US / Russia prisoner swap

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

17 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

Back in 1977, I did mu first skydive from a straight-tailed Cessna 182 airplane that was built the same year as me: 1957. Last month I did a few jumps from its brother. I am now 67 years old.

Similarly, World War 2 surplus Beech 182 and Douglas DC-3s hauled skydivers until they wore out during the 199s, meaning that they were 50 years old by the time they retired.

Basler Turbine Conversions is still making BT-67s.

The basic airframe is approaching NINETY years old.

Note: the conversion process is very involved, everything is inspected and a LOT stuff replaced.

https://www.baslerturbo.com/

Edited August 5, 2024 by wolfriverjoe

[ryoder 1,590]

5 minutes ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Basler Turbine Conversions is still making BT-67s.

The basic airframe is approaching NINETY years old.

Note: the conversion process is very involved, everything is inspected and a LOT stuff replaced.

https://www.baslerturbo.com/

Damn! That's not your grandfathers instrument panel!

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

1 hour ago, ryoder said:

Damn! That's not your grandfathers instrument panel!

No. Except for most of the airframe (some gets replaced), it's a 'new' aircraft.

I was taking flight training out of Basler in the mid to late 80s when Warren decided this would be a good idea. It was pretty amazing watching them figure out how to do it.
They had a couple absolute wizards at DC-3s in the shop.
Basler flew piston DC-3s as a cargo hauler for quite a while before going into the conversions.

They also did a turbine Twin Beech, including replacing the entire tail section with a single, straight tail. Unfortunately, the prototype crashed down in Florida not long after completion and the project never went any further. My (limited) understanding was that they weren't done with the certification process, and building another one without the certification (and a guaranteed ability to sell it) was going to cost too much.

[riggerrob 643]

1 hour ago, wolfriverjoe said:

No. Except for most of the airframe (some gets replaced), it's a 'new' aircraft.

I was taking flight training out of Basler in the mid to late 80s when Warren decided this would be a good idea. It was pretty amazing watching them figure out how to do it.
They had a couple absolute wizards at DC-3s in the shop.
Basler flew piston DC-3s as a cargo hauler for quite a while before going into the conversions.

They also did a turbine Twin Beech, including replacing the entire tail section with a single, straight tail. Unfortunately, the prototype crashed down in Florida not long after completion and the project never went any further. My (limited) understanding was that they weren't done with the certification process, and building another one without the certification (and a guaranteed ability to sell it) was going to cost too much.

Westwind converted several Beech 182 to single fins. I think that they just rotated an old horizontal stabilizer 90 degrees and bolted it to the top of the aft fuselage. The last time I saw a single-tailed Beech 18 was behind the museum at Victoria International Airport, B.C. Canada. It also had a pair of P&WC PT6A turboprop engines ... the same engines as King Airs.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

2 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

Westwind converted several Beech 182 to single fins. I think that they just rotated an old horizontal stabilizer 90 degrees and bolted it to the top of the aft fuselage. The last time I saw a single-tailed Beech 18 was behind the museum at Victoria International Airport, B.C. Canada. It also had a pair of P&WC PT6A turboprop engines ... the same engines as King Airs.

I know Westwind made turbine Twin Beech conversions. I wasn't aware of single tail conversions.
Basler completely replaced the tail. It was pretty big (had to be to have the control authority for single engine operations).

Doing a bit of digging, I'm finding Westwind did single tails, a Volpar conversion that was a single tail, and a couple others.
No sign of the Basler version, which isn't surprising considering they made only one and it was only around for a few months before it crashed.