What Side Should The Door Be On?

[Folks]

Old Detroit Diesel 2 strokes would run backwards too, usually with bad results. It was generally caused by a rookie driver stalling on an uphill, and the motor re fired backwards when the truck rolled back. Hard to stop, as it would run on the crankcase oil...

Now that's something to try to get your head around. Imagine you're, a new driver with a full load nursing this baby up an incline and getting ready to coax it down the hill on the other side with gentle breaks and gearing down. BAM Suddenly your truck is in reverse and you can't kill the engine. Quick kill the ignition switch. Your engine has turned into growling monster living off it's own bile. Backing you inextricably to your doom.

 

[grampi]

The driver and all controls are at the middle.....does it really matter where the door is located?

Yes, it should be on the driver's side...wait...????

 

[Lil4X]

There was once an old oilfield story about a GM Diesel (now Detroit) that ran away when the fuel system malfunctioned and the engine began consuming it's lube oil. The standard practice in those days was to close a pair of shutters on the air intake to stop the runaway.

Too often these shutters were missing or were jammed open - rendered useless. When the rig engine ran away with no load, it would destroy itself in seconds. Shutting off the fuel wouldn't be effective as the beast was consuming its own lube oil at a furious rate . . mechanical Armageddon was seconds away.

The motorman, with amazing presence of mind, tore off his heavy flannel shirt and stuffed it into the air intake. The big diesel, starved for air, shuddered to a halt - saving the engine, and probably the rig. I've never forgotten that solution, and for at least a generation, that was the accepted last-ditch emergency shutdown procedure.

I've always been impressed with the ingenuity of the roughnecks I've worked with, but this guy kinda raised the bar for all of them

 

[wheaters]

A turbo diesel can run away if the internal oil seals on the turbocharger fail. This also allows the engine to consume its own engine oil. As already mentioned, the only way to stop this is to block the air intake. On modern vehicles the intake is often inaccessible. Then this can happen:

 

[Folks]

When he opened the throttle on the Merlin the Balliol torque rolled through at least 720 degrees over the runway. He managed to recover (mainly by luck because he became totally disorientated in the dark) but it shook him up so badly he never flew as pilot again.
wow! good thing he was in the air or he would have a sharp turn instead of rolling. interesting about the mosquito not having counter rotating props, compared to almost every other twin engine fighter of it's day.

Not clear as to what this is in response to. Plus 720 sounds like 2 complete barrel rolls. Who is Balliol? Louis Bleriot?

 

[goldwing06]

Not clear as to what this is in response to. Plus 720 sounds like 2 complete barrel rolls. Who is Balliol? Louis Bleriot?

it is a response to a previous quote, but for what ever reason, the forum format dropped the previous 2 lines and i was using my tablet which is not convenient for editing, so i left it. the balliol was a British aircraft with a lot of torque to the engine so when the throttle was rapidly applied at a slow airspeed, the torque could rotate the airframe in opposite direction of propeller. if this happened on takeoff, when the plane was just starting it's roll, it would tend to make a right angle turn if the airspeed was not sufficient for rudder authority to counter it. some of the ww2 tail wheel fighters had so much counter torque, the throttle had to be fed in very slowly on every takeoff. the nose wheel configuration negated this action, for the most part, on later aircraft and going to jets eliminated the phenomena. ww1 fighters had this problem to some extent also, but for different reasons. if u ever watched any old filmes of them launching the bi and tri planes, u will see ground personnel running along holding onto the wings til they could get some forward speed. with only rudder and no steering control, this situation was aggravated by the engine idle speed control which was a kill switch on the ignition, which caused the engine to run in spurts of full power for grd maneuvering. can't imagine anyone learning to fly in something like that today. all this has nada to do with the elio, just fun chatter.

 

[Folks]

it is a response to a previous quote, but for what ever reason, the forum format dropped the previous 2 lines and i was using my tablet which is not convenient for editing, so i left it. the balliol was a British aircraft with a lot of torque to the engine so when the throttle was rapidly applied at a slow airspeed, the torque could rotate the airframe in opposite direction of propeller. if this happened on takeoff, when the plane was just starting it's roll, it would tend to make a right angle turn if the airspeed was not sufficient for rudder authority to counter it. some of the ww2 tail wheel fighters had so much counter torque, the throttle had to be fed in very slowly on every takeoff. the nose wheel configuration negated this action, for the most part, on later aircraft and going to jets eliminated the phenomena. ww1 fighters had this problem to some extent also, but for different reasons. if u ever watched any old filmes of them launching the bi and tri planes, u will see ground personnel running along holding onto the wings til they could get some forward speed. with only rudder and no steering control, this situation was aggravated by the engine idle speed control which was a kill switch on the ignition, which caused the engine to run in spurts of full power for grd maneuvering. can't imagine anyone learning to fly in something like that today. all this has nada to do with the elio, just fun chatter.

As one air enthusiast to another. Nice to meet you. A "ground loop" is the term I've always heard especially from P-51 pilots on how that baby would torque into a roll on take off on an over aggressive throttle.

 

[goldwing06]

As one air enthusiast to another. Nice to meet you. A "ground loop" is the term I've always heard especially from P-51 pilots on how that baby would torque into a roll on take off on an over aggressive throttle.

to go along wih thar thought, one impressive manuver that paul pobrezny would do with his p51, was roll inverted on takeoff and continue the pattern with outside turns(eye balls out). the toughest and most skillful manuver has to be flying in a circle while constantly rolling the aircraft.

 

[Folks]

to go along wih thar thought, one impressive manuver that paul pobrezny would do with his p51, was roll inverted on takeoff and continue the pattern with outside turns(eye balls out). the toughest and most skillful manuver has to be flying in a circle while constantly rolling the aircraft.

Well I'll bet he can't do this. LOL

PS there has got to be a Polish joke tied up in here someplace. LOL

 

[goldwing06]

life was simpeler then......more boring too!