chazbird

The III's and the later versions are much "better" than the II's, I'm glad I never flew a II with standard engines.

One other fun factoid was that some of the III's had a provision for AWI alcohol water injection. We flew dash 11's, rated at 1100 shp but I think the extra 100 shp of that was AWI. Never used or carried it, but I guess some did. The earlier II's or straight metro's could carry a small jato bottle in the tail cone. That tells you something there.

I'm not badmouthing the plane, the III's did fine on one engine, at least the ones that grossed at 14,500, some of them go up to 16,000 lbs though.

Later versions had the SRL system too, single red-line limiter. Not easy to explain or understand, and if you MEL it it really is a mysterious experience to avoid torching the engine.

I am 5'9" and found the plane comfortable enough for 6 hours of flying a day (with stops). The passengers, well....

The operator I flew them for had great maintenance, which is a must, otherwise you may have surprises. One day a airplane came into the hangar from Europe that they bought. Dual FD's and a auto-pilot. This seemed to be a great leap forward but alas, they tore that stuff out.

It's still a fun plane to fly and skills builder and 248 to the marker was quite doable. Single pilot I never did, but I guess it can be done (I'd pull the SAS CB's though, I am spooked by that). Single pilot w/o an auto-pilot....shouldn't be allowed in my opinion.

1257

Correct, the dash 11's were rated 1000 w/o water and 1100 w/water.
Your guess that some carried water is an understatement.

It was required to have for heavy dash 11 S/E take off performance in the summer
at places like SLC/SGU/LAS/PHX/FLG/PGA etc.....fired it every day in the summer.
The stations had large carts, with hand pumps usually, to fill the nose tank
to its 16 gallon capacity. Never timed it, but the consumption was fairly fast.
Skywest had one fail at LAS on a 110+deg. day at liftoff with the plane heavy and
the airplane settled back down for the abort (25R).
It felt like more than 200hp total and would also allow
the airplane to indicate 300kt @10K ft. if fired in flight.
(the euro Vne was 300kt. due to lesser restrictions on the plexi center window)
The water would also allow easily getting to the 31K ft ceiling, which was difficult without it.(but not cert. for)
It was def. more than 200hp total, but they just called it that.
(Imho they didn't want pilots to know they had a +400hp lever....heh, it was fun)
The earlier JATO's were fun to fire on the ground at the hangar when their expiration date had passed.
As far as a useful S/E second segment climb device (why they were there for cert.).....not so much.

rotorhead1026

Was this a II? I reckon a III is just as strong, but the extended tips would have been damaged as well. I don't doubt the story at all, though.

I remember 246 knots, actually (III), but that doesn't rhyme with "gate".

The steering either worked or just quit working in my experience. All the "weedeater" type deviations I heard of were pilot-induced (I never had one myself, fortunately). Pilot-induced is actually misleading; it was one of the most user unfriendly - and unforgiving - systems I've ever seen.

chazbird

Another thrown prop story happened to a Metroliner out west. Pretty much same results, except with the prop off (which also penetrated rated the cabin lacerating a passengers foot) it bent the engine/cowl seriously upward and bent the wing to a higher angle of attack...instantly the engine flamed out, rolled, and the other engine flamed out, the airplane was in a something like a flat stall, and it would stall any time it was below about 150 kts, but they were directly over an airport, where it was dead sticked in. Phew!

On to tamer events...during a factory tour in San Antonio we were asked if we wanted to see their RD hangar. OK. The PR guy picked up a big stick and we asked what it was for, "rattlesnakes" and proceeded to cut through a field. Inside was a Metroliner with PT6's on it. They didn't bother to certify that because customers didn't like the fact that when a passenger came down the stairs they would walk straight into the prop. That's the sort of "engineering" thinking that sometimes went into their airplanes. Fairchild was also involved in the SAAB SF340 project (that's where the F in SF comes from) but bailed when they thought there wasn't a market for it, so SAAB went it alone. Maybe a good thing.

1257

The aerobatic metro was a III, they might have also replaced the tips, not sure.

Yup, 246 was it but the 248 to the gate just stuck during the go fast times.

chazbird

Due to the surfeit of Metroliner stories compared with a lack of similar tales from 1900 drivers it appears the Metroliner wins the prize, although it is unclear as to what the value of the prize is.

For whatever it is worth some of the more successful companies nowadays owe some of their success to operating Metroliners; Skywest, Comair, Horizon, and I believe Air Wisconsin.

Walkeraviator

It is Berry Aviation. They have a 135 charter op that does car part hauling like IFL group does. They are looking for 2 FO's and a Capt at SDF and some crew for San Marcos. I am still doing the math, but I am pretty sure I wont be able to do it. They pay a little better than the airlines, but not by much.

Dougdrvr

The JATO, IIRC, was for FIRST segment climb since the burn time was only slightly longer than the gear retract time. Standing joke was that the real advantage was the smoke would mark the spot where you went down.

Interesting comments about using the water for anything other then take-off?
Even with a full 16 gallons, I can't imagine it would last long enough to do anything but get you into trouble at 31K?

1257

We were taught in training that the old JATO (never got to fly the II) was a second segment climb cert. but
wasn't there for the cert. so it's relative to the instructor we had.

The 31K non-pax (non-oxygen) ceiling was a true ceiling in the sense that
it couldn't maintain 100fpm above it. (temp dependent)
But the plane was stable and maintained 31K with the conditions we flew it in.
To expedite getting up there (above 30K, climb was very slow) we'd fire water
from 30K to 31K (approx. 45 sec.) and then maintain a stable 31K without issue.

chazbird

If you add up all the kludges, fixes, improvements, and down right wacky features the Metroliner has it all comes out as a real Rube Goldberg contraption that these days would be laughed at by certification authorities. The kind of laughed at when soda comes out of your nose laughed at.

Still, a fun plane. Aside from the SAS going off and trying to smite thee, I never had a mechanical.