Beautiful De Havilland Dove & a Case Study (MSFS)

[FrankPilot]

The beautiful British De Havilland DH104 Dove was one of the post-WW2 great successes. It was a short-haul liner that was popular around the world for civil, corporate, private & military operators. We’ll look at the aircraft in general, & then follow the life of one particular aircraft as a case study. Hope you enjoy. Cheers.

 

 

 

[skippydiesel]

Thanks for that.

DH built many stunning (looks & performance) aircraft.

I have flown in a Herron several times.

The Drover was a best forgotten modification - so ugly even a mother would reject it.

 

😈

[facthunter]

I don't think the Drover was based totally on a Dove. It was built only for Australia in 49 I think with 3x  10 Mk2 145HP DH  4 cylinder Motors no superchargers. Used by  air  ambulance services. Fixed undercarriage and TAILWheel The TAIL is very Un DH in shape. TAA had one at least. Not a lot built and they has a less than Auspicious Career. Quite a lot of them Crashed  I can only think they were built to a COST Limit eventually re-engined with Lycoming 180 HP IO 360 motors with CS props .The Doves and Herons were better Planes by far. Nose wheel and retractable. A few Herons (The 4 engined Variant) had their  supercharged gipsy 6's replaced with "Flat" Lycomings saving considerable weight and Probably Maintenance costs. Connair and Tasmanian Airways had Herons as I recall. .

  One thing interesting I recall from a Drover crash Inquiry. The Judge (Or Coroner as the case May be) said. To one of the technical witnesses." Sir, you said THIS plane Has 3 engines. WHICH SIDE has 2 of them" .I've always remembered that.

  I Know the Heron was flying in TAS. in the early 90s because I encountered One in Wynyard in FOUL weather when I was doing a C/ME /IFR renewal, check in a Beech Duchess. . Nev

[Bernie]

I possibly seen that aircraft, I was working opposite Bankstown airport back then on Milperra road. 

Bernie.

[skippydiesel]

5 hours ago, Bernie said:

I possibly seen that aircraft, I was working opposite Bankstown airport back then on Milperra road. 

Bernie.

It was at Goulburn a few years back - ugly as sin!😈

[facthunter]

Is SIN Ugly? I will have to be more careful. Nev

[IBob]

I've jumped (from) a couple of Drovers, Queensland in the '70s and later in NZ.

The Qld one was a hoot: they loaded 10 people in it, took off and spent about an hour getting to 4000'. At which point they tossed a couple of volunteers out to lighten the load.
Quite some time after that, and when they still had not made it to 8000', the rest of us retired to the pub, from where we could see them distantly and forlornly circling as the sun went down.
I believe after that they swapped the props, which produced some improvement. Oh, and I don't think that one had any starters on the motors, they all had to be swung.
A strange aircraft: seemed to fly in a distinctly tail down attitude, even when not actually trying to climb. Perhaps a result of increasing the dihedral on the horizontal stabiliser to stop it also wagging it's tail as it proceeded.....

[facthunter]

 AH ha. One of those people who Jump out of a Perfectly good Aeroplane Eh!   Your secret is OUT. 

 AS for the  Ground hugging  aeroplane... It's Underpowered. Simple.  The "Drover" IS a DOG. The fin and rudder could have been larger too. Jump out of it as soon as you're high enough to safely do it. Nev

Edited yesterday at 08:28 AM by facthunter
extra content

[FrankPilot]

Looks like they got the Drover right by Version 3:

 

https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/drover/drover.htm

 

Cheers.

Edited yesterday at 11:44 AM by FrankPilot

[facthunter]

Always underpowered . Planes in that engine configuration are uncommon. The Lycomings were not much bigger (180 Hp) and props must be able to be feathered. Good historical coverage. Just with a  significantly less that full reading I have flow with at  least 6 of the Pilots mentioned and KNEW another four.  Brian Walker quite well . Small World. .Thanks for the INFO. Part of Australia's Flying History..   Nev