New Englander

Real life experience of that here! My girl and I and another couple were returning from a midnight showing of The Night of The Living Dead. That title alone tells you how long ago. Anyway, we were in one of my '64 SS Chevys. A drunk ran a light and hit us hard in the right front. The driver was a part time bartender in the bar across the street from the police station. The cops hustled him away and didn't charge him. I only had compulsory insurance and he had none, so i took him to small claims court for the max at the time and won. He didn't pay so the court suspended his license. His full time job was as a postman. I never saw a dime until some years later when the Post Office demanded to see everyone's driver license and he couldn't produce one. I finally got my money so I could contact the court and get his suspension released. About the Chevy: There were no seat belts in that car. My girl's kneecap impressions were permanently in the glove box lid. The guy in the back seat got a broken nose. We weren't going very fast but the other driver was. I fixed that car but before I did I acquired another '64 SS. That one had been built in California and had seat belt fittings but no belts. The shop in the same building where I was then working had a small fleet of new trucks. The owner removed all the belts as he wasn't going to have his guys trapped in one of his trucks. Amazingly that was a very common belief back then, that it was better to be thrown from the vehicle than to wear one of those dangerous belts! Anyway, I put a set of those belts in that car. By then I had begun flight lessons and saw that seat belts were a necessity. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some on this forum who don't wear their seat belts in some sort of protest. Had that been a modern car with way better occupant protection structure, auto tightening harnesses and air bags we'd have simply unbuckled and got out. Car would be totaled of course but I'd be fully insured. Yep, all those terrible mandates.

Since we have neither personal income tax nor sales tax that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what other states are taking out of your pocket. I'll gladly contribute my $3.45 sticker fee if it helps avoid paying 6-8% on everything I buy or having 5-6% of my income taken. What's your sales tax? Income tax? Out of curiosity I looked up your taxes: Income: Rates: 5.35%, 6.8%, 7.85%, and 9.85%. Top Rate: The 9.85% rate is one of the highest in the nation. Sales: State Rate: 6.875% Total Rate Range: 6.875% to ~9.875% (varies by city/county) Admittedly NH has higher property taxes than many. My colleagues from NY, NJ, and CA have much higher as well as sales and income taxes. CA is brutal. We actually paid our SFO based crews a COL stipend due to reporting for duty time requirements.

Probably got a shoulder harness bruise.

Since we have neither personal income tax nor sales tax that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what other states are taking out of your pocket. I'll gladly contribute my $3.45 sticker fee if it helps avoid paying 6-8% on everything I buy or having 5-6% of my income taken. What's your sales tax? Income tax?

Some DC 9s also have a rear air stair door. After the DB Cooper affair a simple vane was installed that caught the slipstream in flight and positioned a stop across the door. Once on the ground again the lock moved out of the way. The DB Cooper vane as it became known was an elegant mechanical fix.

Where’s that recorded/reported?

Not likely here. State get $3.45 per sticker. After administration costs it’s not much revenue.

I don’t know but probably few. I last saw some in active service in Africa a few years ago and there are some jump planes still for the huge formation jumps because of the aft air stair door. The latest vomit zero G is a 727 200. I suspect there’s a few other specialty uses too. At EAL we had 100s with nose wheel brakes that could make some very short stops. Three engines make for a good short field plane as all of your takeoff calculations are base upon loosing an engine at V1. A very rough rule of thumb is that loosing an engine on a twin means you loose half your thrust and two thirds your performance. Loosing one engine on a triple means you lose one third your thrust and half your performance. I’ve been lucky and the bulk of my time and the only engine failure I’ve ever experienced was on a triple engine plane. Loosing the center engine on a mid weight TO was such a non-event that it still required a power reduction to stay below the 250kt limit.

I find it interesting that the overall drunk driving deaths in the link show a slight decline since 1982. My experience attending wrecks in the late ‘60s to very early ‘70s as the junior thus wee hours call out guy was the wrecks generally had plenty of drunk driving evidence - empty bottles and cans. Perhaps the message is getting through. I suspect public service ads, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, harsher penalties and the like and maybe overall awareness is in play. Unfortunately no one is looking at the wreckage for signs of equipment failure, structural failure, bald tires, rotten wipers or the like so I doubt any such data exists. The lack of such data doesn’t keep one from at least wondering if such things are actually causal. Those not from the salt belt have no idea just how rotten frames and suspensions get. As for emissions related inspections: generally speaking if your check engine light is on it means you’re not in compliance. What it also means is it’s costing you money! Maybe Not the big dollar to have the O2 sensor replaced but little by little at the gas pump as your engine is burning more than if everything is working properly. You probably aren’t killing the planet but your bottom line is suffering just so slowly you don’t see it. That’s of course when the engine computer has substituted a value for whatever is wrong. Otherwise your car may just limp around. Watch a few of these from non inspection states: https://youtu.be/zYeSaW6d5c4?si=56D_d6geIsWNC0Mq

That’s the obvious question as there’s no way to quantify it. No one is looking at the cause of the crash. No one is looking for the bald tires or broken suspension that may have caused the crash. In an airplane crash there’s a forensic analysis of the wreckage to see if it was mechanical failure or pilot error. Pilot error, like driver error, is the predominant cause but not always. Of course unlike pilots who are rarely impaired drivers are often. Drivers are not very highly trained. Breathing and answering a few simple questions will get you a driver’s license. It seems CDLs are being distributed by Santa these days. Another problem with trying to use insurance data is the crash rate in urban areas is likely way higher than in rural areas so apples to apples might not exist. Maybe it does and if there’s an actuary on here they might be able to help.

Yeah, that and more. Operating expenses for three engines and three front end crew. The 727 was the last with a flight engineer. When I flew for Kollsman they had worked up a new two man cockpit and proposed it to FedEx. FedEx though declined as the planes were otherwise approaching the end of a practical service life and newer more efficient planes were coming off front line passenger service.

Boeing ended up building almost 1900 of them. I worked on 100s, QCs, the quick change cargo passenger version of the 100, 200s and finally 200As. There were also big engine versions for the South America routes. Every airline's version was a little different. Jurassic now. They went from front line passenger to cargo to the scrap yard.

Occasionally there are white knights out there who acquire companies and actually improve upon the products. Tempest branded aircraft products being one. Tempest bought the old Autolite brand aviation spark plugs from Unison, moved production to North Carolina, improved the product, and sell for less than the only remaining competitor, Champion. They did the same for oil filters, dry vacuum pumps, carburetors, and more. A true win and success story instead of the rip-off fraud story. Aviation isn't cheap so it's refreshing to have a company trying to keep manufacturing onshore and somewhat affordable.

We're still enjoying the banter with each other. Enjoy the big world. We all wish we were 18 again knowing what we know now.

Believe it or not she wasn't breaking the law. New Hampshire doesn't require insurance, the only state in the union I believe. Live Free or Die still exists here but is slowly being eroded by the left. Anyway, you need uninsured motorist insurance because of all the scofflaws, sovereign citizen and the like out there. Why do you think the requirement, at least in the other 49 states, to have insurance is an unneeded government burden?

Apples to oranges. My statement was about gas 350 GM pickups and the comparison between carburetor and EFI versions. Anyone who's honest and had such vehicles will admit the difference. Yes, the old 40 hp VW bug could get 28mpg. The new bug also gets 28mpg with a 170hp engine. It's oranges to bananas. The original bug was a primitive machine, no creature comforts except a heater which worked ok when brand new. They were fun cars but nothing like the new version with AC, automatic transmission, power disc brakes, air bags, a radio you can hear, etc. Anyway, you can't really compare them. I doubt the new one is as much fun as the original. It's nice to rail against government regulation and I certainly do when it comes to things like the ugly 5MPH bumpers that thankfully disappeared but it's very hard not to appreciate crash worthiness regulations. It's quite amazing to see cars rolled and crushed and the occupants emerge with just a shoulder harness bruise. I know there are some, perhaps on this forum who don't even wear their seat belts as no government is going to tell them what to do but I think it's likely the majority see the advantage. We all tend to look back with our rose colored glasses and remember things better than they were. Funny that the opposite sometimes occurs when we remember things worse than they were - walking to school in a snow storm uphill both ways, etc.

This picture just popped up on my screen, I don't know why. I just Helicoiled the water outlet holes for my FIL. He's got a very original '56 Victoria with a 312 and the original teapot 4 barrel and has this with 97s he may install.

You need it anyway as there are plenty out there with no insurance especially sovereign citizens and Moorish Americans and the like. I got rear-ended by a woman and the first thing out her mouth when I asked her if she was Ok was that she had no insurance. She then told me how much she was quoted and I realized she must have had a terrible driving record. My insurance paid for my new bumper, her car was totaled and the insurance company probably subrogated.

I don't know of one that was determined to be from a failed part but I do know of an "almost". It was my own '56 Ford. The car was just a 2 door Custom Line with a 272 Y block and 3 speed that I bought really cheap because it ran like crap. I found a broken valve spring and the old time mechanic where I pumped gas showed me how to replace it using air pressure to hold the valve shut and a spring compressor of his. Anyway, it was 1969 so the car was only 13 years old and in relatively good condition. I lent it to my buddy to take his girl to Lake Winnipesaukee for the weekend. 1.5 miles from returning it to me the front cross member failed dropping the right front lower control arm to the ground. He was white as a sheet when he told me he'd had the old beast doing close to 90 on I93. Would anyone know it was a failed frame in the crumpled wreck with my friend's and his girl's body in it? I suspect not. It turns out that's a common failure point and the restorer's catalog has replacement kits. Back then it was just an old car. A couple of years later I was driving a wrecker. Being the junior guy I got the night call-outs and attended quite a few wrecks. I can say most, if not all were alcohol related as the evidence was often a car full of empty cans and bottles. The point though, is that who's looking at the remains of the wreck and determining if there was failed component pre-crash? I picked a few that were just crumples of junk, often dolly-towed as there were no ramp trucks back then.

Since I'm a fan of Michelin tires I figured they'd be excellent but it doesn't seem so. Bosch or Rainex work better for me, the Michelin squeaked. I don't know if they are or were part of the tire company or a licensed name.

Wow! Such anger! I don’t run anyone down but I do like to have an intelligent discussion not one full of conspiracy theories. In this case I’ve postulated that the demands of clean air drove the increased efficiency of automobiles. Anyone who ever visited LA in the bad old days would agree that something had to change and that striving for workable emissions control led to not only fewer emissions but amazing improvements in efficiency and drivability . The government mandate was actually driven by the people. Remember that the thread started with the fact that I was about to become a lawbreaker as the NH inspection was back on a couple of days before the end of January, my inspection month. If you look at my original post I made reference to the fact that statistically there’s no empirical evidence that crashes are caused by defective equipment. My opinion is that other than a bus fatality where the NTSB investigates there’s no mechanism to report or even investigate such crashes. Who knows if the driver was unable to see the car crashed into because the wipers were smearing not clearing? Anyway, the thread, as often is the case degenerated to government conspiracy to make money, DEF problems, John Deere sucks, three point hitches, etc. If you disagree with me that’s fine. I hold no grudge.

You got lickum-stickum stickers. A visual inspection by a competent rust belt inspection station would spot the rusty brake lines. I replaced all the lines on my''94? with SS. The inspection station spotted them and commented.

Take your typical 3/4 ton pickup of the early '70s, actually into the '80s. A 4wd would be luck to get 7-8 MPG. I know, I owned them. In 1987 I got my first TBI pickup. Same 350 engine, same most everything else. Emission requirements were pushing manufactures and the air injection systems and the like with carburetors were nothing but problems. Enter computer controlled injection. My mileage almost doubled and driveability was 100% improved. It's only goten better since then with direct port injection variable cam and ignition timing, knock sensors that let timing push the max, etc. The O2 sensors in your exhaust are keeping you in closed loop and the fuel mixture at ideal. That's what is making for good fuel mileage. No carburetor of the past will give the clean a tailpipe and that good fuel mileage. It all started due to emission requirements as well as fuel costs. If you remove any emission components on a gasoline engine it will likely not run very well if at all. Modern engine computers can recognize an unlikely parameter and substitute a value based upon other sensors and the engine may run at what seems ok but it's costing you $ in efficiency.

You won't. There's no mechanism for reporting with the exception of say a bus crash with a fatality and the NTSB investigates.

There really aren't any check engine lights that don't effect emissions and that's by statute since 1996 or the advent of OBD2. Even what seems like an innocuous transmission code can effect emissions. If the transmission won't shift into overdrive then emissions are effected, etc.