Dornier saga
G-LGIS did engine runs late yesterday afternoon and has undertaken air test from GCI this morning so ought to return to service soon.
An Aurigny statement has suggested that G-SAYE is awaiting spares. The aircraft has not flown since early April, suggesting that Do.228 spares are as rare as Trislander spares :ooh:.
Does anyone know what problems G-OMAF has encountered to delay its delivery?

G-LGIS seems to be back in service now operating a weather-delayed GCI-DNR-GCI flight.

Will G-OMAF still be coming, or has D-CAAL been leased instead?

It would be interesting to know what work they are doing on G-SAYE. Is it more than a routine maintenance?

Can't think very much work is being done on G-SAYE. If someone has been working on it almost every day since April, maintenance must be costing a fortune! Having aircraft that are hangar-bound for weeks on end is NOT the way to make money. (Consider the history of G-SAYE and G-LGIS.) One can only wonder whether the States of Guernsey's "interest" in the airline obviates the need for management to think too carefully about being over-profitable.

yup, that's where you'll usually find it :}

You'll find it has been in the hangar most of that time. It was certainly inside at the beginning of the week. Perhaps when you saw it the poor thing had been brought outside for some air...:\

G-OMAF has left OBF and is currently in the air. Whither bound? Watch this space!!

G-OMAF outside Anglo-Normandy at GCI now (1155 Sat).
Pete

And D-CAAL has left ACI and returned to Germany.

Face -> Palm

Unbelievable

Dorniers
At last G-OMAF has entered service commercially - today. Still no sign of G-SAYE returning to service however. (Not flown since early April.)

Dorniers
 

What has gone wrong today? Flights are being cancelled and no Dorniers appear to be flying - one is at ACI and the others are presumably in the hangar at GCI.

I don't understand why they went with Dornier aircraft in the first place? Why couldn't they purchase the more reliable Viking Twin Otter 400? Even the earlier second hand market Twin Otter 300 would be a worthy contender? Just goes to show how cack handed the states of Guernsey are! :ugh:

I thought that the Twin Otters engines couldn't handle the short cycles required for the ACI routes.

The real question I think is why weren't Aurigny allowed to order 3 new Dorniers in the first place, rather than one new one and two 30 year old a/c. G-OAUR seems reliable, but probably wasn't scheduled to be operating today.

Skybus Twotters manage to perform short cycles between Lands End, Newquay & St Marys :)

Considering the short routes flown by Twin Otters all around the world, that surprises me somewhat.

I'm booked to fly Alderney-Southampton (where I'm catching a connection up to NCL) in September. Reading this forum I'm beginning to wish I'd booked to take the ferry back to Guernsey and flown Flybe / BlueIslands from there!

AUR operated 2 DHC6 a/c some time ago - I think that it was late '80s or early 90s. They gave up on them after a few years & the reason stated was that the short flights & the sea air gave them operational problems. I am not a mechanic, so,I don't really understand what those problems were. But, the airline definitely had a problem with the a/c & the engines - enough to take them out of service.

The economics may also have had something to do with it, the Otters requiring two flight crew.

If that were the case because of the 'sea air', how come so many Twotters fitted with floats & operating inter-island on the sea water are still in service? There will always be an issue with corrosion - I mean Loganair flies Twotters to Barra, and the impact of the sand hitting the engines must be far greater, yet they still run them? I've read that the new Viking Twotters field performance is 13% greater than the 228NG's & fitted with new engines >> source https://www.vikingair.com/twin-otter...es/performance

I think Aurigny are just poor at sourcing in the right aircraft for the job, hopefully at some point BN will come out with a NG of the Trislander, but in my opinion the Twin Otter is the best out there for these sort of operations ::8

As I said, I am not a mechanic, but what I said was what I heard from AUR at the time. I take the point about LOG & Barra; & the Isles of Scilly operation , too. These two airlines' operations would tend to suggest that AUR's reason for rejecting the DHC6 was totally counter to their experiences of the a/c. Another piece of info. I heard about AUR not choosing to replace the BN3 with the DHC6 was that the crosswind limits were not very good.