"Nightjar.me.uk" "cpb"@ insert my surname here wrote in message
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On 15/07/2015 21:19, Rod Speed wrote:


"Nightjar.me.uk" "cpb"@ insert my surname here wrote in message
...
On 15/07/2015 19:39, Brian-Gaff wrote:
Yes, that last one was the one. Did they not use some weird three
engined
plane in it?...

With over 150 different types, tri-motors are hardly weird.

They were quite unusual at the time tho and that was only
a very small subset of the planes they used at the time.
There were only ever 4 registered in the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_...ralia#Aircraft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Hav...a_DHA-3_Drover

It makes a lot of sense for bush aircraft to carry two spare engines,

At that time they weren't spare engines....

Most light aircraft need all their engines to take off.

Particularly with the short runways the RFDS used.

It does depend upon the aircraft as to how many you actually need once
airborne.

That isn't the problem with the RFDS.

From pilot forums, it seems that the Drover carried one spare,

Don’t believe that with the RFDS given the wiki
comment about the lack of power in hot weather.

although, if an engine were going to fail, you would prefer it to be the
centre engine, as it was not an easy aircraft to fly asymmetric.

Statistically that's unlikely.