Dornier Seastar

[1000 HP]

I love the looks of the thing. I don't see a problem with docks. Most dedicated runs have ramps for these babies. Land on the water, drop your wheels, and taxi up on shore. Keyamawun (spelled wrong no doubt) used to have a 1939 Goose RCZ and it ran from Winnipeg to Deer Lake. Landed on the water and pulled up on shore. No problem, and doesn't sink at night while everybody is sleeping the beer off. Although it is not perfect perhaps if it took off a larger version would follow. That's normally how it works.

As far as market, Canada isn't even in the running. We have a population density of 3.3 people per kilometer while Indonesia has 18,000 islands and a population density of 128 per square kilometer. In countries like that, airplanes run full and frequently

[kevinsky18]

Indonesian government owned "PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines" to buy 20 Dornier seaplanes.

This is BS if you ask me but here's a link to the full Reuters article.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/ ... 1620121009

And the full text below for those that can't be bothered to follow the link.

The seaplane taxiing over a coral reef to deliver tourists to a remote luxury resort may soon become a more familiar sight in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and only 183 airports.

At the moment, seaplanes in Indonesia are limited to niche charter flights for high-end tourism and mining, but their use could spread to serve the needs of a fast-growing economy and to beat the lack of transport infrastructure.

State-owned domestic carrier PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines aims to start the first scheduled public seaplane services in the country since the Dutch colonial period, when seaplanes regularly hopped across the main island Java. It is in talks with Canada-based planemaker Dornier to buy 20 seaplanes in a $120 million deal.

"There is no way infrastructure development can fully service Indonesians ... We're talking about a lot of islands that have no airports but need government attention. The only logical way is using amphibious planes," said Rudy Setyopurnomo, Merpati's CEO.

Seaplanes ferry passengers from Bali's airport east to the Moyo island hideaway, where Oliver Stone filmed 'Savages' earlier this year, in about an hour - less than half the time it would take on a helicopter.

The planes splash to a gentle landing on turquoise water and jettison excited passengers right onto the resort's jetty.

"That was amazing - even smoother than a normal landing. And so convenient - much more comfortable than a helicopter," said Anna, a tourist from Moscow, as she fed bread to the parrotfish swimming under the seaplane's tail. "It will make a lot of places more accessible. A jumbo jet can't do a water landing."

Operator Travira Air also runs seaplanes from Bali and Lombok for staff at Newmont Mining Corp's (NEM.N) massive copper and gold mine on nearby Sumbawa island, saving executives a four hour journey to the airport and cutting costs for the company.

Renting the plane for 100 hours flying time a month costs around $140,000, versus over $200,000 for a helicopter carrying less people, Travira says.

Seaplanes symbolised the romanticism of early flight but were killed off by the jet age as regular scheduled transport. The prospect of a renaissance in Asia reflects not only the unique geography of places like Indonesia but also the sheer pace of Asia's growth in demand for planes.

Indonesia's government aims to finance 15 new airports in 2013, but is also relying on attracting billions in private financing for infrastructure. Progress so far has been slow, leaving Merpati looking at a solution not requiring runways - the 20 seaplanes.

"We're going to buy them now. We expect next year to be the first delivery," said Setyopurnomo, adding the planes could be built locally under a partnership with local planemaker PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

LIKE A BOAT

The Dornier Seastar planes, with turboprop engines made by United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) unit Pratt & Whitney, look like flying speedboats. They carry around 12 passengers and fly faster than the eight-seater Cessna Caravan Amphibian that Travira uses.

"It is the first new seaplane developed in the past 50 years ... It can park anywhere you can tie a boat up," said Don McClaughlin, Dornier's vice-president for sales. "Our two biggest target markets right now are Indonesia and China."

Dornier and Cessna Aircraft Co, a subsidiary of Textron Inc (TXT.N), face seaplane competition from Canadian firm Viking Air's 19-seater Twin Otter.

In China, Waterfront Air says it is applying for licenses to use Twin Otters for scheduled services between Shenzen, Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou's industrial Pearl River region.

Elsewhere seaplanes are common in remote locations such as the Maldives, British Columbia and Alaska, but there are few scheduled services.

The Dornier and Cessna seaplanes have a maximum range of over 1,500 km (930 miles), just about enough to fly from Indonesia's capital Jakarta with one refuelling stop to the easternmost Papua region. But the cargo they can carry drops after about 300 km, making them more suitable for inter-island hops or operations around a base in far flung provinces.

Other challenges include a lack of specialist pilots, since locals often get poached by rapidly expanding budget carriers, regulations such as the need for annual landing permits, and larger waves in the rainy season making landing impossible in some locations, said Rudiana, Travira's chief operating officer.

"If we can get over these challenges there are a lot of opportunities," said Rudiana. He cited potential demand in areas such as the huge Natuna gas field off Borneo that ExxonMobil (XOM.N) hopes to develop, tourism around islands such as Sumatra and Sulawesi, and for firms in Papua, home to major projects for Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX.N) and BP (BP.L).

The Twin Otter would be useful as it can carry a higher payload much further, but charter airline Aviastar has struggled to get an operating license for one in Indonesia, known for its red tape.

"We could use a bigger plane - flights are packed on a Saturday as everyone wants to head off for the weekend," said Peter Ferrigno, the logistics manager for Newmont's mine. (Additional reporting by Alison Leung in Hong Kong and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

[GUMPS]

"Elsewhere seaplanes are common in remote locations such as the Maldives, British Columbia and Alaska, but there are few scheduled services."

[Castorero]

Once in a while you look at a photo and see something completely different, like the above pic for instance.

I just can't shake the imagery of a dragonfly performing an indecent act on a hapless duck.

Yes, I know, time to go back on medication.

I don't see a market for this contraption anywhere. It looks to me like somebody is promoting this venture with somebody else's money, and sooner or later reality will bite.

With the attached price tag, there are perfectly good machines already in production with proven technology performance and support, like the 415 for a flying boat, and the OtterOtter on amphibs.

If one wanted to resurrect some proven older type, then what about the Mallard, Goose or even the PBY if the target market were moving the masses in Asia?

Trying to reinvent the wheel rather than improving it always seemed like a waste of time to me...

Back to the cereal...

[ragbagflyer]

Moose, fuel, drums... Come mid October I've had enough of dead things, diesel, and steel to last me until at least the New Year. Sheet of plywood? That's for the carpenters to worry about. Docking? Get a dockhand, FO or a ramp; they must be easier to build closer to the equator where the tide fluctuation is less. I'm with those that see this as a winter job somewhere warm. I quite like the lines of it. Hell, I'd even take half of my usual wage to do a rotation flying it

[trey kule]

Hell, I'd even take half of my usual wage to do a rotation flying it

.
Way to lower the bar. If you are now willing to work for $4.00 an hour why not consider one of the new LCC startups? Leave the big buck jobs to the rest of us.

[esp803]

Way to lower the bar.

That really depends. If I made a million bucks a year (and i'm not saying RBF does), and someone offered me 500k to spend half my winter (rotation) somewhere tropical, I'd be on it like white on rice... I realize I don't make a million a year but there is a certain point (much lower then a million a year) where you can still live very comfortably, and if you can escape the winter... Just my thoughts. I guess I'm saying it depends what half your going rate is for the lifestyle you want. It's not lowering the bar in my books if you take a paycut for a vastly superior lifestyle...

E

[shimmydampner]

I guess I just committed the Canadian sacrilege -- never was a fan of any DHC product

AHH! HE'S A WITCH!

[trey kule]

It's not lowering the bar in my books if you take a paycut for a vastly superior lifestyle...

Is not having good reading comprehension skills lowering the bar? Or is the humour to subtle?
Read my whole post...If $4.00 is 1/2 the normal hourly wage, what is the hourly wage? That is the 'big bucks' I was referring to.

As to the poster not liking DHC products..Either a DHC virgin or they are just pulling your chain.

[hangar3]

I guess I just committed the Canadian sacrilege -- never was a fan of any DHC product

AHH! HE'S A WITCH!

Burn him!

[ragbagflyer]

Is not having good reading comprehension skills lowering the bar? Or is the humour to subtle?
Read my whole post...If $4.00 is 1/2 the normal hourly wage, what is the hourly wage? That is the 'big bucks' I was referring to.

Not to brag, but I just got a raise to $12 per hour.

[esp803]

Or is the humour to subtle?

Haha it was indeed to subtle for my simple mind, someday I too hope to be at 8/hr.... 12/hr that's just crazy talk.

E

[SheriffPatGarrett]

Oh! Well, the Dornier is dead, long live the Frakes Mallard:


http://www.mallardaircraft.com/

ScreenHunter_250 Jun. 11 00.06.jpg (109.25 KiB) Viewed 3180 times

[SheriffPatGarrett]

The TC that Frakes bought from Grumman was for a piston engined plane...the Turbine was a Frakes' mod.
A new piston driven Mallard would be lovely...(tried to fly the turbo once with the same fuel flow
and fell off the sky in five minutes!)



The Mallard owners' nightmare:
http://theflyingboatforum.forumlaunch.n ... m.php?f=34
What they dont mention is that the fuel tank sealing was for gasoline...turbine fuel
melt the sealant and caused recurring leaks...the leaks were sealed by adding sealant which masked
corrosion and cracks, thus the Chalk's crash.

[rigpiggy]

I thought the Chalk crash was caused by a bad repair where somebody drilled the spar

[SheriffPatGarrett]

The wing in question:


Wiki:

The cause of the accident was a fatigue failure in the right wing initiated by a crack in a span-wise stringer close to the wing root. The crack had been detected running through a slosh hole (an aperture in the wall of the stringer that allows fuel to flow from one side of the stringer to the other) and seemingly repaired earlier, but the repair was eventually to prove ineffective.

The Mallard was designed in the 1940s with a so-called 'wet wing' where the fuel tanks, instead of being separate items within the wing, are constructed from sealed-off portions of the wing structure itself. This eliminates the additional weight of the tanks and also allows more fuel to be contained within a given wing size. The drawback of this form of construction is that all the joints around the tank seams have to be sealed, so as to make a fuel-tight tank. In addition, as the wing flexes to some extent during flight, the movement has a tendency over extended periods of time to open seams leading to fuel leaks. Grumman, the manufacturer, had issued warnings as early as 1963 about fuel leaks from the Mallard's wing being indicative of possible structural problems, however for unknown reasons the airline did not consider this particularly relevant to its own aircraft.

I smelled something rancid in mine at the lake...opened the electrical comp door by the gear and found fuel cascading over the relays...
Flew home with the generators and battery off. Lost track of the plane after as I went on different projects, but it was sold(given away) and Frakes rebuilt the wing with more compatible sealants...(I hope) Saw it for sale fifteen years later in the Caribbeans, with all new radios, radar and instruments(I had WW II steam gauges n radios.)

The Irony here is that the Dornier's management was the same personnel as that of the Adam aircraft(which had zero payload with one pilot on board)
and that of Chalk...no shit!