Anybody want to buy a nice 310?

Nice tailwind! Hope it was on the 'going home flight'. ;):)
 
James_Dean said:
Smooth as glass. I found the unicorn. Hope like hell it changes before I go home.
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Well... Looks like it'll still be a stiff headwind if you head back tomorrow morning. Sunday looks much more favorable, maybe only 20 knots of headwind component then.

BTW, smooth tailwinds aren't the unicorn. Tailwinds in both directions are. ;) Pete and I managed to do that on the way to and from the FlyBQ a few years ago. 1700nm from the midwest to the east coast with some pretty sharp turns involved and we somehow still had tailwinds the whole trip. Or maybe it was the BBQ giving Pete gas. ;)
 
Damn it, now I need a Lear.
 
Coming up on 100 hours in the Conquest. I don't want to jinx it, but have had nearly zero squawks so far. Had a small hydro leak that turned out to just be a pinched o-ring. Have to do the Phase 2(6-8 hours labor)at the 100 hr mark and fuel nozzle inspection and Phase 59/60(30-50 hours)corrosion inspections are due about the same time. Also have to do the prop OH at the end of July.

loving it.
 
So, first HSI’s ongoing on the Conquest. One of these collection of $200,000 in parts has a problem.... on both engines.


73FA45E0-9BEE-4E72-9342-748633825F61.jpeg05B6B222-7952-4FA1-8D5E-3036093650A5.jpegAD2D34DB-6EC6-4B75-920E-50E1BD3DC77F.jpeg
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Hopefully that can be welded so you don’t have to buy a replacement
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My guide vanes on both engines have cracks. Not uncommon, and most likely will be repairable. So far it looks like I’ll be at $25k a side for my first HSI’s. Not bad at all for 1800 hours of service. I spent the day today reviewing quotations and making calls....so far I’ve determined that the turbine repair world is generally full of charlatans and hucksters whose livelihoods depend upon rich suckers who don’t do their homework.

BTW, generally it looks like the guide vanes can be repaired/exchanged for $10k/side. If they fail inspection and I have to give up the core charge it will be another $16k. The new part from Pratt? $102,000...... Welcome to the land of turbine engines.
 
^^^those are egg yjokes, in case you didn't catch on.
 
James_Dean said:
My guide vanes on both engines have cracks. Not uncommon, and most likely will be repairable. So far it looks like I’ll be at $25k a side for my first HSI’s. Not bad at all for 1800 hours of service. I spent the day today reviewing quotations and making calls....so far I’ve determined that the turbine repair world is generally full of charlatans and hucksters whose livelihoods depend upon rich suckers who don’t do their homework.

BTW, generally it looks like the guide vanes can be repaired/exchanged for $10k/side. If they fail inspection and I have to give up the core charge it will be another $16k. The new part from Pratt? $102,000...... Welcome to the land of turbine engines.
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When I was looking at shops to do the HSIs on the MU-2, I saw people who claimed an expected range was anywhere from $50-100k. The shops that said to just plan on $100k got automatically excluded from the contenders. Yes, charlatans and hucksters, many of them. There are good ones out there, though.
 
James_Dean said:
so far I’ve determined that the turbine repair world is generally full of charlatans and hucksters whose livelihoods depend upon rich suckers who don’t do their homework.
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Sadly true... But they seem to have quite a supply of those to keep them in business. Good on you for doing your homework and keeping them honest!
 
James_Dean said:
My guide vanes on both engines have cracks. Not uncommon, and most likely will be repairable. So far it looks like I’ll be at $25k a side for my first HSI’s. Not bad at all for 1800 hours of service. I spent the day today reviewing quotations and making calls....so far I’ve determined that the turbine repair world is generally full of charlatans and hucksters whose livelihoods depend upon rich suckers who don’t do their homework.

BTW, generally it looks like the guide vanes can be repaired/exchanged for $10k/side. If they fail inspection and I have to give up the core charge it will be another $16k. The new part from Pratt? $102,000...... Welcome to the land of turbine engines.
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I maintained several small and large series pt6 engines over the years. Never opened a -67 or a -65 and found a guide vane ring without cracks. Very common indeed. I swear they crack on the first start. Lol.
 
weilke said:
How many 310s can you buy for the price of that part ?
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I think a little perspective is important. These engines went 1800 hours without spark plugs, oil changes(well one), compression checks, etc. That is 1800 hours with a $30k HSI and good for another 1800 hours. Show me ANY piston twin that can do that.
 
Well it's probably good you are using the acronym HSI. If you had used "hot section" that might have triggered @Ted...and who knows where that would have taken this thread. :D
 
James_Dean said:
I think a little perspective is important. These engines went 1800 hours without spark plugs, oil changes(well one), compression checks, etc. That is 1800 hours with a $30k HSI and good for another 1800 hours. Show me ANY piston twin that can do that.
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Basing this on what I pay for one IO-550, and assuming you do the full overhaul at 1800 hours on a turbocharged piston one, I would say the piston twin would run you around $130,000 for that same length of time. So if they're repairable you come out way ahead, and if you had to buy new parts from Pratt the piston would cost half as much.

When Dave Siciliano got the King Air, I was surprised at how economical (relatively speaking, of course) some of those engine repairs could be... Or just pick up a used engine off a plane that's getting a Blackhawk mod or something for about the same price as I'm expecting the overhaul to cost on the IO-550.

There's still a lot of things you can do that will cost a LOT more money on the turbine side, though, so I'm going to keep banging around the sky in a piston when I'm paying the bills. Sigh.
 
James_Dean said:
. I spent the day today reviewing quotations and making calls....so far I’ve determined that the turbine repair world is generally full of charlatans and hucksters whose livelihoods depend upon rich suckers who don’t do their homework.

BTW, generally it looks like the guide vanes can be repaired/exchanged for $10k/side. If they fail inspection and I have to give up the core charge it will be another $16k. The new part from Pratt? $102,000...... Welcome to the land of turbine engines.
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yep. We too found that when we were shopping for an airplane. One of the airplanes we had an offer on, a 425, had similar issues to yours but they didn’t disclose it. We found it when going through the inspection. “Pratt says it’s airworthy until it’s time for hots” that’s fine, you can keep your airplane and I’ll move on. Even brokers think people buying this level of airplane are too stupid to read the prebuy. Sign the check and they’ll “take care of you”

that being said I do agree that the right turbine isn’t necessarily exponentially more expensive. Our direct operating costs for our average trip (Phoenix to rapid city) are the same or even a few bucks less in the conquest vs the 310. Plus the fact it’s a 3 hour ordeal and not 6+ is worth something.
Hope y’all get it fixed soon. Who’s doing the repair?
 
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