Never been in a propeller aircraft
Discussion
RosscoPCole said:
If you live or have lived in the Channel Islands then you are likely to have flown in a propeller aircraft.
Britten Norman Trislanders were a giggle. Being visibly weighed up by the Aurigny staff so you balanced out the aircraft in flight. Having the pilot turn around to give the safety chat and saying the flight is short, so even if there was a problem we would be OK. Then he passes out the earplugs saying that this type of aircraft isn't designed for speed or comfort. Also regularly having a dog sat next to its owner in the seat in front or behind you. When you land and arrive the ground crew place a metal framework under the tail so it doesn't blow over in the wind. And who can forget Joey. There is one at IWM Duxford and my 9 year old son didn't believe me or the staff of the museum that people paid to fly in this.
I lived in Guernsey for 20 years, the trislanders were exactly as you describe. Three props was comforting, sole pilot less so. Britten Norman Trislanders were a giggle. Being visibly weighed up by the Aurigny staff so you balanced out the aircraft in flight. Having the pilot turn around to give the safety chat and saying the flight is short, so even if there was a problem we would be OK. Then he passes out the earplugs saying that this type of aircraft isn't designed for speed or comfort. Also regularly having a dog sat next to its owner in the seat in front or behind you. When you land and arrive the ground crew place a metal framework under the tail so it doesn't blow over in the wind. And who can forget Joey. There is one at IWM Duxford and my 9 year old son didn't believe me or the staff of the museum that people paid to fly in this.
Edited by RosscoPCole on Saturday 18th May 21:19
I've had some horrific flights from Guernsey to the UK & back over the years.
darreni said:
I lived in Guernsey for 20 years, the trislanders were exactly as you describe. Three props was comforting, sole pilot less so.
I've had some horrific flights from Guernsey to the UK & back over the years.
Jesus, remember trying to get in there....always blowing a gale and on instruments till last second via NDB.....I was always miles off the runway....I've always hated NDB approachesI've had some horrific flights from Guernsey to the UK & back over the years.
Three engines? Luxury!
I was a bit apprehensive after our flight was cancelled and they said they'd send 'the small one' to get us. The 'big one' was already fewer than 20 seats. The Islander held six passengers, one Great Dane and one great pilot.
The two 6-cyl boxer engines made a suitably Indiana Jonesy rort to my untrained ear, and the propeller whizzing round a few inches away and perfectly in line with my face was novel. Same can be said for being able to see outside through the gaps around the doors.
I was a bit apprehensive after our flight was cancelled and they said they'd send 'the small one' to get us. The 'big one' was already fewer than 20 seats. The Islander held six passengers, one Great Dane and one great pilot.
The two 6-cyl boxer engines made a suitably Indiana Jonesy rort to my untrained ear, and the propeller whizzing round a few inches away and perfectly in line with my face was novel. Same can be said for being able to see outside through the gaps around the doors.
Used to travel between Leeds and Brussels when I was a kid on the 25 seater prop planes. Remember being sat on the tarmac waiting to taxi at Zaventum and a guy in overalls rocked up, opened up an engine cover and batted something repeatedly with a big spanner. Shut it all up and off we went. Didn't do much for the nerves.
I've flown on a turboprop scheduled flight to Glasgow - Dash-8 I think.
Something similar between Cambodia and Bangkok.
I've flown on a twin-prop seaplane from Male to Vilhamendoo in the Maldives - couldn't tell you what it was.
Also a Turbo-Porter skiplane in New Zealand - landing on a glacier while in the jump-seat / co-pilot seat was exceptionally cool. As was the overt smell of (IIRC) jet fuel which was busy making half the plane nauseous!
...also remember something almost as small and rattly in Africa.
...and a trial flying lesson in a low-wing 2-seat Italian something which very coolly had a stick not a yoke.
Something similar between Cambodia and Bangkok.
I've flown on a twin-prop seaplane from Male to Vilhamendoo in the Maldives - couldn't tell you what it was.
Also a Turbo-Porter skiplane in New Zealand - landing on a glacier while in the jump-seat / co-pilot seat was exceptionally cool. As was the overt smell of (IIRC) jet fuel which was busy making half the plane nauseous!
...also remember something almost as small and rattly in Africa.
...and a trial flying lesson in a low-wing 2-seat Italian something which very coolly had a stick not a yoke.
havoc said:
I've flown on a turboprop scheduled flight to Glasgow - Dash-8 I think.
Something similar between Cambodia and Bangkok.
I've flown on a twin-prop seaplane from Male to Vilhamendoo in the Maldives - couldn't tell you what it was.
Also a Turbo-Porter skiplane in New Zealand - landing on a glacier while in the jump-seat / co-pilot seat was exceptionally cool. As was the overt smell of (IIRC) jet fuel which was busy making half the plane nauseous!
...also remember something almost as small and rattly in Africa.
...and a trial flying lesson in a low-wing 2-seat Italian something which very coolly had a stick not a yoke.
Air Maldives have twin otters and a ton of tanned Canadian pilots in flip flopsSomething similar between Cambodia and Bangkok.
I've flown on a twin-prop seaplane from Male to Vilhamendoo in the Maldives - couldn't tell you what it was.
Also a Turbo-Porter skiplane in New Zealand - landing on a glacier while in the jump-seat / co-pilot seat was exceptionally cool. As was the overt smell of (IIRC) jet fuel which was busy making half the plane nauseous!
...also remember something almost as small and rattly in Africa.
...and a trial flying lesson in a low-wing 2-seat Italian something which very coolly had a stick not a yoke.
..............rallye101 said:
Jesus, remember trying to get in there....always blowing a gale and on instruments till last second via NDB.....I was always miles off the runway....I've always hated NDB approaches
Every flight was an adventure! My worst prop flight was from a private airstrip in Las Vegas, flying to the airport in the Grand Canyon. I had refused to go via helicopter, little did I realize how the thermals would affect a small 16 seat prop plane. Horrible. darreni said:
My worst prop flight was from a private airstrip in Las Vegas, flying to the airport in the Grand Canyon. I had refused to go via helicopter, little did I realize how the thermals would affect a small 16 seat prop plane. Horrible.
You want to try it in a smaller 6-seat Cessna 
I used to fly East Midlands to Edinburgh a *lot.*
The planes on that route were (are?) Dash 8s.
All was fine, unless I got the seat directly opposite the propellors. The one with the reinforcement armour plate on fuselage. You know, just in case.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/wcnech/...
The planes on that route were (are?) Dash 8s.
All was fine, unless I got the seat directly opposite the propellors. The one with the reinforcement armour plate on fuselage. You know, just in case.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/wcnech/...
A lot of FlyBe in and out of Aberdeen… rather smoother than the Wideroo props to Bergen and Stavager, which could get pretty bouncy… An interesting one from Joburg to Maputo - that was quite a rattly can.
Much more pleasant, if a lot noisier, are the resort shuttles from Male, driven by the pilots after kicking off their flipflops.
Much more pleasant, if a lot noisier, are the resort shuttles from Male, driven by the pilots after kicking off their flipflops.
Dakota, Viscount and Vanguard when I was a kid.
Used to fly from Manchester to IOM on a Shorts 330 or 360??
Guernsey from Southampton Flybe Dash 8.
Last prop flight was 2020 to Amsterdam from Southampton just before Flybe went bust. Had an aborted takeoff and had to change planes.
Very windy at Amsterdam and plane was getting blown all over the place. Quite a few people throwing up!
Used to fly from Manchester to IOM on a Shorts 330 or 360??
Guernsey from Southampton Flybe Dash 8.
Last prop flight was 2020 to Amsterdam from Southampton just before Flybe went bust. Had an aborted takeoff and had to change planes.
Very windy at Amsterdam and plane was getting blown all over the place. Quite a few people throwing up!
aeropilot said:
That's because the Clerget 14F is a diesel radial engine.
It is indeed not a rotary.
Let down by Wiki - again.It is indeed not a rotary.
I Googled rotary engines and that was the first picture that came up.
Clerget and Le Rhone provided most rotaries in WW1 - and many were built by others under licence (or not under licence in some cases) by other manufacturers such as Bently and Oberursel.
They had oulived their practicality by the end of WW1 as rotaries delivering 200hp plus create undesirable gyroscopic effects.
aeropilot said:
You want to try it in a smaller 6-seat Cessna
Christ, no thanks. The flight out to the Canyon was bad enough, but coming back my wife had to push me back onto the plane. Once we were about to taxi, the pilot said "its going to be really rough on the way back" My heart sank, my heart rate doubled.I once flew from Glasgow to Southampton on an ATR 72 during a bad storm. The ATR's seem to fly at an altitude that ensures you get the worst battering possible, rather than fly above the weather. I put my earbuds in & played The Who - Live at Leeds at max volume to drown out the screams of the other passengers. Never again.
I've only been in 2 prop planes and 3 helicopters.
First plane was a DH Sea Heron RN plane on a trip to Edinburgh and back from Yeovilton.
Other plane was a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, without a door or seats. I sat on the floor and jumped out at 3000 feet.
Helicopter 1 - A hovering RN Wessex, that I was winched up 70 feet into.
Helicopter 2 - I think it was a Sikorsky S-61N Sea King, for a flight from Penzance to the Scilly Isles and back.
Helicopter 3 - Robinson R44 Astro - at a track day event for a quick buzz around Elvington.
First plane was a DH Sea Heron RN plane on a trip to Edinburgh and back from Yeovilton.
Other plane was a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, without a door or seats. I sat on the floor and jumped out at 3000 feet.
Helicopter 1 - A hovering RN Wessex, that I was winched up 70 feet into.
Helicopter 2 - I think it was a Sikorsky S-61N Sea King, for a flight from Penzance to the Scilly Isles and back.
Helicopter 3 - Robinson R44 Astro - at a track day event for a quick buzz around Elvington.
king shat myself for pretty much the entire flight Rusty Old-Banger said:
Taken off in loads. Never landed in one though. Always jumped out before that part!
My first two flights were in a prop aircraft and I jumped out of both of them. Second time I nearly landed in a tree and decided I'd scratched that particular itch.Best propellor flight:
Plenty...Chipmunk, C150, C152, C172, PA-28 Beagle Pup, Dash 7, Dash 8, Twin Otter, ATR72. Favourite was the Brymon Airways Dash 7 from Heathrow to Newquay a very very long time ago, I was a young lad and my Dad (who was LHR senior ground staff) wangled it for me to be in the jump seat the whole way. Super cool.
Current fave is the C152, as I'm learning to fly it at the moment, and I'm at that really exciting part of my training where after the main bit of the lesson the instuctor keeps getting out and leaving me to fly a few circuits solo. I'll be going cross country soon which is apparently even more exciting than those first solos.
On the jets v props thing, the funny thing is a modern high-bypass turbofan engine is delivering 90 odd percent of it's thrust from the fan rather than the "hot" part of the engine, so they are basically prop planes anyway now!
Current fave is the C152, as I'm learning to fly it at the moment, and I'm at that really exciting part of my training where after the main bit of the lesson the instuctor keeps getting out and leaving me to fly a few circuits solo. I'll be going cross country soon which is apparently even more exciting than those first solos.
On the jets v props thing, the funny thing is a modern high-bypass turbofan engine is delivering 90 odd percent of it's thrust from the fan rather than the "hot" part of the engine, so they are basically prop planes anyway now!
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