By me
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With happenings on the Croatian GA scene once again grinding to a halt as the winter fogs set in – and several in-progress articles remaining stalled for a stubborn lack of information – I had once again decided to dip into my airliner photo bag and pull out a small Photo File to make Achtung, Skyhawk! seem actually alive 😀 . Thankfully, my travels of late had frequently taken me among the region’s turboprops both small and large, many of which tended to have a couple of interesting stories behind them. Naturally, with my camera being a permanent traveling companion, very few of these had managed to go escape being documented, allowing for enough material to take a quick trip through Turboprop World… 🙂
Doing its best not to go amphibian, the first daily flight to Osijek (OSI/LDOS) – operated by AIS Airlines on behalf of local carrier Trade Air – trudges through the rain towards Zagreb’s RWY 05. Nowadays quite a rare sight – even though it is one of the more successful British passenger designs – the Jetstream family can trace its roots back to the 1960s Handley-Page HP.137, a light (but loud!) 18-seater that had made its name with a long and distinguished career with the Royal Navy. Equipped with Garrett TPE331 engines instead of the visually- and aurally-distinctive Turbomeca Astzaous of the original, the Jetstream is a real hot-rod, and can even keep pace the odd large transport turboprop. An interesting detail is the baggage pod; while the original design had included enough space for a reasonable amount of baggage (stowed in the rear fuselage), the addition of a toilet later in the production run had drastically reduced that capacity – requiring a solution most often seen on piston and turboprop singles…
A peek into the nose of DCI’s sister ship, NCI. Quite an anachronism in an age when even the smallest piston single has digital avionics, the cockpit of the Jetstream leaves little doubt that this is a 60s design. Alongside a somewhat unusual instrument layout on the center console, interesting details include a lone, basic IFR GPS, and the absence of even a cursory autopilot – a feature that some pilots despise, while others laud for the nowadays rare chance of experiencing “manual” airline operations. A big thank you for this shot goes to the crew Ed and J.J., who had – with typical Dutch openness – warmly greeted me and answered a ton of my Achtung, Skyhawk-y questions!
A welcome (pun intended) splash of color at Zagreb as one of Welcome Air’s Dorniers lights up for departure following an unscheduled stop. Apart from its unusual elegance, the Do-328 can also boast an advanced wing design, which – when coupled with the type’s abundance of power – places it among the fastest passenger turboprops in the air today. With typical “high speed” cruise figures of around 620 km/h, only the Q400 (650 km/h) and the SAAB 2000 (670 km/h) are able show it their tails in level flight…
Even though it is – rarity-wise – the aviation equivalent of the light delivery van, the King Air nevertheless rarely fails to attract attention out on the ramp. Looking mighty and regal in the crisp afternoon sun of Munich Airport (MUC/EDDM), D-IICE was manufactured back in 1977 (not that you can tell from the outside!), and despite being a native of the airport can often be found all over Europe.
An eye-catching train of ATR-42-300s waiting out their fate on Zagreb’s maintenance apron. Latterly owned by South American carrier Aviateca – operating mostly out of Honduras and Guatemala – all three have over the months become well-known residents of the airport, though the leading machine will soon become the first to fly the nest. Originally known as HR-AXN, it had recently been re-registered G-ISLJ and will – if the Internet is to be believed – imminently join the fleet of UK operator Blue Islands. Somewhat more worse for wear, HR-AUX and TG-TRB in trail have a more uncertain future ahead however… but, they at least have a past to compensate, having previously been two of the three 42s operated by Croatia Airlines in the 90s and 2000s, known as 9A-CTU and 9A-CTT respectively.
Somewhat of a stereotypical way of knowing you’re at a former East German airport… one of the many remains of Interflug scattered all the way from the North Sea down to the Czech border, DDR-STG is not the only preserved Il-18 out there; but it likely is the only one still fulfilling a useful function. Produced back in 1962 (and originally known as DM-STG), it would serve with Interflug all the way into 1988, when it would be withdrawn from service and stored at Erfurt Airport (ERF/EDDE). In modern times however, it would take on the role of an airport personnel training aid – as a consequence of which it does get some occasional care, and can even be towed around for pushback practice…
The two schools of commuter turboprop design: the slow, unpressurized, but tough and STOL-capable Turbolet – and the fast, refined, delicate and complicated Metroliner. Worlds apart, both serve as a fascinating glimpse into what made the Eastern and Western markets so different in the 60s and 70s – and why have their designs survived as long as they did. Ironically, both are now more commonly found shuffling freight than people…
A little show of force at Zurich Airport (ZRH/LSZH). Even though these stands are usually dominated by Austrian Airlines’ Q400s, today’s rendezvous of Croatia Airlines flights from Dubrovnik (DBV/LDDU) and Zagreb (ZAG/LDZA) had slightly tipped the scales on the apron…
And finally, Quebec Alpha revving up for an evening departure out of a rainy and gloomy Zagreb. A visually curious aircraft from any angle, the Q400’s long fuselage makes it look relatively compact – even though it is quite a large and heavy aircraft. Those seemingly-normal R408 propellers are in fact 4.11 meters in diameter – a couple of centimeters more than the huge prop of the Vought F4U Corsair!
