I have travelled in Aurigny Trislanders Guernsey-Alderney, including G-JOEY, but have never been an aviation professional, so please be forebearing if what I am about to say is nonsense.
I gather that the existing aircraft are around 35 years old, and although the frequent inter-island hops may have used up a significant proportion of their recommended cycles, from my long and close family association with Guernsey I have come to believe they have proved to be a very safe means of travel, over that service period. I can only recall one forced landing incident in Guernsey some years ago, related to management of fuel, which was non-fatal. Their reliability seems to have been adequately demonstrated, from the passengers' viewpoint.
I also understand that a new Twin Otter turboprop replacement might cost about $4 million, which is apparently regarded as too much, that the turbine disc life is not best suited to high-intensity use on short hops, and that the fuel used may not be available in Alderney for very long. This seems to lead to a general conclusion that if a new replacement aircraft is to be procured, it should be piston engined, and several posts have mentioned possible types.
However, no mention has been made of the possibility of taking up options with Britten-Norman for new-build Trislanders, with up to date avionics and perhaps uprated Avco-Lycoming engines with, say, 400 hp rather than 260 hp power rating. It seems possible that the price for such an aircraft, of demonstrable suitability for the services required of it, could be significantly less than $4 million. Are there universally-agreed reasons why this is impractical/impossible/undesirable?
I repeat, I'm not in aviation, I'm a retired consulting civil/structural engineer, but I do have a very keen interest in Channel Islands air travel, and a warm affection for the "Yellow Buzz-Bombs". Please be kind!
Last edited by 603DX; 28th Jul 2010 at 21:28.
Reason: Tidying up a bit ...