eerste vlucht connie aviodrome N749NL

toppiero · Post by **toppiero** » 09 Sep 2008, 17:06

de connie zal zsm vliegen

evhest · Post by **evhest** » 09 Sep 2008, 17:19

No, it says they are hoping to make a first flight this year. There is a difference!

toppiero · Post by **toppiero** » 09 Sep 2008, 17:21

evhest wrote:No, it says they are hoping to make a first flight this year. There is a difference!

yes that is right. but if they say that it is for 80-90% sure that he will fly this year.

aviodromefriend · Post by **aviodromefriend** » 09 Sep 2008, 19:26

And last weekend they said they were still looking for a flight-engineer that has to be trained first, and for a lot of money too. Be aware no one on the planet has flown a L749 during the last two years or more, so people that are current to provide training might also be tough to find. Given the time left in 2008 now, I think it's going to be a tough call, to have a first flight this year. I'm afraid this is just a mail from the propagandadepartment, and you give to much credits to it. I've seen these kind of statements about the Connie for a long time now, and I think we all know a first flight since delivery from Schiphol to Lelystad still has to happen. (And if the FAA is willing to be very supportive to this plane...... I doubt it).

toppiero · Post by **toppiero** » 09 Sep 2008, 19:32

we will see

flying_kiwi · Post by **flying_kiwi** » 09 Sep 2008, 22:17

aviodromefriend wrote:(And if the FAA is willing to be very supportive to this plane...... I doubt it).

As the joke goes: "We're from the FAA, and we're here to help"

Seriously though, the aircraft will have to be issued a SFA (Special Flight Authorisation) by the FAA, and in this last year the FAA have become a lot stricter in issuing these (for a number of reasons).

The amount of paperwork, time and money just for that is high enough, and once that's been done, IVW will still have to issue a separate approval for flights within Dutch airspace. Also, considering that the B-25 of the DBAF was "encouraged" to change to the PH- register (allows IVW more control and oversight), I wonder how long before the same thing happens to the Connie?

Regards,
Yorden

patrick@tediek.com · Post by **patrick@tediek.com** » 10 Sep 2008, 21:10

are the pilots for the connie dutch? I know at the time the plane was flown by Americans from the USA.

aviodromefriend · Post by **aviodromefriend** » 10 Sep 2008, 22:41

patrick@tediek.com wrote:are the pilots for the connie dutch? I know at the time the plane was flown by Americans from the USA.

They want to have a dutch crew. (If they have to fly in Yanks for every single event, costs will raise even more

) During delivery it was flown by a team from the (then) MATS Conny, although the co-pilot was dutch then to. And AFAIK the flight engineer was a UK citizen, doing some work for the MATS Conny one month a year.

patrick@tediek.com · Post by **patrick@tediek.com** » 10 Sep 2008, 23:09

Okay so when i read your msg correctly, they want to have a dutch crew but don't have them for now? Must be a difficult task to obtain a rating on this ac.. and I don't mean difficult to fly it but a lack of ac and no simulators at all (assumption)

Lars · Post by **Lars** » 13 Sep 2008, 12:53

only way to train people on a connie is aircraft training.
like the DDA trains their pilots.
take a guess how high the costs are for an hour block time.. and multiply that with a lot of hours..
dutch crew is most probably to expensive.

keep the connie airworthy is either way very expensive..

patrick@tediek.com · Post by **patrick@tediek.com** » 18 Sep 2008, 17:19

Thanks for the info. Seems it's a lot more complex then keep the aircraft airworthy.

Flying Flea Builder · Post by **Flying Flea Builder** » 20 Sep 2008, 21:42

aviodromefriend wrote:
patrick@tediek.com wrote:are the pilots for the connie dutch? I know at the time the plane was flown by Americans from the USA.
They want to have a dutch crew. (If they have to fly in Yanks for every single event, costs will raise even more ) During delivery it was flown by a team from the (then) MATS Conny, although the co-pilot was dutch then to. And AFAIK the flight engineer was a UK citizen, doing some work for the MATS Conny one month a year.

Yes, and the MATS Connie has been grounded forever, so there is no other 749 in the air(and a current crew either) to train a Dutch crew. So forget the whole story....

patrick@tediek.com · Post by **patrick@tediek.com** » 21 Sep 2008, 09:13

Yes, and the MATS Connie has been grounded forever, so there is no other 749 in the air(and a current crew either) to train a Dutch crew. So forget the whole story

right, but when there is no other 749, how does the mats crew stay current?

aviodromefriend · Post by **aviodromefriend** » 21 Sep 2008, 11:10

patrick@tediek.com wrote:
Yes, and the MATS Connie has been grounded forever, so there is no other 749 in the air(and a current crew either) to train a Dutch crew. So forget the whole story
right, but when there is no other 749, how does the mats crew stay current?

They don't have to stay current, as the MATS Connie is now static only in a museum in Korea. It even can't fly anymore as two engines are not airworthy as they broke down at the dutch Connie.

phkza · Post by **phkza** » 21 Sep 2008, 11:34

There might be no more 749's in the air, but how about the 1049? The Breitling one still flies, how is the similarity between the two types?