Check ride in a BN2 Islander?

[rmdr2]

Chaps

I have been offered the use of a BN2 Islander for a bush flying holiday with friends and family. However, due to the location, and the absence of a suitably qualified pilot to perform a check ride (differences training), it has been strongly recommended that I get signed off prior to leaving the UK. So...

... does anyone know of someone/organisation in the UK (or within easy reach of the UK) who might be able to perform a check ride for me?

As always, help/advice is appreciated

Thanks

rmdr2

[mad_jock]

Air Charter (http://www.hebrideanair.co.uk/flights/Air_Charter.html)

Give them a shout they might be able to help.

[debiassi]

Drop me a line, I may be able to assist you with this in the Humberside area.

[mad_jock]

Watch your head on the trailing edge of the wing. It hurts like a bitch if you take your head off it. It also leaves a rather nice crinkle chip cut as well if its hard enough.

[TheiC]

Sending you a PM...

[Tinstaafl]

People disparage the Islander (and deservedly so) but apart from being profoundly unpleasant to fly it is also very easy to fly. Like a previous poster wrote: 65kts. It's about the only number you need to remember. I've never worked out how Vx, Vy, Vxse & Vyxe can all be the same number yet still have climb performance, but there ya' go - BN2s have been defying conventional aerodynamics since the prototype's first flight.

I've landed at night on a partially iced runway with 40-45kts xwind component and operated several times a week into a 380m strip. I've also managed a 220 kt groundspeed at 1000' in it (might've had a slight tailwind on that one, but only slight...




...slightly over 100kts, that is. ;-) .

It's:
* cramped,
* slow,
* noisy,
* has awful control feel,
* ponderous control response. I've needed asymmetric power more than once to yaw straight for landing before downwind drift could start.
* BN can't figure out how to connect the steering linkage without a North Atlantic cold blast also making use of the passageway. Thank christ for lots of pillows & blankets on ambulance flights. At least I could stuff a pillow in the footwell in cruise and use a blanket over my legs.
* the heater overheat CB is rather sensitive and prone to popping with more than 1/2 heat set
* you have to fight past the R.seat pax knee to trim but twist your hand into a claw to use the throttle friction next to your own knee,
* carby heat use is an essential engine power control (you get to have power......or you don't)
* The air filter is prone to ice & snow blockage (and lacks a drain hole for the melting snow). It's not fun at 0300 on a winter's night using your fingers to dig out the impact snow from the small space around the circumference of the filter.
* The aircraft can be approved for FIKI but leaves great ice catchers such as the undercarriage unprotected.
* Unfamiliar pax are like headless choocks thanks to the several doors available.

Probably more things but it's been 10 years since I last flew one.

On the plus side:

* If you need to take a fair load from a short strip it's hard to beat. Just be careful of the long main gear's leverage against its attachment points if you're using a rough strip.

* anyone getting in the RH door does a sterling job keeping that part of the cowl free of oil & grime.

* you can fly an ILS at cruise IAS to minima and still land on threshold.

[mad_jock]

tinny is there not something funny about the fuel management system as well?

I have seen them hover land into wind onto the intersection at Kirkwall not particularly lined up with any runway, which was an impressive sight.

[BN2A]

Britten-Norman BN2 XL


By a well-known ‘Flight magazine’.

Undaunted by technical realities, the design team at Pilatus Britten-Norman has announced plans for the BN2-XL, promising more noise, reduced payload, a lower cruise speed, and increased pilot workload.

We spoke to Mr. Fred Gribble, former British Rail boilermaker, and now Chief Project Engineer. Fred was responsible for developing many original and creative design flaws in the service of his former employer, and will be incorporating these in the new BN2-XL technology under a licensing agreement. Fred reassured BN-2 pilots, however, that all fundamental design flaws of the original model had been retained. Further good news is that the XL version is available as a retrofit.

Among the new measures is that of locking the ailerons in the central position, following airborne and simulator tests which showed that whilst pilots of average strength were able to achieve up to 30 degrees of control wheel deflection, this produced no appreciable variation in the net flight of the aircraft. Thus the removal of costly and unnecessary linkages has been possible, and the rudder has been nominated as the primary directional control. In keeping with this new philosophy, but to retain commonality for crews’ transitioning to the XL, additional resistance to foot pressure has been built in to the rudder pedals to prevent over-controlling in gusty conditions (defined as those in which wind velocity exceeds 3 knots).

An outstanding feature of Islander technology has always been the adaptation of the O-540 engine which, when mounted in any other aircraft in the free world (except the Trislander) is known for its low vibration levels. The Islander adaptations cause it to shake and batter the airframe, gradually crystallise the main spar, desynchronise the accompanying engine, and simulate the sound of fifty skeletons fornicating in an aluminium dustbin. PBN will not disclose the technology they applied in preserving this effect in the XL but Mr. Gribble assures us it will be perpetrated in later models and sees it as a strong selling point. "After all, the Concorde makes a lot of noise" he said, "and look how fast that goes."

However design documents clandestinely recovered from the PBN shredder have solved a question that has puzzled aerodynamicists and pilots for many years, disclosing that it is actually noise which causes the BN2 to fly. The vibration set up by the engines, and amplified by the airframe, in turn causes the air molecules above the wing to oscillate at atomic frequency, reducing their density and creating lift. This can be demonstrated by sudden closure of the throttles, which causes the aircraft to fall from the sky. As a result, lift is proportional to noise, rather than speed, explaining amongst other things the aircraft's remarkable takeoff performance.

In the driver's cab (as Gribble describes it) ergonomic measures will ensure that long-term PBN pilots' deafness does not cause in-flight dozing. Orthopaedic surgeons have designed a cockpit layout and seat to maximise backache, en-route insomnia, chronic irritability, and terminal (post-flight) lethargy. Redesigned "bullworker" elastic aileron cables, now disconnected from the control surfaces, increase pilot workload and fitness. Special noise retention cabin lining is an innovation on the XL, and it is hoped in later models to develop cabin noise to a level which will enable pilots to relate ear-pain directly to engine power, eliminating the need for engine instruments altogether.

We were offered an opportunity to fly the XL at Britten-Norman's development facility, adjacent to the British Rail tearooms at Little Chortling. (The flight was originally to have been conducted at the Pilatus plant but aircraft of BN design are now prohibited from operating in Swiss airspace during avalanche season). For our mission profile, the XL was loaded with coal for a standard 100 N.M. trip with British Rail reserves, carrying one pilot and nine passengers to maximise discomfort. Passenger loading is unchanged, the normal under-wing protrusions inflicting serious lacerations on 71% of boarding passengers, and there was the usual confusion in selecting a door appropriate to the allocated seat. The facility for the clothing of embarking passengers to remove oil slicks from engine cowls during loading has been thoughtfully retained.

Start-up is standard, and taxiing, as in the BN2 is accomplished by brute force. Takeoff calculations called for a 250-decibel power setting, and the rotation force for the (neutral) C of G was calculated at 180 ft/lbs. of backpressure.

Initial warning of an engine failure during takeoff is provided by a reduction in vibration of the flight instrument panel. Complete seizure of one engine is indicated by the momentary illusion that the engines have suddenly and inexplicably become synchronised. Otherwise, identification of the failed engine is achieved by comparing the vibration levels of the windows on either side of the cabin. (Relative passenger pallor has been found to be an unreliable guide on many BN2 routes because of ethnic consideration).

Shortly after takeoff the XL's chief test pilot, Capt. Mike "Muscles" Mulligan demonstrated the extent to which modern aeronautical design has left the BN2 untouched; he simulated pilot incapacitation by slumping forward onto the control column, simultaneously applying full right rudder and bleeding from the ears. The XL, like its predecessor, demonstrated total control rigidity and continued undisturbed. Power was then reduced to 249 decibels for cruise, and we carried out some comparisons of actual flight performance with graph predictions. At 5000 ft and ISA, we achieved a vibration amplitude of 500 CPS and 240 decibels, for a fuel flow of 210 lb/hr, making the BN2-XL the most efficient converter of fuel to noise after the Titan rocket.

Exploring the Constant noise/Variable noise concepts, we found that in a VNE dive, vibration reached its design maximum at 1000 CPS, at which point the limiting factor is the emulsification of human tissue. The catatonic condition of long-term BN2 pilots is attributed to this syndrome, which commences in the cerebral cortex and spreads outwards. We asked Capt. Mulligan what he considered the outstanding features of the XL. He cupped his hand behind his ear and shouted "Whazzat?"

We returned to Britten-Norman convinced that the XL model retains the marque's most memorable features, whilst showing some significant and worthwhile regressions.

PBN are not, however, resting on their laurels. Plans are already advanced for the Trislander XL and noise tunnel testing has commenced. The basis of preliminary design and performance specifications is that lift increases as the square of the noise, and as the principle of acoustic lift is further developed, a later five-engined vertical take-off model is also a possibility."

All in all, a wonderful aeroplane.

:)

[mad_jock]

That has just had me in stitches.

I bloody hope they never revisit the trislander concept.

[Talkdownman]

Very uplifting :D

And an aeroplane which doesn't need R/T transmissions to keep it aloft…wonders never cease..

[mad_jock]

You need the upgraded version with the 300 amp generator to get the power for the amplifier on the intercom system to be able to hear anything on the radio talkdownman.

[Tinstaafl]

Hiya MJ,

I don't remember anything unusual for the fuel system of the ones I flew - but they were bog standard machines. No extra tanks or anything like that. Had to climb on to the roof to dip the tanks though - but that's not exactly odd for a high wing aeroplane - and worked out a way to do it without a ladder.

The image below should give anyone unfamiliar with a BN2 Islander an idea of the design's graceful, flowing lines:
__
...|
...|......__
...|___|..|_____
.....................|
....___________|
...|
...|
...|
|..|___
!_____|

[mad_jock]

I worked for a company with one so we had all the accident reports for the type and screwing up the fuel tank selection seemed to be a reoccurring theme.

In fact wasn't the recent crash in Jersey not fuel tank selection as well?

[Tinstaafl]

I thought that one had aux. tanks? As best I recall ours couldn't be simpler: ON, X-Feed & OFF. B-N even went to the trouble to colour code the selectors: Red for the left, green for the right.

[rmdr2]

All!

Many thanks for your replies! Much appreciated!

Particular thanks to BN2A - hilarious!! Makes me look forward to flying it!

rmdr2

[AerocatS2A]

I flew Islanders with aux tanks, I don't remember anything special about fuel management.

[Sam Rutherford]

It's not CC's machine you're going to fly, is it?

Cheers, Sam.

[mad_jock]

I really don't know about the aux tank business there was just a rather large file with crashes due to fuel management.

I remember a story about another crash in the CI's when the engines quit on approach and the pilot rather skill fully managed to drop it just in front of a stone gate way and went through said gate which was open taking the wings off james bond style and resulting with everyone safe and a written off plane with fuel everywhere but none going to the engines.

It may be that the UK CAA stopped the more inventive systems that Mr. Fred Gribble came up with. And those of fuzzy wuzzy registrations had less user friendly systems fitted.