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CG, customs and earthquakes

From: Alison
Date: 13 Aug 1998
Time: 14:50:28
Remote Name: 208.193.21.146

Comments

Milt is encouraging us all to post questions on the things that make us curious, so blame him if you're stuck answering my stupid questions rather than getting out enjoying yourselves! 3 quickies: Centre of gravity - You've said you're 25% over gross a couple of times and you have mentioned pitch instability. I presume the CG is aft of limits, but how far? Have you noticed any increase in performance associated with it? Have you thought about stall characteristics (silly question) - how do you go about estimating stall speeds and recovery characteristics (if any!)? Can you provide a sample weight and balance calc? Or do all you heavy iron pilots rely on the computer????? Customs - you talk about armed guards, and that sounds scary, even though I know it's common. Have you had any aggressive customs encounters? How often do they want to see the plane and its tanks? Have you had to open things up for them or is it the proverbial rubber stamp? Earthquakes - we had a 5.4 tremor here yesterday and it made me think about the Maldives... Is the area still active? The photos are really striking, but they emphasise the flat topography - are the islands still subject to seismic activity? Presumably the volcanoes that formed the islands are long gone and replaced by reefs, but?? If there were underwater activity, my schoolgirl geography lessons taught me that tsunami might occur.. have they ever had that happen? Sorry for the mind dump, but once I started, I found out I was pretty curious!! Hope you're having a great time with your family, John, and that Doug isn't feeling too overwhelmed by you all. Good luck on the rest of the trip - we're all thinking of you. Alison.


Last changed: August 13, 1998