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Vancouver Island in the Do 27


bernd1151

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Posted

We came in from Vancouver in one of my favourite planes, ye olde Dornier Do 27 to deliver some booze to our friends in Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, where my co and I planned to have a quiet afternoon playing a game of cards. Well, that didn't work out that way. My co had some sort of light food poisoning (very strange, because the big mac I gave him during the flight was only 2 weeks old) and while I was checking some instruments, I got a call from my friend Paul at Alert Bay, CYAL. He was desperate. His son was to be married this evening and the ship that was to bring their liquid supplies had developed engine trouble.

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I told him that I would love to help, but my little Dornier was no match to his supply ship. Never mind he said, you are close by, so bring anything that you can spare!!!!!!

Although the flight was short, I didn't want to make that trip alone, so I needed another co. No worries, my friends said and within minutes I had a young lad standing right next to me to hop onto my plane. Hmmmmh...we'll see.

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Take off was a breeze. At 45 knots we were airborne, but suddenly I realized that I had forgotten to close the cargo hatch properly. Stupid me. So I told my new co to swing around and grab that handle to close the hatch.

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And what did this imbecile do? He grabbed the emergency handle on top of the hatch instead and meshed it up. The result was that the hatch flew overboard with the boy holding on to it. Jesus Christ!!!! I had only time to yell: "Hold on to the hatch!!" Those things are difficult to come by these days, you know.

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Luckily the booze was firmly secured, but I soon noticed that I wasn't dressed for the occasion in my polo shirt. Sh...it's getting really cold in here out of a sudden!

Ok, so let's not fly too high and let's enjoy the countryside below

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I love the flight and the weather holds out fine, but I am freezing to death. Maybe I grab me some of the booze in the back, hehehe

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Ok, luckily, Alert Bay comes into sight. I guess I'll stay here overnight and join the party.

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Landing was a breeze. With a strong headwind, you can land the Do almost like a chopper :-)

As soon as the Do came to a halt, my friend Paul grabbed the four cases of booze and disappeared with them.

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Hold it, I shouted, I wanna be part of that party. After all, I brought you that stuff

Posted

She is a great little plane. She feels happy between 90 and 120 knots. But beware, she wants to be treated nicely, otherwise she gives you hell :-) Oh yes, she communicates with you. If you are about to stall in midair, her cockpit will start to shake violently. And if you don't follow proper starting procedures, her engine will start to smoke and stutter. Her cockpit starts to shake in a way, you think your monitor will fall of the table. And you better reduce prop rpm within 5 minutes after take off to below 3,200 rpm or you'd better look out for a landing spot. And then you'll need a mechanic to fix the engine again, otherwise you won't be able to start her again, hehehe.

Is she fun to fly? Hell yes!!

Posted

Great shots! I love the whole screenie/story thing. I often make up stories for my flights. kind of gives it a purpose!

Posted

Thanks for your kind comments, gents. I am glad that you liked this little sequence.

And Rick, you are right. I also like to add a bit of a story sometimes to my photos that I post. I remember, some 3 years ago in the good old days of VOZ I once posted a sequence with a Qantas Tu 144 Concordsky. At that time, and now we talk real life, Qantas was threatened to be taken over by some foreign financed investment groups and I created a story that some "rogue" Qantas pilots bought a Russian Tupolev at an abandoned Russian airstrip, flew her to Sydney and created such a fuss, that the investors decided against the take over. They didn't want to deal with crazy pilots like that, hehehe. Some of you guys liked the story so much that they asked me I have to do another one. The problem is, that kind of story, or at least the idea to it, has to come spontaneously, otherwise you realize that it does not really fit the pictures you plan to post. But it's fun.

Posted

Nice shots and story!

I keep coming back to the Do-27 and wonder if I should buy it, but since it isn't a native FSX aircraft but just a port of the FS9 version, 'm afraid the framerate will suffer quite a bit and there also are supposed to be texture transparency issues with SP2/Acceleration.

Posted

No worries Patrick, it's a native FSX SP 2 bird. DA took awhile before they released it again for FSX. I have the FS9 version and I bought her again a year ago for FSX and she has given me pleasure from day 1!! I have all sorts of scenery add-ons and the Do has never given me any frame rate issues. And btw, I am not associated at all with DA, hehehe. I'm in the pharmaceutical business. I just luuuve that bird

Posted

Yeah its not a full FSX bird I am afraid, but the small issues that it has (minor transparency issues with the windows) are relatively easily overcome, but the benefits of the fantastically immersive model far outweigh these, it's an oldie that I continually comeback to, particularly for the PNW.  ;)

Posted

However, technically speaking, it is an amazingly bad FSX conversion. For a relatively simple GA, it has serious FPS problems. You have to have a medium+ computer to run it properly. It will run decent with the newer computers, but just don't expect an older computer to be able to run it as well as other similar GA planes run.

Features = Great.

FSX implementation = Not so great.

Posted

Sorry mates, I didn't want to fool you here. I'm not a computer expert nor am I a techie, when it comes to airplanes for FSX. I just check, what plane works for me and the system I can afford to run (which is, as you can see, nothing really fancy). And I have to admit that when I bought the Do, i was under the impression and I read that in a German flight magazine at that time, that she has been completely redesigned for FSX.

Well, this doesn't seem to be the case, but funny thing is, she works for me on my medium sized computer and I love to fly her. 

So again, if I have given you any wrong impression here with my statements, I want to apologize for it. That was not intended

Posted

I have to say I was rather disappointed with the Do-27 when I got it, the hit on frames is quite noticable and I was not impress by having to find a fix for the opaque cockpit screen - my rear/side windows are still opaque now. I also find the Accusim-ish elements a little un-intuitive TBH. Overall I really don't spend much time flying this bird which is a shame, it's distinctive and has some nice features, but with such a hit on performance and other irritations I tend to fly my other aircraft in preference.  :-\

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