Ferry flight or assemble on site? Falkland Islands BN-2's

[HighBypass 2,339]

Having purchased the excellent (from an armchair pilot's view anyway!) Virtavia/Flight1 BN-2 Islander for FSX:SE I set about looking at what was available by way of repaints etc. (Any FDEs for the piston-engined ones? although reviews seem to say it's pretty realistic...)

I found out that the FIGAS (Falkland Islands Govt. Aviation) Service - nice red and blue scheme by the way - has got 5 Islanders and should have 6 this year (2020)

http://britten-norman.com/1117bnpr/

Seeing as the Falklands are rather remote, and the Islander "only" has about  a 1400km range, how are the aircraft delivered? Ferried to North America, then South America then flown over from Argentina? Or are they crated into a C-5 Galaxy, or MD-11  and dropped in to RAF Mount Pleasant to be re-assembled?

My google-fu has failed to find such information..  Cheers!

[goates 582]

My guess would be a ferry flight through North and South America with extra fuel tanks added. This is how Kenn Borek gets Twin Otters to Antarctica, for example.

[vc10man 732]

1 hour ago, HighBypass said:

Having purchased the excellent (from an armchair pilot's view anyway!) Virtavia/Flight1 BN-2 Islander for FSX:SE I set about looking at what was available by way of repaints etc. (Any FDEs for the piston-engined ones? although reviews seem to say it's pretty realistic...)

I found out that the FIGAS (Falkland Islands Govt. Aviation) Service - nice red and blue scheme by the way - has got 5 Islanders and should have 6 this year (2020)

http://britten-norman.com/1117bnpr/

Seeing as the Falklands are rather remote, and the Islander "only" has about  a 1400km range, how are the aircraft delivered? Ferried to North America, then South America then flown over from Argentina? Or are they crated into a C-5 Galaxy, or MD-11  and dropped in to RAF Mount Pleasant to be re-assembled?

My google-fu has failed to find such information..  Cheers!

Great post, great link and last but one question intrigues me too.

[HighBypass 2,339]

I'm now trying to find decent scenery of both SFAL (Stanley airport) and EGYP (RAF Mount Pleasant). EGYP looks reasonable thanks to an entry in the AVSIM library, but an updated Stanley AFCAD only gave up an apron and a cross-runway.

Wasn't there some payware sceneries for the Falklands, or were they for FS9? No luck searching for Malvinas either.

I'm thinking of gashing together a ferry flight route just by drawing 1400km radius circles on google maps etc. in lieu of finding an actual delivery route. (I don't want to fudge the aircraft. cfg file to carry extra fuel as I don't know if the Islanders would be so configured anyway.)

[Mace 1,964]

If you're not using ferry tanks, fly it down to SAWD Puerto Deseado airport.  Then it's only about 400 mi trip over water out to the islands.

[scianoir 610]

On 1/10/2020 at 10:45 PM, HighBypass said:

Having purchased the excellent (from an armchair pilot's view anyway!) Virtavia/Flight1 BN-2 Islander for FSX:SE I set about looking at what was available by way of repaints etc. (Any FDEs for the piston-engined ones? although reviews seem to say it's pretty realistic...)

I agree this is a great simulation of this wonderful aircraft and one of my favourite GA types to fly. I have added the Synchrosoft BN-2 sound set which increases the sense of immersion with a good replication of the great throaty roar of the engines on take off. There is also a freeware damage modification available for the BN-2 which incorporates a variety of failures of various systems in response to mishandling the aircraft, but, although I have downloaded this, I have to admit I haven’t installed it yet so I can’t give any feedback on it. With regard to repaints, there is no shortage of them out there and I have around 50 different liveries installed (you might call me a BN-2 fan!).

In terms of delivering the Islanders, I know that many of the deliveries to North and South America passed through Shannon in the west of Ireland, where they were fitted with ferry tanks in the SRS hangar there. Our flying club aircraft were maintained at SRS and I got to chat the a few of the ferry pilots while hanging around there. From Shannon they generally made a multi stop trip to the US via Iceland, Greenland and then either Goose Bay or Gander depending on the weather. If I remember correctly they were all delivered to a US company called Jonas Aviation who had the sole distributor rights for the aircraft in North and South America. Often, when production was at its peak, 3 or 4 a week would pass through Shannon with most of them unpainted just wearing green primer. The occasional delivery however came through already painted which was always welcome as I was a keen aircraft photographer.

The Islander holds another memory for me in that I also managed to persuade my dad, who was not at all keen on the idea of flying and had never set foot in an aircraft, to have his first flight in an Islander of Northern Executive Aviation which was giving pleasure flights at an airshow. Although it was only a short flight, it was very noisy particularly on take off and I can still remember him sitting rigidly upright for the entire flight grasping the seat in front and looking neither left nor right! Perhaps in hindsight not the best choice of aircraft to introduce someone to the joys of airliner flying - needless to say it was his one and only flight!

Enjoy your purchase!

Bill

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by scianoir

[HighBypass 2,339]

Rhett - thanks for the info. (Another airport for me to look at!.. and I mean that in a good way, no sarcasm! )

Bill thanks for the wonderful insight.  Yes, not the best introduction to flying ever.  Mind you, I had my first ever flight in a plane via the Air Training Corps in a DHC-1 Chipmunk! I hardly needed any persuading (unlike your Dad) although I was bricking it trying to remember the bail out drill and parachute briefing.