(By Eric Rood) – YouTube is flush with videos of supremely talented Alaskan bush pilots dropping their two-seat Piper Cubs and Super Cubs onto tiny patches of level ground, “rolling” to a stop mere inches after touchdown. We love those great pilots and their Pipers, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything crazier than this de Havilland Canada Dash 7 demonstration flight almost 30 years ago by Norwegian airline Wideroe at Sola Airport near Stavanger.
Like most of DHC’s prop-driven airliners, the Dash 7 was designed around the principal of Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) performance, but it’s a bit tough for the brain to wrap around a 20-ton airplane leaving the earth after a 1,000-foot takeoff roll and then landing to a dead stop (and even reversing) in about half that distance. Even the low-and-slow pass at maybe 80 mph is impressive when you consider that the 40,000-pounder could theoretically do that with 50 (screaming) passengers aboard. If you’re a numbers guy, the four Pratt & Whitney turboprops make 1,120 shaft horsepower each, meaning with the throttles shoved to the stops, one of these old birds makes a few ticks under 4,500 HP. That might explain the ridiculous climb as soon as the Wideroe DHC leaves the ground.
I am proud to have maintained a fleet of dash 7’s for Continental express in Denver for 5 years as a mechanic. I have performed all kinds of maintenance including test flights. These airplane are so tough and fun to work on.
Blowing a bunch of air under the wings ahead of huge dropped flaps is sure the way to get off the ground quickly, seeing the level-flight flyby with the nose pointed down was a great demonstration of those suckers too, I bet there is a tremendous amount of force on them. And jeez, that thing could land in a parking lot.