[HN Gopher] The fabulous Flamingo, a motorhome made from an aban... ___________________________________________________________________ The fabulous Flamingo, a motorhome made from an abandoned aircraft Author : GordonS Score : 71 points Date : 2021-11-27 15:32 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (uk.motor1.com) (TXT) w3m dump (uk.motor1.com) | speed_spread wrote: | I look at those tiny windows making up the split windshield and | all I see is a giant pedestrian-squashing contraption. To think | that this thing is allowed to move on public roads at speeds | greater than 3mph is terrifying. This should have been a trailer. | bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: | If you like that, check out the Winnebago Heli-Home.[0] It | actually flew. | | [0] https://www.thedrive.com/news/34753/the-winnebago-heli- | home-... | ljf wrote: | Cheers that was too interesting not to post! Looks amazing | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29361699 | bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: | I first learned about it on HN so credit's due to that OP! | dylan604 wrote: | Everyone of my family members that owned an RV has said that | gas mileage was aweful. I'm wondering what would be worse, this | heli-home or a regular RV. How much advantage of being able to | travel in the literal "as a crow flies" distances vs ground | roads, price of regular fuel vs aviation fuel, etc. However, at | least in an RV, you don't need sound deadening headphones and | intercoms the entire time of travel. | t0mas88 wrote: | For a mid sized helicopter like this, you can expect around | 40 gallon per hour and a speed of about 100 mph. | | So I don't think this is a solution to the RV fuel | consumption problem. | GekkePrutser wrote: | Jet-A1 is a lot cheaper though than unleaded petrol or car | diesel at least here in Europe. Especially because it's | untaxed. | | Still it works out much more expensive for the chopper | obviously. Those really guzzle it. | | And this one looks so old that might be piston based in | which case it would probably run on avgas which is a lot | more expensive than car fuel. | p_l wrote: | Tax depends on who is buying, usually. IIRC in Poland | private plane owners who are not buying through airclub | pay tax on fuel, but airclubs don't, which results in | every non-road-legal 4 stroke engine on airfield running | on AVGAS-100LL ;) | GekkePrutser wrote: | Seriously?? I thought Avgas is still much more expensive | than regular unleaded fuel. | | It sure was when I flew but I'm not sure whether we were | paying taxes. We bought it through the airclub but it was | not a commercial club. So we probably did pay it. | | But we paid something like 3,50 euro per liter and this | was when regular petrol prices were 1,50 or so. I was | told it's so expensive because the special production: | They add dehumidifying agents against condensation etc. | | I heard a lot of clubs are going for turbodiesel | conversions now but the problem is that they have to be | completely replaced every X years, they can't just do an | engine overhaul like they can on the old Lycoming avgas | engines. | t0mas88 wrote: | It's only untaxed for commercial operators, not for your | own helicopter or airplane. | GekkePrutser wrote: | Ahh ok I didn't know this. I never flew anything with | Jet-A1. Only Avgas. | riedel wrote: | Fun fact is that EU introduced a directive that any state | could tax it in 2003 but no one did. So much for the | green new deal... | GekkePrutser wrote: | Well it's not really green if they do it. It will have to | be done worldwide. | | Otherwise all the operators will fuel up to the brim at | tax havens and be much heavier (and thus burn more fuel | which is bad for the environment). And skimp on fueling | at expensive locations and as such introduce dangerous | situations (like RyanAir was already caught doing!). I | think this was also the reasoning behind the no-tax | thing. | | They could make it mandatory for intra-europe flights for | example but then the airlines will just introduce little | side-hops to places like Dubai and Northern Africa for | the sake of it. There just is no good solution unless the | world agrees on taxation everywhere. That would have been | a good point to raise at Glasgow but it was once again | all form over function. | GekkePrutser wrote: | Lone Starr would love that! | squarefoot wrote: | How beautiful, loved it! Kudos to the creator for the patience to | do the adaptation. I wish we could build and use such a thing | legally in the EU, but we have much smaller roads which would be | easily clogged by a monster like that. If I may raise some | criticism, the rear abrupt cut off looks odd. I would add a few | Space Shuttle styled rocket nozzles over there, then hide the air | conditioner exhaust in one of them. | p_l wrote: | Well, it wouldn't fit in some cities, but I do not believe a | motorhome is for city trips, is it? | | This one maybe a bit too big but I think something similar | would be doable even with some tiny rural roads. | verve_rat wrote: | Holy shit do I hate the hyperactive editing of that video. | | It is a video about a thing you want us to look at, maybe let us | have a good look. Long slow pans, not jittery jump cuts. | | FFS. | Stevvo wrote: | I love that you can get something like this road-legal in the US; | in Europe you wouldn't stand a chance. | [deleted] | p_l wrote: | The only issue in Europe would be the loading gauge possibly | being too big, but that's _specific to this car_ , not specific | to making your own custom car. | | And with motorhome you're not going to take trips to tiny old | city roads anyway, so you can go big. | | Your only practical issue is that you need to have C-class | driver license for many bigger motorhomes, due to weight limits | on normal B-class driver's license. (C-class is trucks, | including semi-trailer tractors) | chrismorgan wrote: | I'm curious why you reckon it wouldn't stand a chance. In | Australia and New Zealand I'd expect it to be fairly | straightforward (meaning fiddly in places but perfectly | doable), so long as it isn't too wide (it's within half an inch | of the US limit, by the sounds of it). I know one New Zealander | making a fairly outrageously large, heavy and wide RV at | present, and he knows all the details that will be required to | get it road-legal (a family member has done something slightly | less extreme before) and reckons it'll be fine. | dylan604 wrote: | How does it getting approved in Australia or New Zealand help | counter it being harder to approve in EU? | chiph wrote: | My understanding is that Australia can be pretty picky. Dick | & Pip Smith drove an Earthroamer (a $500k offroading RV) | around the world and when he got to his native Australia | there were several things he had to alter, even though it was | titled in Colorado, had Colorado plates, and had a 12-month | Carnet from the government for it. The ones I remember were | he had to install wider fender flares to ensure full | coverage, and replace the red rear turn signals with amber | ones. Being famous there apparently didn't help. | t0mas88 wrote: | Australia and New Zealand are also less busy and have wider | roads than most of western Europe. | hellbannedguy wrote: | You could get it road leagal in most states here. It stands out | though. Cops in the USA have become Revenue Collectors in many | parts of the country. Breaking down is not your worry. A $240 | parking ticket, or a $500 overnight oversized RV ticket is | crushing. | | (I think RV's will be home to many lucky/skilled Americans. The | homes close to jobs cost to much. I would like to see most | available federal/state/local land set aside for free camping.) | [deleted] ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-11-27 23:00 UTC)