Are Pressurized Piston Twins Worth the Effort?

[hindsight2020]

I was attending APS in Ada a few years ago. Weather was awful and a bunch of arrivals were stacked up in the hold when Brent’s left(iirc) engine decided to eat a valve. He shut it down and shot the approach to pretty low ceilings. It was definitely a ‘bring your A game’ moment.

Yup. Conti valves/jugs are a known quantity. That's why I have the odd-even rule when it comes to engines. you fly contis in even numbers, lycos in odd. Usually I stick with 0 and 1 respectively. *ducks*

And yes, there is such a thing as a lyco with n=3. Look at this ugly thing, it's beautiful!

 

[GRG55]

didn't you know, everybody is "middle class" up in here.
Where have I heard that one before?.....
View attachment 72607

Does this rock pile come with a hangar?

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

650 /hr wet is Pilatus territory...a much nicer ride

PC-12....baby.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

While looking for something else today, I came across an old but good (except for the dollar amounts) article on turbocharging and pressurization written by Mike Busch that's worth a read:

https://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182808-1.html

The dollar amounts, like I said, are laughable... $2 for a gallon of fuel, etc... But the article was written back in 1996 when that was the case. Sigh. But, the 1980 310R is now $121K instead of $168K, and the 340 is $190K instead of $265K. All of the maintenance and fuel numbers are probably double or more what they list.

 

[Ted]

While looking for something else today, I came across an old but good (except for the dollar amounts) article on turbocharging and pressurization written by Mike Busch that's worth a read:

https://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182808-1.html

The dollar amounts, like I said, are laughable... $2 for a gallon of fuel, etc... But the article was written back in 1996 when that was the case. Sigh. But, the 1980 310R is now $121K instead of $168K, and the 340 is $190K instead of $265K. All of the maintenance and fuel numbers are probably double or more what they list.

Like a lot of things Mike writes, it looks good until you separate the realities from the theories.

From what I've observed, Mike is in one of two camps (and it's the smaller of the two). There are people like him who keep the same airplane forever, and people who end up keeping airplanes for shorter periods of time (and when I say that, I mean less than one engine TBO). Even when you look at my history, the most number of hours I've put on a single aircraft serial number is 1,000 hours.

If you're in Mike's group of keeping a plane for a very long time and you fly longer trips mostly (which last time I looked at his FlightAware tracks, he doesn't), he has an argument because you can amortize those costs out over a longer period of time. The reality is that most people, at least most people I see who buy turbocharged aircraft, are keeping them for some shorter period of time before moving on to the next airplane for whatever reason. In those cases, what happens if you do it right is you pay a lot of money for fixing whatever is broken with the turbo system, or you neglect it and hope that it doesn't melt your engine beam. Or you buy the plane from the person who spent a lot of money on it, and maybe you're lucky enough to spend less money on it in the timeframe you own it.

Reality is it's generally a crapshoot, and the more things you have to break, the more things that will break. Navajos are the most reliable turbocharged aircraft I've seen in my experience.

 

[N747JB]

Having owned a few twin Cessnas, a 310R,2 414A's, a 441, a 421B and now a 425, I can give you the same advice a friend gave me 25 years ago, "Do not under any circumstances let your wife sit in the back of a 400 series Cessna, unless you intend on buying one." Seriously, get some twin time and a 414 or 421 will do what you need to do, the 414 is a little faster, the 421 will haul more weight. Both burn 40 GPH in cruise or pretty close. My current 425 has been great for us, more useful load, faster of course and the same cabin at 414A and 421B or C. I flight plan for 250 knots at 70 GPH, it's closer to 62 in cruise, but I still plan 70 and never run out! The maintenance is higher on turbines, but much less unexpected stuff comes up. I can say other than a couple minor leaks, I have never had any real pressurization issues. If you buy one, find one that is flying regularly and has been maintained by a GOOD shop!