Any Britten Norman Islander Driver out there?

swisspilot

swisspilot

Well-Known Member
Well, I sent some resumes around and got two positive feedbacks, I`m looking to drop everything I`m doing now that is not taking me anywhere, getting a temp job (easy here in Brazil) and wait for this two places to have the opening for me.

One company is operating Islanders, and I wanna know more about flying them, they want 25 hours on it, but they seem to be willing to train me,..

just looking to get some tips and tricks, anybody?

I will be flying to short and unimproved runways most of the time

thanks for the help
 
I flew one in Kodiak about 3 years ago. Its a badass airplane. I only flew maybe 7 or 8 hrs in it, not enough to get proficient, the only thing that sticks with me is whatever you do, don't fly it super fast (ie above Va) in any bumps at all, the tail isn't held on by much. Oh, and that you'll spend most of your time syncing and rescyncing the props, ours had steel cables that would flex and contract. Talk to HernandezCFI on here, I think he flew em' for a living for a few years.
 
I've got a few hours in a Trilander. Cool airplane. Fun to fly. Kind of a pig though and everybody looks at you weird with that big engine hanging out in the back.
 
I have about 700 hours in the Islander. I used to work for a company that flew them out to the Lake Erie Islands.
The BN2A-20, ours had the 300hp IO-540's. I do know they made versions with 260hp. Ours would get up and go. Great STOL a/c, hauls anything. Not very fast though. Cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Flys like a truck and it's a handful during landing with a stiff crosswind. Not very responsive. I believe the max. demonstrated x-wind component is 30knts. Single-engine operation no sweat, although it could get dicey with a big load. VMC is 39knts, stalls in the 40's.
All in all, very cool airplane to fly.
 
kls1981 said:
I have about 700 hours in the Islander. I used to work for a company that flew them out to the Lake Erie Islands.
The BN2A-20, ours had the 300hp IO-540's. I do know they made versions with 260hp. Ours would get up and go. Great STOL a/c, hauls anything. Not very fast though. Cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Flys like a truck and it's a handful during landing with a stiff crosswind. Not very responsive. I believe the max. demonstrated x-wind component is 30knts. Single-engine operation no sweat, although it could get dicey with a big load. VMC is 39knts, stalls in the 40's.
All in all, very cool airplane to fly.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
I'm currently flying an Islander in the Torres Straits. I have about 80 hours on it so far. The main thing I can tell you is 65kts and that's about it:-) But seriously it's a fantastic work horse and it's amazing what it's capable of. The only draw back is that it's very loud, would recommend good ANR headset, and the props are difficult to keep in sinc. Also is a very forgiving airplane to fly, very slow and pretty simple in it's design. If there was an award for making the most idiot proof airplane, Britten Norman would have the blue ribbon hands down.
 
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