Britten Norman Islander Turns Fifty

[Capt Fathom]

Good Heavens! It wasn't .......CC?

Must have been CC. He's not here defending himself!

[Stationair8]

Didn't the last Trislander airframe kits finish up in Australia, with some plans to modify them to use a different engine?

[dhavillandpilot]

Last Trilander was going to have 2 V8 engines similar to the Oerna conversion planned for the larger Aero Commanders

[Acrosport II]

Last Trilander was going to have 2 V8 engines similar to the Oerna conversion planned for the larger Aero Commanders

That would take all the "Fun" out of the Trislander.

[Acrosport II]

This one brought tears to my eyes.....


I think it was from sore ears!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdvCC4YA4BA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJyR6YKXWV0


BN2A request push and start.....
Cleared push and start,..Face west.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW_IoE4sBdM


Classic!

[Car RAMROD]

Awesome pushback! Whitey tourist taking the video was probably flying out in it!

I miss the island/Islander life!

[Pinky the pilot]

I miss the island/Islander life!

Me too!! Taking out the moments of sheer terror (which in retrospect were character forming) I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

[tail wheel]

I think BSP went to Douglas in PNG then back to Cairns and may have ended up in West Australia with a change of registration?

[LeadSled]

Didn't the last Trislander airframe kits finish up in Australia, with some plans to modify them to use a different engine?

Folks,
It was an Australian company that bought the remaining incomplete Trilanders,( something like 11, if my memory is correct) but I do not know if they were ever shipped to Australia.

The proposal by this group was to convert the aircraft to a single PT-6 in the tail.

I went to several presentations on the engineering proposed, and my advice to the principles was to take the project to the US, ( based in what CASA did to Gippsland Aeronautics, even post 1998 rules) you would go broke in Australia trying to certify it. The estimated operating costs were interesting, the estimates for speed/payload/range beat the Cessna 208 by a respectable and not unreasonable margin.

As far as I know, the company ran out of financial resources before the prototype was ever assembled.

Tootle pip!!

[601]

The amount of crap we used to carry in them

Notable loads;
One bolt together Southern Cross water tank.
Unknown Kgs of turf.
Cattle buyers after they had spent the afternoon on the local pub.

[Ixixly]

Next time you see an Islander Minger, ask'em if you can hop up top and have a look, when you eyeball the wing from on top you'll understand!

Nothing fancy aerodynamically speaking, just a giant whopping wing!!

[wanabee777]

Darn things are the noisiest piston twins we have operating out of FLL.

I'll be glad to see them gone if it ever happens in my life time!

[Acrosport II]

The world's shortest.... why would you choose any other type??


World?s Shortest Commercial Flight is Just 47 Seconds Long | Amusing Planet

Damn Tight @rse Low cost airlines. No meal service on that flight!!!

Appalling!!!

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

Slight Drift....

Went to see 'Spectre' yesterday arvo.....talk about the 'Bongo Van' being built like a brick $#!^ house....(?)

And.... it still 'flew' / slid / and, when it eventually came 'to rest', (Finished with engines no 1..), the pilot (J.B.) calmly 'stepped out' and carried on......

If ya gunna have a crash, have it in a Bongo, is the message.....

(Yeah, I know...'tis only a movie, and a J.B. one at that....amusing all the same)

Cheers

[Pinky the pilot]

As for the shortest Commercial Flight; Guari to Kamulai in the Goilala area of PNG would be fairly close as well.

Take off from Guari put you on base for Kamulai.

[Stationair8]

The bloke from Ord Air, that did the beat up of the fishing boat in the BN-2 and then flew it into the water enroute to Koolan Island

[fencehopper]

Gonna crash a bongo? just make sure your feet are up out of the way so when the nose gear comes back and it won't wrap the rudder bar around your feet.

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

G'day Pinky,

I used to do one RPT / Mail run in the Pilbara, the final section of which was from Yarri to Muccan.

Report 'dep' Yarri, get acknowledgment, then call 'Circuit area' Muccan, get ack., then 'landed Muccan CNL SAR'.....

I know, 'twas further than yours, but 7 nm and flat between them, as was Aitape to Tadji, which was only 6nm....

All good fun to see if the FSO was 'up to par'.....in dem good ole days....

Cheers

[Capt Fathom]

Kabwum Valley.
Konge to Indagen was about 2/3nm if my grey matter is correct? (My logbook from that time is somewhere in storage).
You didn't retract the takeoff flaps and full noise setting the whole way!

[601]

Vmca 39kts
Vs 41 kts

How is this possible? I've asked a few islander pilots before and they don't know.

When you have the engines in the cockpit with you and a long fuselage with a relative large fin and rudder, it is possible.

The aircraft with extreme difference between Vmca and Vs would be the C337.