nice article from last year in B&CA about the 731 powered F20 retrofits…

http://aviationweek.com/bca/falcon-20-f5-costs-lot-maintain-retains-mystique

http://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/passion/aircraft/civil-dassault-aircraft/mystere-falcon-20-200/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WvZ_1A5NMk

Excellent, Gerd! Good taste knows no bounds! Thanks for starting this thread. Hopefully, there will be other Falconers here on this forum, such as Shawn Botts and Jim Hausch, who will chime in with thoughts, comments and recollections of the Falcon 20.

Drag chute: our airplane had one but, in 17 yrs of operation, the only time that I ever deployed one was in the sim. Seem to recall a required inspection each 6 mo (or maybe A check?). Not sure about the retro'd machines as many operators had already gotten rid of the chute by the time the 731 program got into high gear. I do recall hearing about how much trouble they were to repack. The 20 really had super good brakes and anti-skid so, unless things started coming apart in a hurry, there was seldom a need for the chute. My experience with the T/R's was not so good-their effectiveness and dependability were questionable and they were quite expensive to maintain. Consequently, I only used them at idle and down 60 knots on roll out. Aerodynamic braking on adequate runways gave us many more landings between tire and brake changes. Surely, the Dee Howard buckets on the 731 conversions had to be better than the old cascade type that we had.



MM

Good memories of these. F20-F5 s/n 377, I did an STC for Honeywell EGPWS with Windshear which involved flying to stall in all configurations. What fun.

yes, also the high speed envelope is impressing, always was..

nice old DFJ film with good old Ed Allen of DFJ and The Prince….booming in France…


"look Ma, no hands, we're boomin', in a nifty Fifty…you see it when that camera wanders over from an erratic ASI to the altimeter, when the red bar comes on the altimeter the shock wave just passed the static ports..probably only some fishermen off the bay of Arcachon may have been bothered…and they were used to it…from all that Dassault Mirage traffic coming out of the factory on tests...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ojhYSSMKc

was part of that old DFJ movie..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bozyHzsvh9Y

and as of recent…

all crews always bonded easily with Falcons..those birds grow on you..

the final retirement of the U.S. Coast Guard's HU-25s…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_HHD_6D55E

I just did my PIC Type/MEL ATP in our company 20F-5 a couple of weeks ago!! There are not a lot of operators of these left, Im perhaps one of the last and youngest 20 captains.

I love this airplane but it is quite expensive to maintain. Simple things like a strobe power supply can be a task to find or repair. Ours has been fully upgraded with new paint, interior, and the proline 4. We also have the 30,350 ramp weight so you can fill the seats and tanks and go as long as you have runway. Ours has the Dee Howard TRs as well.

It is an absolute dream to fly at just about any airspeed. The Arthur Q system keeps the control feel the same through the flight envelope. It is the best airplane i've ever flown through turbulence, it just cuts it. Jets around us can be screaming for different altitudes and we haven't even put on our seatbelt sign.

It has so many unique characteristics not seen in many jets.
-No life limit on the airframe (as long as you can pay for the inspections)
-No stall protection ( no shaker/pusher)
-It has hard points under the wing, although covered. (Dassault originally designed it to be a bomber.

Falcons have long been called a "pilots airplane" and for good reason. I've been fortunate enough to have had a great career flying the 50's, 900's and even have the red headed step child type in the DA200 which I flew back in 2004 & 2005. They have all served their owners well over the years. I have never been in the DA20 with or without the 731's but I can only assume they were every bit as fun and docile as it's sibblings. I am still waiting for the opportunity to fly a DA10 as they look like a "hoot".

Shawn, congrads on your DA20 type rating. You are about to embark on some of the best flying of your career. I can't say enough about the fine quality, redundancy, and handling of 20. But, as you say, it isn't cheap to fly. Great adventures ahead.
MM

Congratulations. Wishing you lots of happy landings with that beautiful airplane.

From now on you are "spoiled" forever, and that beauty will be your goldstandard against which to measure all other jets you will ever fly. And BTW, this one of yours still has decades of useful life left. You are a lucky guy.

all the best

Gerd

what a beautiful and apt name for that wonderful Falcon 200…

so you belong to very, very special club!!!

At last count , out of 38 produced, which included the 4 French Navy "Gardians", still 31 operating. Only a few retired. And that very small F200 fleet nevertheless, according to the latest Dassault info, flew 317.000 flight hours until now….not bad..OK, less than the close to 7 Mio flight hours the F20 fleet produced until now…but still very impressive...

Remember when Dassault introduced it, basically a wonderfully refined F20 airframe, with some additional "high altitude magic" in the wing, with Falcon 50 systems packed in, that beautiful ATF-3 motor got a little bit of a bad rap in the beginning..but there was nothing fundamentally wrong with that motor, it was just a bit different from what all the folks at that time were used to…and that power…a supermodern 20 on afterburners...

I think the reason they did not build more, was just, that the list price at that time came very close to the Falcon 50 at that time…so they stopped production..but what an airplane..

But afterwards the customers complained to Dassault, et voila, they did that marvelous F20 731 retrofit program..at that time Honeywell called itself Allied Signal, right, or was it the other way around?...

But that Falcon 200 was the absolute refinement in the 20's history.

best always, happy landings

Gerd

P.S.: Years ago got a nice link of a web-site that some good old Garrett Folks, that ones who designed that ATF3 motor put together with all the history. Very interesting engine.

And I am sure the very demanding hours the U.S. Coast Guard had put on these motors with their F20Gs had helped that engine to mature.

http://www.atf3.org/ATF3_Online_Museum.html

My 26 year old son got PIC typed in the 50 about 6 months ago.

You can't get the smile off his face.

He hopes to make Captain in 18 months.

what a beautiful and apt name for that wonderful Falcon 200…

so you belong to very, very special club!!!

Congratulations. Wishing you lots of happy landings with that beautiful airplane.

From now on you are "spoiled" forever, and that beauty will be your goldstandard against which to measure all other jets you will ever fly. And BTW, this one of yours still has decades of useful life left. You are a lucky guy.

all the best

Gerd

Is the 50 the same cabin as the 20? I thought the 50 was larger.
Same cross-section but longer perhaps?

yes, unfortunately, because so few engines were produced the MSP rate is extremely high..

Three 731-40s on a F50EX probably are less together than one ATF3 of the F200.

In regards to the 731 F20s always thought it would have been very interesting, had the 731-60 of the F900EX been available when the retrofit program was launched…but that motor still was some years away…that -60 would have produced comparable ooomph on the 20s, as the 200 had…probably all that would have been needed in addition would have been a couple degrees more rudder travel for VMC performance on the 20s...