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Old 02-05-2020, 08:00 PM   #76
Rupert
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
Default Re: Seaplanes or Amphibious Aircraft for Caribbean Adventuring and Logistics

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Edit: I found out why An-2s aren't used by sky-diving companies in the US. It's because the FAA will only certify them as Experimental aircraft there, which prohibits 'for hire' operation.
Polish-built models can be used for commercial purposes, as there's a reciprocal certification agreement in place with Poland (and it doesn't apply to non-Polish ones, even if they are identical), and apparently recently the issue with Russian made ones was (at least somewhat) cleared up. The big limitation of 'experimental' certification for Kessler would be that planes so certified aren't allowed far from their airfield of registration.

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They apparently climb slowly and guzzle fuel and oil (which makes them more expensive to operate than more efficient and modern craft...
Apparently they empty their oil tank at about the same time as they empty their fuel tank, making it 'easy' to remember when to top up the oil. While they climb slowly and fly slowly, they also don't really have a stall speed, so much as have a point where they refuse to hold altitude and start losing altitude (fast enough you don't want to land that way, but slow enough that you'll be able to walk away). In a strong wind they can just about take off standing still, which makes landing in strong cross-winds 'interesting'.

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Also, the An-2 is allegedly super easy to maintain.
Standard Soviet design in that respect - easy to maintain, doesn't take sophisticated skills or equipment to maintain, but maintenance hours per hour of flight are poor.
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