Avgas in France has reached $7.50/gal !

In article , Matt Barrow wrote:
Then too, it can be foolishly optimistic (I hate the "irrationally
exuberant" poop), as in the dot.com craze. Yet, how much did the murder of
the telecom industry have to do with the dot.com collapse and
subsequent/parallel market implosion?

An enormous amount. The dot.com bubble was built on telecoms. The
implosion in demand for all this extra fibre that was put in (as well as
the wildly overoptimistic expectations for 3G services - telecom
companies ploughed vast amounts of money into 3G licenses which were ALL
to do with the dot.com bubble) - then the bubble went away leaving
telecoms firms with huge amounts of unused bandwidth, empty datacentres,
and no demand for 3G mobile services - but they had to keep paying the
bills they'd run up in investing in all this kit that there was no
demand for.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Matt Barrow wrote:
About 40MPG and 50MPG for the diesel.

Such a car would likely be "useful" out in the west where distances are
measured in three or even four digits and those are MILES not klicks.

Actually - they are even more useful in cities. Diesel cars generally do
a lot better than gasoline ones in start/stop traffic. My Dad's old
diesel Peugeot got 40+ MPG on short and long trips - however my gasoline
Audi gets about 35mpg when cruising long distances, and only about half
that in local driving. My next one will be a TDi.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Chris wrote:
Its not just a question of the price at the pump but the cost of the mile.
This goes a long way to redress the balance between the cost of petrol and
the taxes. Besides by using at a slower rate, perhaps fuel will be available
longer.

The future won't be a hydrogen economy (I reckon) - it'll be a diesel
economy. It's much easier to convert the diesel infrastructure to use
non-crude oil based fuel than it is to move to a hydrogen economy.

We already run our glider club's vehicles on waste cooking oil from one
of the pubs (it does have to be cleaned first - but the 'refining'
process uses a tiny fraction of the energy that the fuel gives - and the
oil would otherwise just be burned or thrown out if we didn't use it to
power our diesel vehicles).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Newps wrote:
Such a car would likely be "useful" out in the west where distances are
measured in three or even four digits and those are MILES not klicks.

I don't think so. I'm not driving around anywhere in a car the size of
a beer can. When I hit you, or a deer, etc I want to know I'm walking away.

My Dad's last diesel station wagon managed 40+ MPG, and that was
certainly not a 'beer can' sized car. It also lasted over 350,000 miles.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Matt Barrow wrote:
Which is why I put "useful" in quotes. Their engines are not built, I'd
guess, for the speeds or distances involved out here.

Speeds are generally much higher in Europe than the western US.
Additionally, take the range of a Volkswagen Jetta TDi - it'll get
around 700 miles off a tank of diesel. It will also give good power in
the mountains, I have friends in Utah who love their TDi. My Dad's last
diesel, a Peugeot, lasted over 350,000 miles.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article 6adae.2502$RD.1939@trndny02, George Patterson wrote:
How prevalent is the use of a cat in Europe these days? Ten years ago, nearly

Completely. You can't even buy leaded car gas in the British Isles.


--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
In article , Matt Barrow wrote:
Then too, it can be foolishly optimistic (I hate the "irrationally
exuberant" poop), as in the dot.com craze. Yet, how much did the murder
of
the telecom industry have to do with the dot.com collapse and
subsequent/parallel market implosion?

An enormous amount. The dot.com bubble was built on telecoms. The

Yes and no.

The dot.com were built under the assumption, roughly, that everyone was
going to turn off their TV and surf the net and make all their purchases
over the net.

implosion in demand for all this extra fibre that was put in (as well as
the wildly overoptimistic expectations for 3G services - telecom
companies ploughed vast amounts of money into 3G licenses which were ALL
to do with the dot.com bubble)

They did so under the orders of the FCC. (See first article below).

- then the bubble went away leaving
telecoms firms with huge amounts of unused bandwidth, empty datacentres,
and no demand for 3G mobile services - but they had to keep paying the
bills they'd run up in investing in all this kit that there was no
demand for.

Sorta!

"Who killed Telecom": http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa533.pdf

"Telecom Undone- A Cautionary Tale":
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/h...mm-telecom.htm

"The Perils of Transition":
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/eps...ransition.html

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:cE5ae.8683$NU4.4645@attbi_s22...
We do, indeed, have the most dunderheaded legal system ever devised by
man.

Yes, but are you willing to admit that makes YOU a dunderhead? That is,
will you agree with the French who express their disbelief that people so
dunderheaded ever spawned men like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams?

Sadly, I suppose, I must indeed share the blame for having done NOTHING to
fix our incredibly broken legal system.

I fear nothing short of revolution will clear the decks.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


To be fair, our legal system has always been the way it is now. Most of the
profits from the Comstock silver bonanza in the 1860's were consumed in
litigation over who owned the claims.

Mike
MU-2

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
In article , Matt Barrow wrote:
About 40MPG and 50MPG for the diesel.

Such a car would likely be "useful" out in the west where distances are
measured in three or even four digits and those are MILES not klicks.

Actually - they are even more useful in cities.

That's my point; the "useful" was in quotes because I was be facetious.

Many Europeans tell us we should drive microcars, but they have no
comprehension of just how big and spread out the US is.
--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:AbO9e.5855$WI3.1063@attbi_s71...
It proves no such thing. American enumeracy at work.
The land mass of France, as far as I can determine from a quick sweep, is
one 18th that of the US. Is their number of pilots and/or airports an
eighteenth of those in this country?

Since when do potential pilots decide to become pilots based on the
available *land mass*? What kind of logic is THAT?


Why do you think that there are more pilots per capita in AK than anywhere
else even though the affordability of flying in AK is much less than in the
lower 48?


Mike
MU-2