![]() To the left of the web address, click Lock or Info. Go to a page you trust that has blocked ads. If you operate at or above FL180 very often, you’ll most often be cruising in smooth air and sunshine.Check my ads On your computer, open Chrome. Fully half of the world’s weather tops at 18,000 feet MSL or below, so the higher you fly, the better the ride. Of course, one major benefit for my record flight was good weather and excellent winds aloft. Average speed for the full, seven-hour-nine-minute-cross-country dash from LAX to JAX was 300.1 mph, but one of the intermediate legs, Los Angeles to Albuquerque, worked out at 338.4 mph. I flew the trip at FL250 all the way with the world’s fastest refueling stop at Dallas Love Field. I got a graphic taste of what a turbo can do for speed in 1994 when I set eight world-class C1C city-to-city speed records between Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Dallas and Jacksonville in a new Mooney Bravo. In most reasonable situations, compressed power will make a big difference in both climb and cruise. The moral is that you can turbocharge the engine, but you can’t turbocharge the wing and the prop. True, the density altitude was up to nearly 13,000 feet, but I assumed the twin turbos out front would take care of that problem. The Bellanca surged ahead with what seemed its usual enthusiasm, but when it came time to fly, what had been 1,500 fpm at sea level turned out to about half that at 10,000 feet MSL. The temperature was about 74 degrees when I pushed the throttle forward for takeoff. (Some even utilize intercoolers to cool the intake air and provide additional prospective power, but that’s another story.)Īfter a cup of coffee with the manager and some deep-breathing exercises, I climbed back into the energetic T-Viking for the remainder of the trip West. Most modern turbos employ automatic waste gates that limit boost depending upon altitude and provide sea-level power until the waste gate is fully open. A turbocharger, not so simply, compresses intake air and delivers it to the engine at a graduated rate. A turbo typically contributes at least another 10,000 feet of vertical altitude to an airplane’s flight envelope, expanding available cruise levels from roughly 13,000 to 14,000 to 23,000 to 25,000 feet. Turbocharging adds another dimension to flying, a spectrum of sky well above the bottom two-and-a-half miles of airspace that clings to the Earth. That means you can reasonably expect a properly leaned engine to develop 65% power at 9,500 to 10,000 feet and 55% at 11,000 to 12,000 feet. Above that height, full throttle power gradually drops off at the rate of roughly five percent per thousand feet. A normally aspirated aircraft engine will develop 75% to about 7,000 to 8,500 feet, depending upon the efficiency of the induction system. There’s nothing inherently wrong with turbos-in fact, they’re more reliable than ever-but the market has contracted and manufacturers have been forced to cut back.Īs we all learned in flight school, most engines are rated for max cruise at 75% power. Today, many of the models above are no longer in production, and most of those that survive are represented by a single version, usually the normally aspirated airplane. (Apologies to anyone I missed.) Indeed, it seemed turbocharging was the wave of the future. Piper had the Arrow and Turbo Arrow, along with the Dakota and Turbo Dakota, Lance and Turbo Lance, Cherokee Six and Turbo Six, Navajo and Aerostar Cessna was selling the 182/182RG/210/206 and 310 in normal and heavy-breathing configurations Beech had the 36 Bonanza and Baron with and without turbos Mooney offered the 201/231, Socata sold the Trinidad and Trinidad TC Bellanca was marketing the Viking and Turbo Viking and Lake sold turbo and non-turbo versions of its little Buccaneer and Renegade amphibians. There were more than three handfuls of personal aircraft available in both normally aspirated and turbocharged trim. In those halcyon times of the late ’70s and early ’80s, when the industry was selling at least 15,000 airplanes a year, a buyer had a huge selection of turbocharged models to choose from. Back in the day, prospective buyers could plan on spending an extra 10 to 15% to add turbocharging to a new airplane. ![]()
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