Interesting lea$e costs and quite believable. Supply and demand and all that. In today's market a B737 Classic could be had for not much more than that Dash 8 number. It certainly indicates that the B1900 is not a proposition for RPT. OK for corporate, I suppose.
Segue to Herons. Yep, great little ocean-crosser; much peace of mind with those 4 donks. It is a shame the Poms did not concede that the Lycoming engine was more efficient. They should have ditched the old Gypsy Queens, the Fairey Reed props, and changed the pneumatics for hydraulics.
Having said that, in 2000 hours I never had a problem with the old Gypsy engines, other than getting the poxy things started sometimes when they were hot.
There wasn't much else out there could move 17 or 18 pax at 150 knots on 45 gallons an hour over some decent distances. Its field performance was quite respectable, too.
It deserved to do better.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 7th Jun 2013 at 01:39.