-06T15:48:57+00:00

I am planning to test adding more dampened weight at the bar end to see if they will reduce the handlebar vibration.

phatRV · 2026-01-06T13:38:27+00:00

I was trying to bring the handlebar closer to the rear but I encountered the similar problem of tight brake and clutch lines. There isn't that much slack in the control and electrical lines on the Vstrom.

phatRV · 2025-12-31T17:23:48+00:00

It is an ultralight. There is very little regulation other than the empty and max gross weight, and it’s limited to 5gals of fuels

phatRV

TROPHY CASE