Your Favourite Twin
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I'm only endorsed on the PA44 so don't have much to compare with but does anyone have any thoughts on the PN68? It looks quite roomy inside and the high wing I like, but how does it perform?
Sprucegoose
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Was at least a 12 Steinlager flight.
does anyone have any thoughts on the PN68? It looks quite roomy inside and the high wing I like, but how does it perform?
Cheers, HH.
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Hmmm, I'm a bit surprised that no-one is nominating the legendary DHA-3 Drover (Gypsy powered of course) as their favourite, Oh wait a moment, this is for your favourite twin, not multi, otherwise I'm sure it would be right up there with the Trislander etc...
Oh well, it might not have been fast, or quiet, or comfortable, or stable and it did have dreadful brakes and levers and switches scattered all around the office, and fixed pitch props on unreliable engines, but it smelled like a real plane and it had heaps of flaps and a TAILWHEEL!!
If, however, a tri-motor is out of the game, I'd have to go with the Dak for character building or the Lockheed 12 for a bit of fun on a nice day.
HD
Oh well, it might not have been fast, or quiet, or comfortable, or stable and it did have dreadful brakes and levers and switches scattered all around the office, and fixed pitch props on unreliable engines, but it smelled like a real plane and it had heaps of flaps and a TAILWHEEL!!
If, however, a tri-motor is out of the game, I'd have to go with the Dak for character building or the Lockheed 12 for a bit of fun on a nice day.
HD
Silly Old Git
Hmmm, I'm a bit surprised that no-one is nominating the legendary DHA-3 Drover
PAGAS were using it to cart sheep from Penneshaw to the mainland
Anyone got a photo of it?
Don Quixote Impersonator
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Aaaah tinny we bought one from the RFDS qnd operated it 7 times a day 7 days a week from Perth to Rottnest (circa 18 nm) several decades ago.
VH-FDS Lycoming conversion tarted up to look like a 1920s railway carriage, Fri arvo flights girls in fishnet stockings and flapper gear serving champange. Went well until one of the pilots tried mating it with huffer.
Great STOL ship handled like a Chipmunk.
Caption to the above says it all.
Built in 1951 as a Mk.I, registered VH-DRC, delivered to Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and, named as "Gordon Alberry", operated for the Royal Flying Docter Service (RFDS). In 1959 the aircraft was bought by the RFDS but still operated by TAA. By 1961 the aircraft had been converted from a Mk.I via Mk.IF, Mk.II to Mk.III. In 1963 it was re-registered VH-FDS, re-named "Norman Bourke" and was operated by the Queensland Section till 1968.
From 1969 the aircraft changed ownership several times and was damaged beyond repair in an accident on July 30, 1973. In 1989 it was donated to the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra, Tasmania.
VH-FDS Lycoming conversion tarted up to look like a 1920s railway carriage, Fri arvo flights girls in fishnet stockings and flapper gear serving champange. Went well until one of the pilots tried mating it with huffer.
Great STOL ship handled like a Chipmunk.
Caption to the above says it all.
Built in 1951 as a Mk.I, registered VH-DRC, delivered to Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and, named as "Gordon Alberry", operated for the Royal Flying Docter Service (RFDS). In 1959 the aircraft was bought by the RFDS but still operated by TAA. By 1961 the aircraft had been converted from a Mk.I via Mk.IF, Mk.II to Mk.III. In 1963 it was re-registered VH-FDS, re-named "Norman Bourke" and was operated by the Queensland Section till 1968.
From 1969 the aircraft changed ownership several times and was damaged beyond repair in an accident on July 30, 1973. In 1989 it was donated to the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra, Tasmania.
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Vanuatu:
Gaunty:
If memory serves me correct? there was one of these abandoned at one of the strips I use to fly into , I think it may have been "lonora" (spelt it wrong)
I say think it was Lonora, (circa 1985 ex Air meli).
Chr's
H/Snort.
If memory serves me correct? there was one of these abandoned at one of the strips I use to fly into , I think it may have been "lonora" (spelt it wrong)
I say think it was Lonora, (circa 1985 ex Air meli)
.Chr's
H/Snort.
Silly Old Git
19? The aircraft was registered as VH-DRE.
19? The aircraft was acquired by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
19? The aircraft was re-registered as VH-FDT and was named "Eric Donaldson".
19? The aircraft was acquired by Air Melanesia and was re-registered as VP-PAP.
http://www.cnapg.org/drover.htm
19? The aircraft was acquired by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
19? The aircraft was re-registered as VH-FDT and was named "Eric Donaldson".
19? The aircraft was acquired by Air Melanesia and was re-registered as VP-PAP.
http://www.cnapg.org/drover.htm
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Don't know that I would exactly say that it flew like a chippy, though it did have a lot in common, sort of half way between a chippy and a beaver. Possibly the easiest tial wheeler to grease on that I have ever flown, some days you couldn't tell when the wheels were on the ground!! really!!
I obviously haven't mastered inserting pictures as you can see...
I obviously haven't mastered inserting pictures as you can see...
I think a Drover crashed on Trefoil Is in the 70's. That's a poky little strip so I guess it says something about the aeroplane's rough/short field ability. Was it recovered and partly restored by someone in Tassie?
If the Drover flys like a Chippie, then it would get my vote. I reckon the DHC 1 is the nicest machine I've had the pleasure to fly
If the Drover flys like a Chippie, then it would get my vote. I reckon the DHC 1 is the nicest machine I've had the pleasure to fly
Couldn't help myself. Just in case you've forgotten what a superb machine these are.....................
Commander 1000 s/n 96208. The very last Commander built, it has some local history. It was first operated by the DOT back in the late 80's to early 90's as VH-LTM.
Commander 1000 s/n 96208. The very last Commander built, it has some local history. It was first operated by the DOT back in the late 80's to early 90's as VH-LTM.
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Jealous/Envy:
Budgie:
I gotta admit, I would love to get my hands on one of those, the Shrike and old Ac 50, are brilliant, I had a go in a 690 back in 86 out of Wiley Post Bethany Okl,.
You are a lucky Bstar'd, ****e man ! maybe you could Offer me some THEARAPY?
Chr's
H/Snort
I gotta admit, I would love to get my hands on one of those, the Shrike and old Ac 50, are brilliant, I had a go in a 690 back in 86 out of Wiley Post Bethany Okl,.
You are a lucky Bstar'd, ****e man ! maybe you could Offer me some THEARAPY?
Chr's
H/Snort
"I think" you are correct, knew someone would place it:Join Date: Apr 2002
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B200
I think the B200C that we used in the RFDS was the nicest aeroplane I ever flew, and it was a surprisingly good bush aeroplane. We had the Raisbeck mods and high floatation gear which helped a lot. It had 240 volt electric power on board for the medics, and a separate battery and electrical system for them.
An interhospital transfer from Alice Springs to Adelaide and back was a nice comfortable days work in that machine. Except for one night when I got diverted to Blackstone range, in WA when we were on the way home.
The DH Drover was different. Strangely they only built about 14 of them. Chookair in Adelaide used one for a while, going down to the island. One day it had a "similtaneous triple engine failure" but made it to land for an uneventful landing. Drovers were operating in Fiji in the 1950's.
The Partenavia is not popular amongst pilots as it does not have lots of things that go up and down, or switches in the roof, but it is a useful machine.
I once brought a full load of DCA people back to Alice from the Rock in one of them in IFR weather. Legally. But they had to leave their breifcases behind.
I also flew one of them non stop from Alice to Adelaide at night when the local oil exploration guy had to get the months data tapes to Canada in a hurry.We had three POB.
An interhospital transfer from Alice Springs to Adelaide and back was a nice comfortable days work in that machine. Except for one night when I got diverted to Blackstone range, in WA when we were on the way home.
The DH Drover was different. Strangely they only built about 14 of them. Chookair in Adelaide used one for a while, going down to the island. One day it had a "similtaneous triple engine failure" but made it to land for an uneventful landing. Drovers were operating in Fiji in the 1950's.
The Partenavia is not popular amongst pilots as it does not have lots of things that go up and down, or switches in the roof, but it is a useful machine.
I once brought a full load of DCA people back to Alice from the Rock in one of them in IFR weather. Legally. But they had to leave their breifcases behind.
I also flew one of them non stop from Alice to Adelaide at night when the local oil exploration guy had to get the months data tapes to Canada in a hurry.We had three POB.
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Ambae:
Longana:
Bobbob: If my memory serves me correct, name aside, Santo to Wallaha, then going clockwise it was the first or second stop:
H/Snort
Bobbob: If my memory serves me correct, name aside, Santo to Wallaha, then going clockwise it was the first or second stop:
H/Snort
Sprucegoose
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the ‘KITTY HAWK’
