Turboprops – whose flown on one?

And what was it like?

Hahahahahahahahaha.

I last flew on one from Hull to Holland. Like being in a washing machine in terms of noise and vibration, though it didn’t make my clothes noticeably cleaner.

Much like any other plane tbh.

A viscount many years ago – no differnt as I remeber

over to Jersey and between the channel islands and france a few times back in the days of Dan Air.

Not that different to a jet, really. They tend to be smaller so you get more buffeting if it’s windy.

The only time I’ve ever been really scared was on one of these, twice in two days.

The first time was taking off from Jersey towards Guernsey when it dropped below the cliff level at the end of the runway shortly after takeoff when the wind dropped.

The other was flying from St Malo to Jersey the followign night when I was immediately behind the pilot watching him wrestle with the stick to try and keep it flying straight. I’d have offered to hold the co-pilots stick (I was that close) to help out but didn’t want to distract him. He was sweating a bit when we landed.

F50 from City recently. Love it!
Many times in a BN Islander or a Fat Albert. Fun!

Err, it’s just a plane. Flown on loads (Argosy, Viscount, F27 and others) and don’t recall any issues. Why do you ask?

A Hercules, bloody noisy, but not really a function of having turbo-props.

When the railway line between London and Manchester was regularly in bits, it became common to use them to fly down to meetings in the City.

Never found it very problematic TBH.

Fly on a Q300 quite regularly, great little aircraft.

Another Erm….

I’ve flown laods of times on Cessna’s. no problems what so ever..

Yep lucky/unlucky enough to have flown a Tucano

Regularly end up on a turbo going from LBA to Glasgow.

As said above civilian TP tend to be smaller hence ‘washing machine’ ‘buffeted’ comments above.

Used to fly on Fokker 50s regularly. Expect a lot of noise and pray for light winds. Also pray that the person in the adjacent seat isn’t too fat.

On the plus side I’m told they can land on a hankerchief in an emergency.

People die flying on turboprops 😈

noisyer and they don’t get an air mask popping down when they go wrong.. (as you shouldn’t need one)

regularly make use of Flybe’s Dash 8 Q400’s from Southampton

Of noise and boredom (people die)

A little Cessna many years ago. What was it like? Small, uncomfortable and a bit noisy.
Hercules are ace, I can remember getting up for a piss in the middle of the night at an ex-girlfriend’s house and looking at dozens of them on the tarmac and in hangars. AWESOME.

travelled paris-nantes on one in france, jumped out of one in cumbria, leaned out of the back of one in wiltshire. Kind of fun, passenger jet planes are a bit boring really aren’t they? Wouldn’t wanna do a long flight in a prop plane mind.

oh yeah the air france one was a bit rickety, I was sat at the back and we seemed to start on a side runway, halfway through take off we turned onto the main runway and I swear I could see the fuselage bend.

Yup, to and from Ireland earlier this year. Noisy.

Just curious as to whether it felt different due to buffeting etc

I’m not the best flyer

Takatakataka

A great view from the “Drop Officers” window

I’ve been on them a few times. I’m also not the best flier but I thought there was little difference other than them being a bit noisier.

Leeds-Bradford to Aberdeen & back c1997. Not noticeably more uncomfortable than a small jet TBH, but alarming when you hit turbulence when turning into the final approach. Never been so glad to touch down as that time

Just use ear defenders to cover your ‘non-specific, compressed audio’ player earphones and the trip will fly by 😉

Last time was a ATR72 between Penang and Phuket. Was fine, if noisy. Bigger worry was that my window seat was directly alongside the prop and wondering quite what the consequences of a blade failing would be…

yep, loads. they use them as puddle jumpers around the bahamas. Noiser? yep, I think it’s down to the props trying to beat the air into submission combined with the fact that many are high wing configuration so the noise is generated closer to the cabin and not shielded by the wing.

Watch out for the small ones, they often don’t have toilets on board. Taxiing from the ramp in Miami and I have an urge which develops into a desperate need for a poo. Was seriously thinking of chucking all the luggage out of the curtained baggage area and hiding in there with a carrier bag. Emerging before the other 15 passengers would not have been fun! Possibly the most unconfortable hour of my life. Ran like the wind to the terminal in Marsh Harbour when we landed for an experience that I assume to be similar to picolax 😯

Shetlands to Wick to Edinburgh with Loganair, slower than a week in the jail, even the birds were flying faster.
Bit worrying when the pilot comes out and serves lunch.

The drop off of the cliff on take off at Wick was a bit scary in a prop as well.

piston engined props def slower, noiser then turboprop..

apart from private stuff are there any commercial piston engine services in the UK?

Used to use one Southampton > Brussels regularly. Bit noisy, but I enjoyed it, felt like ‘proper’ flying.

Flown on a Fokker 50. Sounds different, obviously, but I don’t remember it being much noisier than yer standard jet.

We had VERY heavy winds flying into Reyjavik over the sea. Wings were all over the shop, real heart in mouth approach, pilot set it down beautifully though, very smooth. I reckon they get a bit of practice at that sort of thing up there!

I used to go from London City to Antwerp with VLM on a Fokker F50 (I think it was called).

Quite a nice plane, really. Bit noisier, perhaps but I like them.

Ah, the Trislander… A war canoe with wings.

Many is the time I have been crammed into the back of one of those on the way to or from Alderney, being blown around the sky, usually with some sort of cargo on my lap.

Them were the days.

A fair amount in the US and Canada. Big ones quite noisy, small ones fun when landing on gravel strips.

I do remember flying to Ireland in one a bit like Druidh shows, in 1964…

Best and most fun flights by far however in helicopters (turbine) and floatplanes (radial)

….even the birds were flying faster.

Reminds me of an Air Fungus flight from Manchester to Dublin a few years ago on a very windy day. After we landed the pilot told us we were travelling at 40 knots across the ground on our final approach. Nice cooked breakfasts back in those days though.

Air Fungus

The only airline with outside toilets iirc.

This one
The flight only lasted 2 minutes (accordiong to the timetable, but I timed it at 4minutes 11seconds), but it was terribky exciting and we got certificates and miniatures of Highland Park.
OH flatly refused to get back on it and we had to catch the ferry back to Mainland.

EDIT – also flown in one of these
– all very jolly until I misheard what the poilot said (what with the noise and everything) and we looped the loop.

They are slow. Fast enough to stay up but typically 40% slower than a jet. I’ve flown BA to Edinburgh and USAir from Chicago to rhinelander. I felt a bit vulnerable for the period over lake Michigan ! I couldn’t take my eyes of the prop’s, willing them to keep spinning. But I’m an anxious idiot who’s crap in the air.

Flew a lot in one of these back in the day – noise and the smell of puke was bad enough that we used to get out half way 😉

flew on an azerbaijan airways prop aircraft last month. was noisy, but bose headphones made it pleasant 🙂

I tried to find out what kind, had a look on their website, and couldn’t find it, but did find this

http://www.azal.az/en/services-blacklist/

awesome

ETA : it was probably an ATR 42

flown on one to the isle of man a few times from glasgow airport.

was noisy mainly.

only other thing is looking out the window and seeing the blades right beside you and thinking … it that lets go, it’ll make a mess of me.