A bit of a pingpong

Mike Marron wrote in message ...
"Nele_VII" wrote:

Gentlemen,

To paraphrase on of Sir Murphy's Laws,
"If it should break, it will break. If it shouldn't break, it will break".

I am just an armchair aviator, but I've seen a car (same manufacturer, but
from 1993) with broken bottom ball bearing on right wheel. (my car is
1974'
vintage, BTW 8-). The driver said 'it's that bl**dy hole in the middle of
the road, and I was doing 50Kmph". Since he was already aside, I turned my
wreck, pardon, my car, ))) and performed run over the hole... at 60KmPh.
Just a "bump", nothing happened. He just told me with a sore smile "don't
tell this to my insurance".

BTW, cars had the identical suspension/wheel mounting (Russian Lada, my
model 2101, his 2107). Both had original parts, bar mine that had steereng
rods (not bearings) changed in 1982...

S*it happens, that's it.

With such a lackadaisical attitude towards safety as that, little
wonder "**** happens" so much more frequently in Russia than it
does elsewhere in the industrialized world. The goal is to try and
reduce the amount of "**** happening."

It didn't happen in the Russia, but in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Based on what you just wrote, it appears that your homeland is
Russia -- where manufactured products are produced under
less stringent QC (quality control) programs compared to the
QC programs found in the US, UK, France, etc. which ensure that
EVERY unit conforms with the approved design. The keyword
here is "consistency."

Firstly, I am not from Russia, nor from B&H. I was born and live in Croatia.

"Consistency" was with my car. I had original ball-bearings and bought
RUSSIAN steering-rods. The guy had bought ITALIAN-MADE ball-bearings when he
replaced his suspension (i.e. steering rods). Also, I have seen other Lada
with a broken steering rod. It was also MADE IN ITALY, guy bougt it since it
was cheap. My cousin almost died in his old Fiat (actually, "Zastava" from
Jragujevac, Yugoslavia)when he bought CROATIAN-made steering-end suspensor
rod. I had to get one-via many channels- from YUGOSLAVIA, Kragujevac from
the assembly line for police-cars (they are strenghened, jut a coincidence


You are mixing simple fact that PARTS FIT, but are not MADE for the car
(case of Lada's) or simply had a flaw (Fiat). I have 250,000Km without
overhaul on my "2101". My cousin has 300,000+ on Yu-Fiat. Only secret is use
of ORIGINAL PARTS, but it does not guarantee that original rod os bearing
will not crack in one of 100,000 Russian cars.

So drop Your thesis abot poor quality of Russian vehicles/parts, better
check Italy.


Aircraft especially must *consistently* conform to a higher standard
because obviously you can't merely just pull off to the side of the
road and call for help should something break in the air.

Of course.


To use if your "pothole" analogy, if you happen to hit a pothole in
the sky (e.g: severe turbulence) and your wing fails catastrophically
in midair, you better have jam in your pockets because your ass is
toast.

The following recent tragedy indicates just how poor and INconsistent
the Russians are with regards to quality control. Aeros, a Russian
company that manufactures flexwings primarily for recreational use,
were buying anodized tubing from Antonov Design Bureau stock.

One year ago an experienced American flexwing pilot named Bert
Breitung was flying an Aeros wing when the left leading edge tube
failed during an approach to landing and rolled the craft inverted
causing Bert to auger straight in killing him instantly.

An American metallurgist subsequently inspected the damaged
tube from the fatal crash and found a crack in the wing leading edge
tube. The wing had been manufactured in September 1999
and had only 30 hrs. on it.

Even worse, after word of this fatal accident got out it was later
determined that he tubing that they were getting from Antonov had too
many scratches and flaws for it to look good anodized only so the
Ruskies were simply covering up the defects by also painting the
tubes!

If it was made un USSR, somebody would go to gulag for that.

Sleazy, unethical and potentially deadly practices such as the example
above are virtually unheard of here in the U.S. and rarely, if ever,
does a critical component such as a wing leading edge tube fail.

Really? I come back to the cars, what happened with that SUV vehicle (Ford?)
in which they discovered deadly built-in flaw after 6 YEARS? Our famous
actress, Ena Begovich is suspected that she died 'cause of it! My friend in
Canada says that he has a, qute from mechanic, "minor seepage from steering
servo, engine and transmission". Unbeleivable! It is the Ford Service
Garage, U know!

What about deadly stall/spin characteristic of the F-104 and F-4 (flat
spin)? Ever heard any MiG going into a flat spin? What about wing cracks in
early F/A-18A/B? What about Osprey? What about false spare-parts detected in
the wreckages of AMERICAN helicopters destroyed in unsucessful attempt to
save hostages from Iran during Carter?

You wrote a sad story about the lame sub-contractor from Russia that costed
a man's life and assume that:

a) it can only happen in Russia

b) applies to all aspects of russian industry.

You are -SO- wrong. It happens all around the globe, and, with respect,
United States of America are still on this planet.

Which brings me back to the topic of the ALLEGED catastrophic failure
of F-4 ECM pods in combat over Vietnam. Had such incidents actually
occurred, rest assurred that the facts as to precisely WHY the pods
ripped away from the airplane would be widely known by the thousands
of dedicated professionals in the F-4 community whom were intimately
involved with flying and fixing the multi-million dollar jet.

Is it -widely- known that one F-4 "jockey" ripped off one stabilator fin due
to harsh maneuvering? It happened only once!


-Mike Marron
CFII, A&P, UFI (fixed wing, weightshift, land & sea)

Nenad Karanovic-Nele

NULLA ROSA SINE SPINA