Prinair Heron

Maveric

Maveric

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Hi all,


I´m interested in the story of Prinair "Heron", a conversion of the de Havilland "Heron". If you have informations, please let me know. Drawings and technical data are welcome.


Thanks, Maveric
 

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  • Prinair Heron.jpg
    Prinair Heron.jpg
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Omigosh! This is LONG! Are you sure it's not photoshopped?
 
From Wiki:

Riley Turbo Skyliner: Re-engined aircraft. A number of Herons were fitted with 290 hp (216 kW) Lycoming IO-540 flat-six piston engines. The modifications were carried out by the Riley Turbostream Corporation of the USA.
Click to expand...
 
Some serious doubts about my previous identification.
Dug this up here about DH114 c/n 14079:
14079
19? The aircraft was registered as CR-IAA.
19? The aircraft was re-registered as CR-GAO.
19? The aircraft was acquired by Prinair.
19? The aircraft was re-registered as N574PR.
19? The aircraft was modified including the fitment of new engines and a lengthened fuselage.
Click to expand...
Found some more about it here:
It was the one and only stretched Heron ever built, developed as one possible answer to the carrier's [Prinair] need for more capacity by CADI of Opa Locka, FL. This scheme was abandoned after extensive flight trials.
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Image from airliners.net:
0155324.jpg
It really was that long.
<edit> Supplemental type certificate of Prinair conversion found via Wiki (probably about fitting Herons with Continental engines, not lengthening the aircraft in the image):
STC Number:
SA1685WE
This certificate issued to:
Puerto Rico Intl Airlines
STC Holder's Address:
P.O. Box 1498
Bayamon PR 00619
United States
Description of the Type Design Change:
Installation of four Continental IO-520-E engines.
Application Date:

Status:
Amended, 08/22/1968
Responsible Office:
Atlanta Aircraft Certification Office (ACE-115A), Tel: (404) 474-5500
TC Number -- Make -- Model:
A-816 -- de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., The (England) -- DH 114 Heron, Series 2X
A-816 -- de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., The (England) -- DH 114 Heron, Series 2A
A-816 -- de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., The (England) -- DH 114 Heron, Series 2DA
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Thanks my friends. One question more: Did Prinair the modification or Riley or an other?

Maveric
 
From what I've read Riley was not involved. Wiki says Prinair modified the aircraft themselves...
It was the one and only stretched Heron ever built, developed as one possible answer to the carrier's [Prinair] need for more capacity by CADI of Opa Locka, FL.
Click to expand...
...but this says CADI of Opa Locka, Florida, was responsible for stretching the aircraft. Maybe Prinair fitted Herons with Continental engines in its own workshop.

Me identifying N574PR as a Riley Turbo Skyliner was due to taking the Airliners.net image tags at face value. Checking images of other aircraft tagged 'Riley Turbo Skyliner' helped me find out that N574PR was a different bird.
 
I worked at CADI Airmotive in the early 80’s I worked in the EIR shop ( electric/intrument/radio shop) and our customer was only , I never once saw the “ stretch” heron there for maintenance? We worked on the relife and phase checks of the dh-114 heron but the elusive “stretch” heron never made it to our shop?

Who held the conversion docs and fãa approval (stc) for the stretch heron mod? I didn’t even know that existed with the prinair fleet?
 
I actually worked at CADI airmotive at opa locka airport in Miami back from 1980 to 1982 our hanger which is long gone use to be the mess hall for the officers stationed at opa locka when it was a military base.

We also had a blimp hanger close to our hanger that the DEA would store surveillance blimps back in the earky 80s long gone OPF today is cr unrecognizable!
 
If anyone wants to talk about prinair’s heron state side maintenance I actually worked at CADI Airmotive the Heron service shop for prinair back in 1980 I was a young man then (19-20) now I’m old but I still remember my first job in aviation like if it was yesterday! lol..!!
 
Arjen said:
From what I've read Riley was not involved. Wiki says Prinair modified the aircraft themselves...
...but this says CADI of Opa Locka, Florida, was responsible for stretching the aircraft. Maybe Prinair fitted Herons with Continental engines in its own workshop.

Me identifying N574PR as a Riley Turbo Skyliner was due to taking the Airliners.net image tags at face value. Checking images of other aircraft tagged 'Riley Turbo Skyliner' helped me find out that N574PR was a different bird.
Click to expand...
 
I’m here to confirm as a former CADI Airmotive EIR Shop employee from 1980-1982 I did not see any stretch Heron mods performed? All we did was relife and phase inspections? I don’t think the owner of CADI ( John Patterson) held such an stc?
 
Maybe this stretch mod was before my tenure at CADI? While I was there I never heard of such mod? Even from the QC guy who was Dale Stroughton? He wax the chief inspector at CADI back in the 80’s I Actually got my A&P from him as he was also an examiner, he later went and worked for the FAA I’m sure he’s passed I was 19 then and I’m now 62 lol!!
 
Anyhow anyone wanting to know more about prinair’s herons you can reach out to citationator@gmail.com I worked at CADI Airmotive from 1980-1982 in the EIR shop

And above all I never saw the stretch Heron period! Not even in pics until now and as far as I know ( being a CADI employee) Riley did not have such an STC?

Maybe Prinair stretched their Heron under an an airline E/O ? Where is the carcass of the air aft now? I never saw it at Opa Locka? So where is it?
 
Welcome to the forum, @Citationator , thanks for the information about CADI :)
I searched for images of N574PR on www.airliners.net , it resulted in four images. The earliest from 1972, the latest from 1973 - three of them show the aircraft with the extended fuselage, the fourth just showing the engine nacelles.
The aircaft's fuselage was stretched before your tenure at CADI. It doesn't rule out the work was done at CADI, it doesn't prove it either.
Citationator said:
I’m here to confirm as a former CADI Airmotive EIR Shop employee from 1980-1982 I did not see any stretch Heron mods performed? All we did was relife and phase inspections? I don’t think the owner of CADI ( John Patterson) held such an stc?
Click to expand...
That would point to the work not being done at CADI, though.
I fixed the dead image link in an earlier post.
 
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There is a stretch Heron pic on the top of this forum and I can confim that this pic was taken on the ramp side of the CADI Airmotive hanger, because you can clearly see part of the CADI sign as well as a few digits of the repair station number., However I never saw this Heron there? but it could of been before my tenure, I worked there from 1980 - 1982?

Between 1980 - 1982 I worked on every Heron that Prinair was flying at the time, we normally had two relife projects going on in the hanger and one or two phase inspections simulaneously. I worked in the EIR shop (electric, Instruments and radio shop, today it's simply called avionics shop lol!) During the Heron relife project the avionics package that we installed was the Bendix BX-2000 which was absolutely the worst product ever produced by Bendix and didn't last very long on the market, we also installed a Bendix RDR-160 monochrome radar system which back in the day Bendix's claim to fame was their radar products which are still in use today. We used a 200 series Cessna wing mounted radar pod to house the ART-161A radar transceiver unit and the pod was mounted aft of the nose gear right under the forward baggage compartment. Power to the radar was routed through the landing gear squat switch so that you could not turn the radar on while the aircraft was on the ground which would possibly blow the mixer diodes in the T/R section or the radar.

Obvioulsy the stretch Heron existed, however during 1980-1982 I never saw it at the CADI hanger, I don't know if CADI performed the conversion? Or if Riley performed the conversion? I don't recall ever seeing any docs relating to this stretch Heron while at CADI? However there was a third company in Canada called Saunders which built the ST-27 which was a stretch Heron with PT-6's, I've never seen those either, they supposedly built 12 of them.

The only person that would definitely have the answer is the former CADI President John Patterson, however I don't know if he's still alive? Maybe some of the former Riley employees might know something?
 

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