G-AYDZ - DR 200, s/n 01

Rare 35-year-old Dijon-built model, economical to own, with the breed's excellent performance, short-field capability and comfort. By Ernie Holbyn.

I find it difficult to understand why Jodels are not more popular. They will do everything a Cessna or Piper will do with no fuss and using less fuel. I have flown a couple of the small two-seaters in the past and always been impressed, so when I had the chance to fly a four-seater I leapt at it.

Tony and Lorna Bailey are old friends of mine and they own a DR 200 which they have had for eight years. To me it was just a Jodel, but having become more intimately acquainted with it, I have discovered that it is in fact quite a rare one. There were only a few DR 200s built and the one Tony and Lorna own has the serial number 01, built at Dijon in 1965 by Centre Est Aéronautique before it became Avions Pierre Robin.

From a distance all Jodels look alike, but as I got nearer I could see differences between this and other models with which I am more familiar. G-AYDZ started its life with a 105 hp Potez 4E20 driving a Lègére prop, but that was replaced after 500 hours by a 118 hp Lycoming O-235-K2B turning an Evra prop. For an aircraft built 35 years ago, it is in good condition with few blemishes on the paint finish, bearing witness to the fact that its total airframe time is only some 1,900 hours. Tony had just flown in from his own very short strip (involving a white-knuckle take-off and landing which I had somehow managed to avoid!) so he had already done the pre-flight checks, but he talked me through them.

The aircraft is of wood, ply and fabric construction with glass fibre cowlings and spats. The cranked wings are the most obvious feature of the Jodel range and they are built in one piece with the large box spar and smaller auxiliary spar passing under the fuselage. Having helped in the construction of one, I know just what a complex, and very strong wing this is. The enormous amount of washout which gives the wing its docile handling is very apparent if you compare the incidence of the cranked tips with the wing-roots. The ailerons, which are mass balanced, are built with no washout, so they always look slightly twisted, matching the trailing edge at the inner end but drooping noticeably at the outer. Inboard of the ailerons are simple, not over-large flaps, which replace the airbrakes fitted to some models.

The fuselage is ply-skinned, with large, curved, forward-opening doors each side. The stabilator, also mass balanced, is mounted on top of the rear fuselage, with its control cables and bearing system covered by a fairing which forms the bottom leading edge of the fixed fin. The rudder, which is neither aerodynamically nor mass balanced, moves on hinges which, although recessed, are easily accessible for inspection and maintenance.

The basic walkround is pretty well standard for a low-wing aircraft. Aileron and rudder cables and hinges are easily inspected, but the stabilator centre section, where all the important bits are, is shielded beneath a fairing, as mentioned. As well as checking the stabilator for smooth movement in the normal way, it is necessary to wiggle the tip up and down to check for wear in the bearings.

There are three fuel tanks, one in each wing-root leading edge and one in the fuselage aft of the cabin. The three drains for these tanks are a bit of a scramble, being located under the fuselage and between the wings. In the same area, the huge wheel spats make checking the tyres and brakes a bit of a problem as well. Tony removed the cowlings (six Dzus fasteners and four pins) to show how easy it is to give the engine a thorough check, but for normal pre-flight the dipstick is accessible through a hatch.

Typically French

Entry to the front seats is an easy step from the wing walkways. The rear seats require some mild gymnastics to get into, needing a step over the folded front seat and ducking under the roof. The forward-opening doors can be latched in the open position--and I found it to be not too much of a stretch to unlatch the open door and latch it closed without releasing the harness. Once the doors are closed there is an over-centred safety catch overhead which firmly secures both doors. The front seats are adjustable fore and aft, and the front harness consists of a lapstrap and one diagonal shoulder strap. On climbing in I found the cockpit to be comfortable and pleasantly laid out.

The radio stack is impressive, comprising Narco audio panel, nav/com and DME, plus King ADF and transponder, giving the aircraft a theoretical IFR capability, although Tony admits the low wing-loading means that it is not an ideal plane to fly in IFR. The instruments are laid out neatly and logically and, more importantly, are English and thus graduated in comprehensible units!

At the left-hand side of the panel is an array of warning lights comprising three fuel warning lights (one for each tank, illuminating when the tank is one-quarter full, plus when the fuel tap is in the Off position), stall-warning lamp (duplicated by a horn) and generator charging light. A test switch enables the bulbs to be checked before flight.

On the left cockpit side, immediately aft of the panel, is the stabilator trim knob marked with neutral, nose up and down markers. The fuel tap is on the floor between the seats, aft of which is the flap lever. This looks like a conventional car handbrake and has two positions, take-off (about 10°) and landing (about 45°).

In typically French fashion, the parking brake pulls out of the lower centre instrument panel and looks for all the world as if it has been liberated from a Citroen 2CV! This can be used, albeit gently, if straight-line braking is needed, there being no separate footbrake pedals. Care must be taken however to pull it straight out and not twist it to the left-hand, locking position when applying braking! The brakes can be used independently for taxying by pushing the rudder pedals to the extreme of their travel.

The control sticks are linked and pivoted centrally so that lateral movements cause the stick to rise and fall, which can look very strange sometimes but in flight is not noticeable.

All the engine controls are grouped in the centre of the panel, comprising throttle, carb heat and mixture, along with the pull knob which operates the master switch. The starter switch is on the left, near the warning lights, and a short push was enough to bring the engine to life.

No warm-up was needed, so I checked the mags and carb heat at 1,700 rpm, then taxied out onto the noticeably uphill Eggesford runway, selected take-off flap and applied full power. Despite the slope the aircraft accelerated quickly, flew off with very little prompting at about sixty mph from the apex of the runway and settled into the climb at eighty.

On retracting the flaps at 500 feet, I felt little in the way of pitch change, and with them out of the way I increased the speed to climb at 95 mph. Cruise at 75 per cent power is quoted as 134 mph, at approximately the weight we were carrying, using 51,2 gph, so this is one very efficient aircraft. The cranked wing makes for impeccable handling at low speed--and a low-drag, efficient cruise at high speed. It is the aerodynamic equivalent of getting a quart out of a pint pot, and no I'm not going to translate that into millilitres.

Excellent handling

The general handling was excellent, with light and precise pitch control from the stabilator, very sweet ailerons but, I felt, a rather heavy rudder which could almost have done with a trimmer. The attitude in the cruise was noticeably nose-down and the pitch trimmer was very sensitive. Flying formation for photos in a strange aircraft can be a bit nerve-wracking, but I was soon feeling at home despite experiencing a thorough bouncing from the thermals we were flying through--we flew on one of the two days in June which constituted summer!

The gentle stall occurs at 55 mph clean and about 50 mph with full flap. Tony says that it is very weight-sensitive laterally and when flying solo it will gently drop a wing corresponding to which side he is sitting.

The rounded doors, streamlined windscreen and rear seat windows give pretty good visibility everywhere except behind, although there were a few times the windscreen pillars caused some minor obstructions. I found the solid roof could be almost as much of an obstruction as a high wing when turning tight to the right or trying to keep an eye on a higher aircraft for instance, but no more so than in, say, a Cherokee. That apart, the general impression is good.

Setting up for the landing was simplicity itself. With the throttle closed the airspeed bleeds away to below the flap limiting speed of 93 mph. A heave on the flap lever drops full flap, accompanied by a slight nose-down attitude. The throttle and trimmer can be used to set the approach speed of 75 mph until assured of making the field, whereupon the power can be reduced and the stick eased back to drop it gently onto the runway.

Given the slope at Eggesford, the landing roll was short. According to the manual, the tailwheel should be allowed to touch first, which may work for a Jodel but in some tailwheel aircraft will result in a very heavy landing. A crosswind is less of a problem than with some tailwheel aircraft, the powerful controls allowing it to cope with up to a 23 mph crosswind component.

My impressions? I liked it! Low engine power burning little fuel, coupled with reasonably high cruise speed, short field capability, comfort and reasonably good visibility make for an excellent mix. With a shade under 30 gallons of fuel you have a good five hours' endurance, far more than my bladder can stand, giving a range of over 600 miles. On the downside it is not really a four-seater if we are talking about standard pilots, more a two-plus-two. The useful load with full tanks is 550 lb, three standard pilots plus some baggage, but how many four-seaters can take four adults and full tanks? This provides something approaching the carrying capacity of a Cessna 172 but uses the engine (and fuel) of a 152. That's pretty good going by my standards.

Maintenance could be a bit of a problem if your local M3 organisation doesn't understand anything which isn't made in America and isn't covered in aluminium; thankfully there are still a few people around who can work on real aeroplanes. I have flown tailwheel aircraft for so long now that I look on that as the norm, but I realise the lack of a nosewheel can put some people off. All I can say is that this is one of the nicest, gentlest tailwheel aircraft for anyone to convert on to.

My thanks to Tony and Lorna for letting me fly their aircraft. The aircraft is for sale, asking price £26,000, so if anyone is interested in finding out more please contact Tony or Lorna on 01363 83049.

The aircraft has subsequently been sold - HT

Ernie Hoblyn

From Pilot Magazine, December 2000 page 4

Specifications