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Old 3rd Jul 2013, 14:57
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cvg2iln
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
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Best of luck to them: they'll need it. I last drove that particular chariot 26 yeas ago and even then it was a dinosaur rapidly becoming something of a maintenance nightmare. Most airframes went to the bone yard.

Lots (very much lots) of TLC between trips was required to prevent unfortunate things happening to the RR Darts. RR sent a maintenance Rep from Derby - it didn't help because the equation could only be balanced by the application of manpower to the engines, but manpower equaled money - so it didn't happen.

High tech in its day, but that day has long since passed into history.

Engine failure after landing: pulling the props through on the successive preflight gave the sound of glass in a coffee grinder accompanied by considerable mechanical resistance.

Some engines failed in the air: shearing of the N2 drive shaft was a favourite as was the ancient wiring harnesses initiating an auto-feather in cruise flight. Darts don't like that scenario.

Single engine performance isn't as advertised. On one occasion I shut the fuel cock during a test flight to force an auto-feather at 8 degrees pitch and 95 knots (simulated rotation plus a bit for Mum). Very illuminating.
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