Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
I still ride my bicycle occasionally, but not anywhere near enough. Even so, it's got 1000 miles on it since I bought it new, in 1999 or 2000. I brought it into Free Range Cycles a couple of weeks ago, and asked them about replacement chains, figuring I was due. Sure enough, the guy measured my chain and said that it was just at the point where it should be replaced.
I asked how much a replacement chain was, expecting to hear $70 (motorcycle chains start at $80 and go up for anything decent). The guy pulled a chain out from behind the counter, and as it hit the countertop, he said, "that's $16." "Sold!" quoth I.
So, now, probably a month later, I finally got around to it. Getting the old chain off was more difficult than I'd been hoping -- the motorcycle chain tool I have was not as universal as I'd guessed it was. It worked eventually, but I really need to get a proper bicycle chain tool if I do that again.
After a minimum of false starts, I got the new chain on, and routed correctly. A quick ride around the block suggests I did everything right, so hooray for new chains!
In a related note, I was discussing "peak oil" (well, peripherally, anyway) with my friend Josh the other day. Roughly, the theory is that we're right near the point where all the easily-found oil has been found, and to get any more oil will be increasingly difficult.
I'm not interested in debating anyone about peak oil. However, it did start me thinking about our society's oil usage in general. It's frightening. The one I didn't know, which really got me, is that apparently the agriculture industry is hugely dependent upon hydrocarbons in the form of natural gas, which they process into fertilizer. Without that fertilizer, our overworked soil will cease being productive. Just let that sink in for a moment -- when gas runs out, not only does it become expensive to transport food from farm to market, but it becomes expensive to even grow the food in the first place.
I don't know about you, but that's an absolutely horrifying thought. That means that our way of life will have to change drastically, no matter how much monetary wealth you have.
Ok, so horrible, depressing world-view aside, how does that apply to me? Well, I'm already doing a lot of my part to reduce energy consumption -- I ride a 50+ mpg motorcycle, I live close to work, I keep the thermostat turned down to 66° F in winter, I take short showers, etc. I could ride my bicycle more, and that's one of my goals. I need to figure out to what extent I could continue to live my life normally if I rode the bicycle more. My guess is "mostly," but I would have less freedom in terms of absent-mindedly leaving something at home.
But the big one is, does it make any sense to devote 5 years of my life to building something which is, at its heart, a huge gas guzzler? I speak, of course, of building an airplane.
The airplane I rent now uses about 9 gallons per hour. At that consumption rate, it probably flies 110 mph, so that's 12.2 mpg. Ouch. The biplane I would build would cruise at about 85 mph, and use about 5.5 gallons per hour, depending on which engine I ended up using. That works out to 15.45 mpg, which is better, but still hovers in the "horrible SUV" range when compared to land vehicles.
I haven't discounted the idea out of hand, but in light of my lifelong efforts to be more efficient with resources, it seems kind of non-sensical. A highly correllated issue is the price of a gallon of gas in 5-7 years. If we keep going at this rate, it's going to cost $6-7 per gallon of avgas. That means that every hour of flying will cost as much as $38.50 in gasoline alone. That compares with $4.50 now, for $24.75 per hour. Of course, that's not the total cost of an hour of flight, but it's the most variable cost.
So, my 40 hour flight testing regimen will cost $1540 just in gasoline. Of course, building the plane will probably cost $30k-40k, so $1500 is kind of a drop in the bucket. However, money aside, it's going to use a lot of gas.
This is all a set of thoughts I've had in the back of my head about the airplane project, but I find them coming much more strongly to the fore now. It bears more consideration. I still really want to build an airplane, but maybe what I should focus on is building an airplane, getting some flying fun out of it, then passing it on to someone else who really wants a biplane. That will definitely be an expensive hobby, since I suspect I won't come close to breaking even if I build an airplane then sell it.
Anyway, a lot of interesting things to consider. I'm glad I got over my initial funk about the whole oil consumption culture thing, it had me seriously down on Thursday.
Posted at 19:56 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater