For several months, we had the "Goldeneye" Pilatus (i.e. the one used in the James Bond movie) stuck in Compiègne. It's painted gold in reference to the movie.
During a para drop flight, the guy who opened the door inadvertently deployed his chute. The chute was sucked out of the aircraft and got caught in the tailplane. Luckily the attached owner wasn't ejected from the aircraft.
However, the chute remained stuck in the tailplane and the drag was such that it warped the entire tailplane and rear fuselage. They had to do an emergency landing with limited horizontal stabilizer response.
At first, when I saw it sitting in a hangar, I didn't notice anything wrong. Then somebody told me to look at the angle of the entire tailplane assembly, and I noticed it had rotated about 8° clockwise. The damage to the fuselage was less visible but still warranted a return to Pilatus for a near-complete rebuild.
Having looked over the shots of the new build Porter I have, there appear to be only one or two external differences. The lower gear struts are now airfoil section rather than round, and the clamshell doors have given way to sliders on both sides. It also now has a radome and, I assume, a modern cockpit.
1:1 scale, John? No problem. You could quite easily tile it up on A4s and make it in your back yard. There are none of those pesky compound curves! It'll look just like a real one!
Grubby.
GFR, you're assuming that what I have drawn is accurate!
in this particular case, I started with a download for a model from Pilatus itself, and one of their own brochures. I then used my own photos and a couple of good profile pics from the web to make some corrections and fill in the details.
I might use someone else's drawing as a starting point, but I take nothing drawn by Man as trustworthy. And, I include my work in that category. I think of them as "detailed approximations". Nothing more.
Linear Mode
