During my ATCA course at the CATC Bournemouth in 1981 my landlady worked for Glosair who have bought three green Trilanders from the then defunct BN. They only have one engine to start with so flew each across from IOW on one engine on the tail, taking the engine back by road each time for the next aircraft!! Often wonder where they ended up!!

I find the concept of a Trislander flying with only one engine fitted a teensy bit hard to believe...

In 1980/1981 there were a number of green Islanders/Trislanders stored at Southampton in one of the hangars. The Trislanders were incomplete as I recall and had construction numbers stencilled but no reg. They ended up at Homestead Municipal in Florida, where I saw them again three or four years later still in kit form!

Jensdad. With apologies for thread drift. Primarily Shetlands, Sumburgh and Unst. Sometimes Kirkwall, or even Stavangar or Haugusand. Our longest was Cork.

Treadigraph. I believe the Trislander was sometimes flown using just the tail engine, but I doubt it could take-off on one. Lovely and quiet I believe, but I never had the courage to try. Only the wing engines had generators, and Sod's Law says the battery is insufficient to start another engine when you need it.

Back to thread, with apologies.

Other than the power issue, the aircraft with a tail engine only would simply just sit on its tail due to CofG issues.

Briefly in the instance of Peter Phillip's unfortunate incident at Lanseria in '77!

http://www.ivanberrymandirect.com/BN...nuary_2017.pdf - see pages 15-18!

Jersey Trilsander
 

A story I heard was Bush Pilots (North Queensland) found the centre engine was out of alignment which was causing problems.

Also, after stopping the pilot had to put a prop under the tail so it wouldn't tip up.

Thanks for that Herod. Sounds like fun!

They all had to do that to stop the tail hitting the ground during loading, a la Caravan.

I worked on the Aurigny fleet 1973-6 doing radio and autopilot fits.
G-AYWI and G-AZLJ are two of the Trislanders I remember.
I can't find any reference to these in any Aurigny history on the web.
I wonder what became of them.

I'm minded to recall that I was told by an ATC Inspector that one Trislander pilot (whom I happened to know having worked with him as a controller at several PFA Rallys) encountered a triple engine failure just after takoff from Jersey and managed to land on the beach.

It wasn't a triple failure. It was just the port engine

G-RLON is currently stored at Lee On Solent with BN. See below)
G-AYWI was written Off at Hale Cheshire (as GOCME) on 10.2.87
G-AZLJ went to Greece and later returned and was stored at Coventry for spares in 2001/2 and the fuselage ended up at Lydd.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9f99f5a354.jpg
G-APDK

Another was G-AZJA.

G-AZJA went to Panama in '82 and was written off out there.

G-BBYO just popped into my brain.
I think there were 6 Trislanders in my time dealing with them, ( up to March 1976), - G-AYWI, G-AZJA, G-AZLJ, G-BBYO, plus two others ??????????
The Islanders were G-AVCN, G-AXWP, G-AXWR.

Islanders 'XWP and R went to Isles of Scilly Skybus... They also had 'WNR and 'XVR in the early '70s which both went to Loganair and eventually overseas.

I can't find 'VCN as being one of theirs but it was with an owner on Jersey for a bit in the '70s so may well have been leased or something! This is 003, the oldest survivor and is being rebuilt by the BN Historic Trust!

G-BEVT, G-BDTN, G-BDTO and G-BDWV (also RBCI) were Trislanders also operated by Aurigny, plus G-RLON (also G-OCTA/ITEX), JOEY and FTSE (also G-BEPI)...

Always enjoyed my rare visits to Southampton Airport in the late '70s and seeing the Trislanders arrive!

Dixi, the other Tris were G-BCNO and BCXV

'CNO and 'CXV both ended up in Panama, 'CNO written off and 'CXV apparently still active in Venezuela. Both were owned at one time by Zeekoegat who were the Jersey-based owners of G-AVCN I referred to above. Presume they were a financing company.

treadigraph:
G-AVCN was the first Islander to go into service and started Aurigny.
I think it went back to BN around 1974 in partex for a new Trislander.
I still have the hand mic that I took off it when it went back. Perhaps I should send it to the museum.
I remember the name Zeekogat on some of the owners plates, also some aircraft were owned by Brinsop Farms Ltd. which was Sir Derek Bailie's property in Glos.

bean: Thankyou, yes thay were the other two. I did the radio fit on them when new.

'WI had an autopilot fitted by someone at Shoreham and we at Glos Air did the fit on 'LJ and 'JA I think.
It was a Bendix M4C but they didn't last long and were removed after a couple of years.
I think the autopilots were an attempt to get round the new rules about single pilot aircraft and the number of passengers allowed.

Long time ago now but good memories.
Dixi.

Yep, 'VCN was registered to Brinsop Farms from '67 to '74! It also starred as Airfix's 1/72 kit I see...