by Jean Sabatier (ROTW)

Jean likes very much "old" aircraft, and he has some ones in his portfolios. The revival of the ATR project forced him to stop, for a moment but for our biggest satisfaction, the aircraft he had in the pipeline: this magnificent DC-3 manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Co (first flight on Dec. 17, 1935).

It is now ready after a long period of tests and settings. The return to service of such planes is complex because spare parts are difficult to find and it is often necessary to manufacture them ourselves. All that was made in our hangar at Le Bourget, hangar lent to us by the Air and Space Museum.

The picture above shows it at takeoff during one of its latest test flights from Rennes Saint Jacques: beautiful bird isn't it?

Naturally, once we have seen the external view of this classic-landing-gear carrier, we can't wait for having a look at the inside of the cockpit, and we are not disappointed:

There are buttons, gauges, and levers all over the place! And all which is useful and can be connected in Fly! operates, what lets quite a lot of buttons to manipulate. No panic, the aircraft is supplied with its flight manual and a complete checklist. Once you have installed the .pod file into the "aircraft" directory It is, as usually, necessary to read all the documentation before starting the aircraft, otherwise this beautiful bird will reserve for you some surprises.

It's time to have a circular look from the captain's seat (at left, aboard an aircraft):

And now let's go to the extra gift, because, as usually with the ROTW, and Jean is a specialist, there is a nice new technical feature.
So, here it is in pictures:

Jean added some icing visual effects on the windshields. Naturally, the icing also operates on the other surfaces and the aircraft performances are strongly affected. Then, pay a careful attention to the external temperature and altitude!
(The second picture shows the spectacular effect of the de-icing activated only on the left windshield).
Don't let, especially at low altitude or in mountainous zone, the icing to spread to your windshields. You could have a lot of problems before finding again a normal vision! So think of your passengers and also the cost of this classic aircraft which becomes very rare in a such in-flight status.
Here are all the central pedestal details (only the top part is in Fly!)

You will have also noticed that the avionics is not authentic. There are two reasons for that:
- it was impossible to put one's hand on the original one, the instrument panel we found had been cannibalized,
- because of flight certificate and legislation, we had to install the mandatory and basic instruments necessary for transport of passengers. Moreover the aircraft is equipped with a very useful autopilot.

A useful reminder:

AIRSPEED LIMITATIONS

VNE - 210 kts (Never Exceed)
VNO - 1/4 (Normal Operation)
VFE - 1/4 - 135 kts (Maximum speed, Flap Extension 1/4)
VFE - 1/2 - 99 kts (Maximum speed, Flap Extension 1/2)
VFE - 3/4 - 97 kts (Maximum speed, Flap Extension 3/4)
VFE - Full - 97 kts (Maximum speed, Flap Extension 4/4)
VLE - 140 kts (Landing Gear Extension)
VMC - 76 kts (Minimum Control)
V1/V2/VR - 84 kts (Take-Off Decision, Take Off Safety Speed, Rotation Speed)
VY - 105 kts (Best rate, 2 Engines)
Vyse - 97 kts (Best Rate, 1 Engine)
Vsl - 69 kts (Stall, Clean)
Vso - 59 kts (Stall, Gears & Flaps Full)

Now, it is time to go to the only access ladder. Do carefully the starting and have nice flights !