It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Nigel Eaton I use methanol regularly; I treat it with a degree of respect, given that I have no real desire to go blind or suffer damage to my nervous system. -- Dave GS 850 x2 / SE 6a SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3 FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10
In that case, Wik and you should know better than to call methanol safe. nitro-methane, fair enough that's dangerous too, ok... but it's the methanol that's under estimated by a lot of people in its toxicity.
*ding* I see people just sloshing the stuff around at model flying fields. It's not the methanol that gets you, it's the stuff produced when it is broken down in the body, I think.
Muck wrote The science wot they taught me on the Beeb has it that the big problem with methanol is that it is not broken down by the body and not sent to the kiddlies for recycling either so it gets parked in a convenient muscle[1] awaiting us to have one of them evolutionary steps forward like what we used to get before the war. This is where the problem begin. [1] In racing car drivers this tends to be the arse muscles as they often sit in pools of fuel and it apparently adds a whole new meaning to those lighting your farts contests.
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the You can feel your spleen dance the rumba with your liver if you're daft enough to sit up the stand at the back in direct firing line of the zorsts. -- Dave GS 850 x2 / SE 6a SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3 FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10
Ariane 5 first at lift off then as rolls away from you on to it's trajectory. It lights up. Then the ground shakes under your feet. Then as it leaves the tower. The sound hits you............................................
I really don't know. Not a lot. It clears the tower quickly and you can be misled by the size of the installations into thinking things are moving slowly. On the other hand I have seen an Ariane 44L that was at it's maximum payload weight with the fuel extra chilled to get more in and stages selected for lighter weight. It appeared from the viewing site to lift of the table and burn fuel till it got light enough to leave the tower.
Yadda, yadda, whatever... Look, it's all relative, innit? Trust me on this one, methanol-powered engines go bang less frequently than anyone tipping the can on a nitro motor, ergo, methanol's safer[1] Happy now? Sheesh! ;-p [1] in this context. -- | Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2003 R1150GSA -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12 |# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher. |That the scenery | It always gives the test first |Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward." ***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****
Heh... True in that sense. The nitro fueled ones do have about twice the power of the methanol fueled ones don't they? I'd expect the hazard of flying nitro fueled engine bits is quite high too!
