I was involved with this type a little during the '90s. I thought they were great, we used to have a saying.... 'if you are making money with an Islander then you will be creaming it with a Trislander'
I was involved in both maintenance and operations with many of the companies here plus I had a looser involvement with many more....
Cook Strait Skyferry
Murchison Relines
World Geoscience
and Air Tungaru
in this part of the world and then several operators in Africa
Air Zanzibar, United at Harare
and the two in Botswana.
I also did some time in Guernsey with Aurigny.
I think that of the 77 produced I had a fair handle of where they all where in those days. I did visit the factory but they weren't really interested in supporting the type much further. I also corresponded with lance about the future of the ones on the east coast.
They were all BN2 MkIII but then came in 3 variants. The FAA certified version had auto-feather, scary.
The normal ones that most here would have been involved with just had a 'Rear engine Fail' light....
My instructor knew how to teach an awareness of exactly how useless that was on takeoff. I doubt many fresh pilots passed EFOTO straight off.
The wingspan was the same as the Islanders
53' with tip tanks. The Islander was 49' without. But the wing was a much beefed up and modified plank. Many more, and thicker laminations up on top.
I can't recall too many Trislanders having the castoring nose, certainly some Islanders did.... but that is not to say cables were not disconnected etc.
I would have thought the two up at Bonriki would have been victims of the SB190 inspection.
I remember being at the factory shortly after that Bulletin was written, - the wing that initiated the crisis was from a German islander and had severe corrosion up around the leading edge. I have never seen anything like that since in any other BN2....... but the SB is still with us..
And still causing many operators grief.

As an aside, the Skyferry aircraft were ferried across the Pacific. They left on a boat to get to the UK though.

1025 and 1039 would have been the first of type in NZ... actually almost the first two types.. but that is another story.:ouch:

Air Mel Trislander YJ-RV3, parked at Whitesands after ...... ran out of fuel coming back from Tanna. 1990?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Trislander.jpg

Now, that one looks sexy! :}

What happened to the BN2A Mk III that Murchison Relines owned in West Aust?

In the ville today
 

An aeroplane can never have enough engines!!:}
First time I had seen a Trislander - Was parked up in TL today.
It is really a mean looking machine.. will give j3pipercub multiple christmases all at once methinks:E

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...1/IMG_2915.jpg

The speed look.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...1/IMG_2917.jpg

So ugly the earth repels them.

However, I think with some more powerful engines to improve performance, sound proofing for comfort and blind folds for the pilots and passengers eyes it could have been a useful and popular machine.

Z-UTD
 

Barron Breeza May well remember Z-UTD S/N 1055, this is the One I now have in Port Vila with only 6,700 hours on it still. even after the 82 hours it took to get form Europe, It started life with the Botswanan Defence force and then went to Unitrd Air services in Zimbabwe.
I tried to send an E-mail to you directly But it was not aliowed so My be You can contact me if you want to. the Other one form Bots' and Zim has even lowere hours on it.

The orange AirMel.. K....'s Folly !!

YJ-RV3
 

That is a sad sight of YJ-RV3
It made a mess of it when it hit the Old Coconut trees in the long grass But no one was hurt in the event . wich is amasing I belive it becam a dive sight in Havana harbour after this , I still have the elivator and on tip tank ! and in fact the wee fering around the Port Nave light will go flying again soon !

YJ-LGF
 

Re the Red Roster YJ-LGF I Just git word they filed a Flight plan form Townsvill to PVila for to morrow
So I will try and send som pix when it gets her If I can work out how to load them !
Sorry Spaners and not key boards is were I should be, I know, I know I can't speel for nuts either Sorry But it takes all sorts of Us some to fly them some to keep them up there and some to try and keep them all on the ground !!

Interesting thread, so..is GBA the owner and Unity the operator in YJ ?

YJ-LGF
 

Hi It just landed in Port Vila form Townsvill
GBA own it a GBA will operate it Once it gets to NZ Which could be soon
they have done about 140 so far the. Pilot Usualy flys 747 so this is a bit of a slow way to get form the USA to NZ to what he is used to !

Been meaning to ask, where does the centre engine draw its fuel from?

I'm presuming there is basically just a selector for "L" and "R", and it will draw from main or tip, depending on what that selector itself is set on?????

Tris / Yj-lgf
 

The Tail engine draws fuel form both main tanks
Or one can select form RH or LH Tank, the Tips just feed in to the Mains on either side.
Of cource on a ferry flight, one needs about 2000 Liters of ferry tanks/bladders inside as they uses about 165 Litres a hour with 3 engins running for up to 14 hours and about a Km of runway to get off form
and they get along at about 130 Kts. Tas. They were lucky to see 105 Kts. over the ground today on their way in to Vil.

They left Vancover on the 6th Movember arriving here tonight at 18:30 Local Had one of Vanuatu's Prime stakes at the office pub and went off to bed by 9:30 and that can still hear !!

tony deamer, sounds like you just came from the pub also :ok:

The horiz. stab. even has the 'raked' tips!
Haha thats just gravy!


Flown a BN2 with a fully castoring nosewheel. It wasn't too bad other than during slow-speed ground handling (ie taxi!).
Direct pedal steering with the castor ability is by far the best though.

Did the Tri's get upgraded brakes of any sort? The Islander's are not too bad but the extra weight of the Tri must hurt them a bit. Someone mentioned earlier about landing them in tailwinds wasn't good. . .

Whats the MTOW of the Tri aswell? Surprised they didn't slap the 300HP injected Lyco's on instead.... 120 more ponies would have probably been good.


Great thread :ok:

TRIS
 

Our Tri does have Direct Cable steer, but then it can brake lose and caster for tight turns, not restricted by the rubber movment.

They had 8" wheels and brakes discs; the islander was on 6" discs.

Yes 300 Hp IO-540 would be Nice But having watched the local airline burn out so many starters on the IO-s tryng to start them Hot, one would have to make sure the pilots knew what they were doing with them.
I have seen some pix of Tris with 3 balded Props on the two wing engines, that may be a bit more efficent and quieter But the rear engine still have the two balded 78-80 inch prop

MTOW of TRI
 

Sorry the MTOW is 10,000 Lbs for UK /Aut /NZ MkIII-1 and -2, I belive it was restricted a bit by the FAA how ever the Auto Feather may have retuned to this figure again on the MkIII-3

RV-3
 

Just re-looked at the pic' of RV3 and remembered that by the time this one wound up in the Padock, it was no Longer Air Mel....'s the State owned Van Air had take over. I must have been quite high on Hours and/or Cycles by the time the Gov' it took over, as Sir Denis did not take it to Oz as part of his flight West Fleat.

Thank God for small mercies............

25TH, departed Port Vila, heading for Norfolk Island.

Perhaps other old Ppruners can chime in with BN3 history. Eagle airways operated theirs from Bankstown on charter & freight mid 1970s. Sopac Aviation operated commuter services Cessnock,NSW, to Sydney & return a few times a day in 1979. Burnett Airways used theirs on commuter flights all ports to SW Queensland from Brisbane....imagine in hot summer in SW Qld bouncing around in a Trislander. Bush Pilot Airways (aka Bushies,aka BPA) bought out Burnetts around 1977 & consequently inherited the Tris,which were then based Cairns & Townsville where they serviced Lizard Island,Cooktown,Dunk Island,Palm Island,Bowen,Shute Harbour,Brampton Island & Mackay. Eventually these services were replaced by Twin Otters & the 4 BN3s were exported in 1981.