ATR42-500 Air Botswana

[Leen3131cs 107]

http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/120097.jpg

[Guest Chris Wallace]

Nice! This was one I had my eye on but it was going to be a while before I got to starting on it.What do you have left to do for your "six pack"? So far I've got:Air Botswana A2-ABPAir Dolomiti FENDI F-OHFNCzech Airlines OK-VFITarom YR-ATEAre these the last ones, considering the two already published repaints for Air Littoral and Eurowings?Chris WallaceOttawa, Canada

[Leen3131cs 107]

Hallo Chris,With these four the sixpack is completed.It will take some time to finish the "Six-Pack" I`ll have to fill in some details.Some of these repaints were already on my desk since the release of the Air France ATR (initial livery). The idea is to publish all my ATR42 repaints in one single download.Thanks to your idea about the registration on the panel the files can stay reasonable small.Probably this will be all for now.( for the time being, at least )Do not worry , I am not thinking about a "Tray-project" , just this"Six-Pack" will do for me.The only thing I still would like to do is some military liveries of the ATR42.Just one problem , I cannot find them.This does not mean I am stopping repainting.OOOOHHH NO !!!!I am starting a new "ATR42-Repaint-Six-Pack" for Fs9 in time.The layerfiles I made for the FlyII! ATR42 , can be very handy then.I did the same thing with some other repaints.And...........eeeehhhh . Last week I did it again....... I made a Piper repaint for FLYII!Cannot help , I am a painter.RegardsLeenhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/120140.jpg

[KenWood 5]

Great work as always, Leen! Anyone considering doing a Horizon Air livery from the USA? Don't recall if they use the ATR-42, but it is a nice livery they have. Chris, did you do an Air Canada version already? May have missed it... ;-)Cheers!Ken Wood :-sun1http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/bannernewkw.jpgGateway 700X; Intel P4 2.4GHz; 512MB RAM; NVIDIA Ti4200 4X AGP 128MB; SB Audigy; Thrustmaster TopGun Fox 2 Pro Shock

[Guest Chris Wallace]

I don't think AC has ever used the ATR42, have they? I think their regional turboprop has always been the Dash 8.Dunno about Horizon Air, but it doesn't ring a bell from the ATR web surfing I've done recently. The only U.S. carrier I can remember is Continental Express, and they sold off their ATRs a few years ago. In fact I think Leen's Air Botswana repaint was a former Continental bird.Chris WallaceOttawa, Canada

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Chris,I don't know if you discovered this in your researching of the ATR but there were several unexplained fatal crashes of this aircraft type. (in America I believe). The aircraft were flying along normally and suddenly would roll onto their backs and dive into the ground for no apparent reason. Airframe icing was the initial suspect but the manufacturer tested and reassured that this was not the problem (although I think they may have bowed to pressure and done some mods.)I can recall that pilots were on video refusing to fly the aircraft and urging passengers not to fly on the aircraft. I think that the above goes a long way to explaining the absence of ATR's in America.Cheers,Roger

[Guest rene_35]

just my own experience: I have been passenger in ATR aircrafts more than 100 times in several parts of the world (Europe, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean), sometimes with several icing conditions, sometimes in stormy conditions (one time we were blasted). A great number of my friends who are pilots have more than 4,000 flight hours on different ATR models. They like this plane. We think she is a very safety bird. http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/120532.jpg

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Rene,> We think she is a very safety plane.> I'm sure it is. :-) There are ATR's happilly flying all around the world.I wasn't knocking or attacking the ATR per se. All I was doing was to offer a possible explanation to Chris's comment as to why he couldn't find an American company flying the ATR. The aircraft did have a tarnished safety record in America.( for whatever reason ).I'd have no qualms about flying in it. :-)Cheers,Roger

[Guest Jean-Marie]

Hello Roger,Please have a look on Airliners and make a research.You will find some recent photos (2005) of ATR aircraft used by American airlines (American Eagle, Delta Connection (ASA), Fedex....).Have a nice week-end!Jean-Marie (ROTW)

[Guest Chris Wallace]

No, I hadn't heard that. I don't know whether that was the reason for the lack of strong ATR acceptance in America. Perceptions, particularly about safety, often override the facts, so if there was a perceived safety problem then this may indeed have steered the major carriers away from ATR at the time. But there are a lot of other factors, politics, economics of turboprop vs. RJ etc. that would have gone into it as well. Certainly these days, there are very few turboprops at all in the American market but there are some ATR 72's in there. The customer perception is very much that turboprops are "second class" compared to jets, so many of the props have been sold off or leased to smaller market airlines (e.g. Africa). On the Ottawa-Boston flight I take regularly, recently they surprisingly switched from CRJ to Dash8-100, and there was a lot of grumbling and moaning by the regulars about the switch.Chris WallaceOttawa, Canada

[Leen3131cs 107]

Hi,Jean Marie is correct when he states, there are ATR42 flying forAmerican contractors.These planes are however ( as far as as I know )are all 300`s and 320`s.And as we are having a conversation about our ATR42-500.There are no American ATR`s 500 flying around.Regards/amiti

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Jean,That's great! Then there's plenty of repaint material :-)I don't know about the weekend though; it's bucketing cats and dogs at the moment. :-)Cheers,Roger