My Point Exactly!!!!
Thank you Kennel Keeper for that!!!
I was beggining to think I was a right idiot there for a second!!!!
The fact of the matter is that its the operators that abuse the russian machines because they are built to last under extreeme conditions which they do very well, and because of this the operators take advantage of this and stretch things!!!!
Also we have to keep in mind that spares are now becoming pretty few and far between since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And I'm of the opinion that it's extreemly professional individuals that maintain these aircraft under great duress and manage to keep them flying in an Extreemly hard african environment with no spares!!!! That makes them pretty good I would say!!!!
We could Take Tanzania for example!!! If you look at the statistics there has been a Crash every month in this year all but one have been aircraft of Western Make including 3 PT-6 engine failures, and all are being maintained by western European trained Engineers, as far as I know!!!!
The fact that they cant get this TriStar registerd isn't the fault of the Russian Engineers is it!!!????? I would call that more of an administration problem!!!
But thats just me
Pete!!!!