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sundevil777

Twin Otter production restarted!

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Is a super otter the same plane?



A Super-Whatever is usually an after market upgrade of a stock-Whatever which gives it more powerful engines.

Super Otters usually have the stock 550HP PT6A-20 or 680HP PT6A-27 engines replaced with 750HP PT6A-34 motors.


Thank you, that is what I thought, but it wouldn't have been the first time my assumptions were wrong. :D

Skydive Orange, in Orange, VA had a real nice tw'otter that I jumped out of this Jan. I don't know if they lease it from some one else though. :)
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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EMERALD COAST - AL
MONTEREY BAY - CA
Chicagoland Skydiving Center - IL (possibly *2)
Deland Fl
Mile High - CO

N321CY is in NH and is registered to JumpRun so its a jump plane but not sure what DZ.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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321CY is at Skydive New England in Maine.

We had a gorgeous super otter in CT until the end of 2005... FAA registration shows it's been exported to maldives (an island nation in the indian ocean), presumably back into airline service. Maldives seems to be the twin otter capitol of the world:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1007956/L/, http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1052886/L/.

Dave

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We had a gorgeous super otter in CT until the end of 2005... FAA registration shows it's been exported to maldives (an island nation in the indian ocean), presumably back into airline service.



Picton (Sydney Skydivers) -200 series Otter has had the seats put back in and is being sold back into airline service. With a Turbine Beaver (10pax), 750XL (16-17pax), and a Skyvan (21pax), it just didn't seem to get used all that much. Pity, as it was the only skydiving Otter in Australia.

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Wildgruber Air Service : 1 D-IDHC
Air America : 1 D-IDHB
this one has the best immatriculation ever D-IVER
Other German : D-ISKY www.airliners.net/open.file/0414971/M/
Gap (France) : 1 F-GHRK
Finland : OH-SLK
Sweden : SE-GEE

3 of the european Twotters in Empuria www.airliners.net/open.file/0757516/M/

edited to change Norway to Finland.. Damm Scandinavians...
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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SkydiveAZ (eloy, AZ)- 3
Jumptown (orange, MA) - 1
Raeford (raeford, NC) - 1
Cross Keys (cross keys, NJ) - 1
CSS (louisburg, NC) - 4
Skydive Dallas (Whitewright, TX) - 2
Skydive Spaceland (Rosharon, TX) - 1
Skydive Chicago (IL) - 2
Skydive Tecumseh (Michigan) - 1
Freefall Express (Ny, Fla) - 4
Perris (Ca) - 3
'snore (Ca) - 2
Taft (Ca) - 1
Lodi (Ca) - 1
Mile Hi (CO) - 1
Kapowsin Air Sports (WA) - 1
Empuriabrava (Spain) - 1



Thats 30.

SkydiveAZ (eloy, AZ)- 3
orange, MA) - 1
Raeford (raeford, NC) - 1
Cross Keys (cross keys, NJ) - 1
CSS (louisburg, NC) - 4
Skydive Dallas (Whitewright, TX) - 2
Skydive Spaceland (Rosharon, TX) - 2
Skydive Chicago (IL) - 2
Skydive Tecumseh (Michigan) - 1
Freefall Express (Ny, Fla) - 4
Perris (Ca) - 3
'snore (Ca) - 2
Taft (Ca) - 1
Lodi (Ca) - 1
Mile Hi (CO) - 1
Kapowsin Air Sports (WA) - 1
Empuriabrava (Spain) - 1
Skydive Houston, (Waller, TX) - 1

I saw 2 in the hangar at SPX last Friday :)
Russell M. Webb D 7014
Attorney at Law
713 385 5676
https://www.tdcparole.com

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Viking Air will be making more of them. Hopefully this will put a slight downward pressure on the price of used twotters and their spare parts:

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=a71d8a20-6844-4a2c-8d03-79b39b9ff3c6&

The article mentions that PT6A-35 engines with 4 bladed props will be available. Has that been available before?




So....

When they remade the VW bug - it was a whole new car...

The question is - are they taking the previous drawings and building an exact replica - or are they going component by component and redesigning...

The reason I ask....

Our DZO mentioned he had to pay well over $1000 for a hinge.

If they copy down to the hole placement of screws, the hinge for a 1960's built otter will be the same as a new one - and thus the parts will be less expensive...

Or, could the new company go to a catalog of currently available hinges and say, "this one is rated the same, lets redesign around this?"

Then, parts would not be useful for older planes.

Honestly I know nothing about this subject - but my gut tells me that the new otter will look the same as the old one, but be built with lighter, newer, currently available parts....

Agree or disagree?

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does the otter have a life cycle like the skyvans or is it different, i was told a sky van is grounded after 50,000 take offs and landings.
light travels faster than sound, that's why some people appear to be bright until you hear them speak

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Some parts on the Otters are rated for cycle replacement. The legs and wings ar the major parts that have to be repalced from time to time. It was finding spare wings to replace on Otters used to be a small issue.

Viking bought the drawings and more importantly the type spec. They can not radically redesign it or else they would have to certify the new design again. Small change are possible but the core is not going to change. Almost every part on a plane is custom designed and there isn't a catalog you can go to and say "I want that wing strut, that windscreen and that rudder control cable" There are some things like O2 systems, engines, props, electronics, etc that are ordered but the vast number of the parts are custom per plane design. It costs far too much to redesign everything unless there are large cost savings in the backend.

That $1000 hinge probaly had $50-100 built in for legal expences along the way. B|

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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When they remade the VW bug - it was a whole new car...



Well, they took the Golf platform and put a funny-shaped body on it. Cars aren't regulated nearly as much as aircraft are - there are many minimum standards that have to be met for crash safety, emissions, etc but beyond that the automakers have a lot more latitude than aircraft builders do. Relatively speaking, it's easy for an automaker to put different sheet metal on the back of a sedan to make a wagon, or to build a tall body to turn a car into an SUV, or to put on a different grille and install a fancier stereo to make a Chevy into a Cadillac. In the aircraft world, those kind of modifications would probably take a _long_ time and lots of dollars to get recertified.

Another thing the car people have is volume. Toyota sold 242,675 cars and trucks in the United States in March 2007. If they keep that up all year it would be easy for them to top two million sold - if for 2007 they had to redesign some widget that's common to all of their cars, and that cost them a million bucks, that's fifty cents or less a car. There are over 240 million cars and light trucks in the US.

The Viking press release cited a study that had a demand of 400 new Twin Otters over 10 years. If redesigning some widget for 2007 on the Otter costs a million bucks, that's $25,000 a plane. There are about 350,000 N-registered aircraft in the US. (That's everything from Piper Cubs, up through 182s, Otters, Skyvans, all the way to 777s.)

So... the incentives for Viking are high to re-use as much of the existing engineering that they can. If I had to guess, I'd say they spent most of their time and money either proving that the existing engine mounts and airframe could handle the more powerful engines, and/or redesigning those parts to suit, and left most of the rest of the airframe the same.

Note that when Cessna (who I suspect has a lot more re$ource$ than Viking) decided to start making "small" airplanes again, they re-used most of the existing 182 design. I'm sure there are parts off of an '07 182 that won't fit on the '59 182 at the DZ, but a lot of them probably will.

So I pretty much agree with what PhreeZone said, except for the part about the hinge. I'd guess that that $1000 hinge had more like $300 in lawyer food built into the price... :/

Eule
PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

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$3.2M empty, green, no paint, no instruments, no nothing. i expect $3.5-$3.8 by the time it gets on your flightline.....

Attached all the stuff I got from Viking yesterday.

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Dear Sir,



Thank you for contacting Viking Air regarding the DHC-6 Aircraft.



Viking announced on Tuesday that the DHC-6 Twin Otter is officially back in production. Attached is a copy of the press release.



The "400 Series" Twin Otter will be almost identical to the 300S but will utilize “today’s” technology. The major upgrades will be in the power plants which will be upgraded to the Pratt and Whitney PT6A-34 engine, with the option for the PT6A-35 engines; a great option for operators in hot climates. Another major upgrade will be the use of composite materials in non-flight critical and structural areas in order to reduce the empty weight and increase the useful load.



The current price on the aircraft is $3.295M USD (April 2007 economy) for a standard green aircraft; paint, avionics and options/modifications will be extra. The first aircraft is set to be delivered 18-24 months after production re-start (1st quarter 2009), we are currently have deposit for aircraft through 2011.



We have a complete commercial terms package that details the standard and optional specifications and also includes the deposit agreement, sample weight and balance and brochures. If you are interested in receiving this package I have attached a brief questionnaire that we require completed before the package is emailed or couriered to you. If you can please complete the questionnaire and email/fax it back to me I would be pleased to send this package to you. If you can also please indicate if you would like the package emailed or a hard copy courier to you, that would be great. I will also include the operating costs in the package.



If you have any questions or require further information please do not hesitate to contact me.



Thank you for your interest in the DHC-6 aircraft.



Sincerely,



Beth Shrieves

Contracts Administrator

Aircraft Sales and Leasing

Viking Air Limited www.vikingair.com

Tel: (250) 656-7227 X289

Fax: (250) 656-0673



TK

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