SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
What kind of oil do you buy?!
Averaging 30mph thats 60000 miles. Highway driving 120,000+
AeroMobil aims to launch flying car in 2017, autonomous version to follow
- Thread starter Shawn Knight
- Start date
Averaging 30mph thats 60000 miles. Highway driving 120,000+
captaincranky
Posts: 19,665 +8,800
2000 hours is an average work year, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with 2 weeks vacation. You certainly don't have to tear an automobile engine down with 2000 hours on it.What kind of oil do you buy?!
Averaging 30mph thats 60000 miles. Highway driving 120,000+
As far as my "2000 hours and you change the oil in a car engine", I admit to a bit of exuberance / exaggeration with that. Although, I'd love to know what city you live in where you think you can average 30 miles an hour doing short hops. More like 15.
As far as aircraft maintenance schedules go, the Rotax 2 strokes they use for ultra light aircraft, have to be torn down at 200 hours. Stuff that in your calculator.
I guess my overall point is the, the guy down the block with 6 kids, and an expired airworthiness certificate, on his 20 year old Buick Vista Flyer, wouldn't be getting airborne anytime soon whether it still was still flyable or not.
Your estimate of 2000 hours equaling 2000 hours of run time, conveniently ignors warming the engine and stuck in traffic hours. With that said, if you did most of your driving on the highway, and considering modern lubricant technology, you could reasonably expect double that mileage before you so much as had to pull a head, let alone a government mandated rebuild.
The hours on an aircraft engine begin when it's started, and count toward the tear down. So, if you don't want the missus to bellyache about cold seats, it's gonna cost you engine time..
Last edited:
SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
You know where I live. Perhaps 30mph is a gross over exaggeration for the general populace, I don't know. I drive 25 miles to work and 21 of them are 70mph+ and the other 4 are over 35mph if I get lucky with 2 stoplights. Sure its not representative of the country, but that is why picked 30, maybe I should have picked 15. Even at picking 15 thats still 30,000 miles, pick 7.5 and that is 15,000 - at 15,000 you first get into the range where Mobil 1 is comfortable saying you can run their oil. Surely the majority of people average over 7.5mph when they drive.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,665 +8,800
OK, let's call this a draw. Yes, I probably overstated the comparison.
I live in the densely populated city of Philadelphia, and 7.5 mph average, isn't too far off. I've developed a zig-zag way of getting to the "Shoprite", since I view a stop sign, (which you hit at every corner), as less of an impediment than the red lights at the corners I try to avoid.. It's probably about 2 miles away, and it's a ten minute minimum trip.And yes, in the winter I warm up the car a bit, before taking the trip
Suffice it to say, your driving conditions are way closer to the usage profile of an aircraft engine, than are mine. Nor do I expect, given that usage profile, do you expect that even 120.000 miles, would require a legally mandated tear down.
Given the fact that with aircraft you get "billed" for run hours, not distance traveled, 2000 hours is still a fairly short run time by passenger car engine standards.
Were we to examine distance traveled against tear down time, the aircraft engine would likely come out ahead by a country mile, (pun intended). Many modern light planes have cruise speeds in excess of 200 MPH, and 2000 hours @ 200 MPH is well, (you tell me).
I'm stickin' to my story that aircraft operating conditions and government oversight thereof, is monumentally restrictive, and every fool that starts running his yap about "not being able to wait for flying cars", is an imbecile, in desperate need of a reality check.
Perhaps in the vastness of a place like Texas a "flying car" would be a of great utility. OTOH, you simply wouldn't need them, since the average Texas oil man, could just walk out and buy an already existing, (but well used at this point), Cessna 310, and most likely already owns the necessary real estate to land it.
In fact, there was a TV series about just that. It was called, "Sky King". Look it up if you're not already familiar with it. And IIRC, he flew the 310.
As far as I'm concerned, all this "flying car" BS, is just publicity wh**ing, laying the groundwork for intent to defraud. The audience needs to give itself a reality check, instead of listening to these flim flam artists, while nodding their heads and drooling. They remind me of the old RCA logo, "Little Nipper", with their heads stuck in a phonograph trumpet.
Last edited:
SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
I'm fine with a draw. I really didn't care much about the flying car at all, I just saw an opportunity to make a 'funny' comment to a part of your post.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,665 +8,800
By funny, you mean "break my ballz"?
It's OK, I was running on without delving into the necessary math to support it. That said, I probably deserved it.
With that out of the way, I find these "flying car" prediction quite preposterous. To get a pilots license, you can't have ever had any type of cardiac surgery. (IIRC). Which puts me out of the ability to even apply for one, since I have an artificial heart valve. This despite the fact, (at the time it was replaced), I could jog several miles with it.. If anyone is under the impression the hypertensive, diabetic, morbidly obese cattle that roam the streets of our cities while drooling into their cell phones, are going to lumber in to an FAA office, and get a pilot's license as if it were your friendly local DMV, they are sorely mistaken.
Having been involved with radio controlled aircraft off and on, throughout my life, I realized just how bad the FAA stuffed it to Amazon, and their nonsense about, "drone delivery". Yet our staff writes it up as a concession on the FAA's part. Really, a concession?
Last edited:
Similar threads
