Farewell to a good aircraft?

[edpatino 1,964]

Recently Bombardier announced the sale of its Q400 program:

 

Sad news!.

Cheers, Ed

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

But it will be in good hands with Viking Aviation..

[Chock 17,769]

3 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

But it will be in good hands with Viking Aviation..

Are they the ones who re-manufactured the Twotter?

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

6 hours ago, edpatino said:

Sad news!.

Cheers, Ed

Not at all, it is in the best hands moving forward. Remember that aircraft line has gone from DeHaviland to Boeing to Bombardier and now to Longview Aviation, and with this purchase Longview Aviation is now the owner of the famous Dehaviland Aircraft Factory in Downsview, Ontario. They also own the Twin Otter line that the Dash 8 evolved from at that Downsview Factory under DeHaviland. I never considered that aircraft to be a Bombardier as they were just custodians for a period of time, the new owners have bigger invested interest in it then Bombardier did.

https://www.lvav.ca/news

I think you need to rethink your post. This is a great Canadian Company working in the best interest of Canadian Aviation and keeping great Canadian aircraft in Canadian Hands, it doesn't get more Canadian then that, makes me proud to be Canadian 😎

As for Bombardier they need to restructure and retool and become more lean. Canadians are frustrated with them as they can't deliver Subways or Streetcars fast enough and too much government money was spent on the C-Series. They know they have to reinvent themselves and this is part of that. They will introduce more new aircraft lines once they restructure, but they also have to take care of their Train productions as well. Ask any Canadian about Bombardier and they will roll their eyes, mostly frustrated about how slow they deliver Trains and Trams and with mistakes and over budget. They need to fix that.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bombardier-exec-apologizes-to-ttc-over-delivery-of-faulty-streetcars-1.4741387

Edited November 21, 2018 by Matthew Kane

[edpatino 1,964]

3 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

makes me proud to be Canadian

You have plenty of reasons to feel that way. Back in 2014, one of my sons decided to move to Vancouver and now he feels really good, happy and productive living there!.

As for the Q100-400 series, hopefully they all will continue in production, but with new owners you'll never know. At this time they're not supossed to say anything different, but for sure some changes will come... the extend of them? nobody knows. That's business. I'm a true lover of the Q100-400 series and wish to continue watching them in action for long time.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I think the aircraft is nearing the end of its production cycle but these guys will likely continue to produce them as long as someone wants to order them. It has been in production for 35 years now which is quite impressive. They have also purchased the replacement parts and support and with so many of them in service they will be around for a long time. They have advantages over the ATR's with STOL and the 'Stork' style landing gear that was designed for gravel runways in Canada's north. The ATR landing gear is integrated into the hull so not designed for remote airstrips. This is why we will see Dash 8's for many more decades as airlines retire them and northern operations convert them into Combi's

This is all part of an evolving story for the Dash 8's and we will see them around for a very long time, likely I will be dead and gone and they will still be in operation somewhere.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Matthew Kane

[John_Cillis 2,406]

7 hours ago, edpatino said:

You have plenty of reasons to feel that way. Back in 2014, one of my sons decided to move to Vancouver and now he feels really good, happy and productive living there!.

As for the Q100-400 series, hopefully they all will continue in production, but with new owners you'll never know. At this time they're not supossed to say anything different, but for sure some changes will come... the extend of them? nobody knows. That's business. I'm a true lover of the Q100-400 series and wish to continue watching them in action for long time.

Cheers, Ed

 

I loved flying in the '300, flew it from Phoenix to Durango and back, also from Portland to Klamath Falls and back--quite a funny routing that was, Alaska airlines from SFO, past Klamath Falls to Portland then from Portland back to Klamath Falls and vise versa.  I remember on Horizon they served us champagne and I felt like I was in first class, although I do not like to drink on pressurized aircraft because of the cabin altitude and dry environment, but I had to for the ambiance of it all.  My client's hotel in Klamath Falls had amazing woodwork and I had a great colleague with me to help on that trip, we got along famously well, only job we did together.  We were up there to train the hotel staff on a Property Management system and LAN we installed and implemented.  Quite an enjoyable trip although Klamath Falls in December was cold, and I had just come from a similar cold experience in Edmonton. 

Then I flew on vacation to my wife's hometown, high in central Mexico, Zacatecas, where I nearly froze to death with the high mountain wind, and no central heat in her parent's home.  We had to have a radiant heater in her parents' bedroom which they loaned us.  Her parents made it up to us a few years later by hosting us in Puerto Vallarta.  My wife flew to Zacatecas with my daughter, I could not go with them because I only had a week's vacation.  But I surprised my daughter, who was around three and a half, by flying down to Puerto Vallarta where she saw me come out of customs in the airport.  My wife said to her, "Who is that" and she came flying into my arms saying "Daddy!" as we all laughed.  So the surprise worked, I always loved airport reunions with family.

On the way home our America West flight had an equipment problem, I overheard the pilots and gate agent talking to a passenger in the lounge and told my wife the flight might be cancelled.  Turned out he was an engineer for another airline wanting to dead head on the America West flight to Phoenix.  In exchange for his help with the problem, which was an electronics issue in the cockpit of the 737-300, he got his wish and we all got home.  Serendipity...

John

[vc10man 732]

Great anecdote, John.