Scudrunners

Two questions

1. Why would an OEM  put a geared 480 in a military trainer. (Pilatus), and
2. Is there much involved in swapping out an engine like that and replacing it.. converting the aircraft to experimental is fine.

Hoping PilotDAR is on this site.

Actually, I am rather fond of the GO-480.  I've flown it in both push (Piaggio Royal Gull)
and pull (Beech Twin Bonanza) configurations, and they worked great and sounded
spectacular.  Perhaps I just lack experience on unusual types, though.

[img width=500 height=328]https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/abpi ... -large.jpg[/img]

Geared engines don't get much love, but they also worked fine for me in the C412B
and the hot-rod clip-wing Harvard with the geared three-blade R-1340 Wasp.

I think I've mentioned that the first C421B that I flew happily for years, was sold and
two ex-Air Canada pilots managed to trash both engines in a year, so badly that even
the crankcases were destroyed, which was quite something.  I mean, anyone can crack
all the cylinders of a TCM GTSIO-520, but [i]additionally[/i] trashing the crankcase halves is
impressive .. but a total of eight gold bars in the cockpit was up to it, apparently.

[img width=500 height=339][/img]

I used to charge Cdn$500 to check pilots out on the C421B in one day.  I'm not as bright
as an Air Canada pilot, but the first thing I would do is hand them a clipboard and ask them
to draw the fuel system, complete with all the pumps.  TC says I can't hold any instructor
ratings any more, but I wouldn't let someone step into a 421B until they understood the
fuel system.

The ex-Air Canada pilots that trashed both the engines of the C421B, needless to say,
didn't ask for any advice from me, because you can't teach an Air Canada pilot anything
because he knows it all.

I love geared engines.  It gets rid of the prop noise, and you hear the awesome rumbling
of the engines.  I'm not much of a pilot, I'm told, but I did surface aerobatics in the hot-rod
Harvard, solo - by myself, not CPL solo - on my first flight in it.  The geared R-1340 worked
fine for me.  The gyroscopic pitch-yaw coupling of the huge 3-blade metal prop was impressive
but expected, because I'm not very bright or experienced or qualified.

[img width=500 height=375][/img]

[img width=500 height=375][/img]

Checked myself out on that, too.  Sounded better than a P-51.  Honest.

PS  I hope the pictures of airplanes I've flown didn't trigger anyone. 

I'm hoping, really hard.

My limited experience with geared flat engines (C404/421)is that they might not be the best for flight training because of engine handling. A series of engine failures we noticed it was usually the #1which is the most popular engine to demonstrate  engine failure. After that and changing procedures we pretty much got a handle on it. TC was a little twisted because we would not chop the engine but with some firm words we convinced them - haha - silly fuckers.

“I'm not much of a pilot, I'm told, but I did surface aerobatics in the hot-rod Harvard, solo - by myself, not CPL solo - on my first flight in it.”




Now, THAT speaks volumes...

Sure does.  I've spent a lifetime flying, accident-free over all the many decades.
Proof is in the pudding, as they say.  Never dented an airplane.

You?

PS  Read Bob Hoover's biography sometime.  And get out more.  You
need to meet Rob Holland.

PPS  I'll try to get some more pictures up on the thread.

Andrew:


I was referring to your skill and hand/eye coordination.


What are you on about...?


PS  About 'denting' airplanes:  absolutely destroyed a Sabre and bloodied the nose of a Chipmunk.  Other than that, reasonably clean slate. 


Well... There was the thing with the blade tie down and the fin on the Jet Ranger, but we don't need to go into that...


PPS  But, I removed a boiling, runaway battery from the Jet Ranger, so it kind of made up for it...  (;>0)

[quote]I removed a boiling, runaway battery from the Jet Ranger[/quote]

Holy shit.  You're the crazy one.  I would have quickly run far, far away.

If the battery blew in situ, how was I to get home?


It boiled a long time after I got it out...

What happened with the Chipmunk?

I never ever put a dint in an aircraft since I started flying in 1953 either.

I let my medical lapse a couple of years ago.

I may get it back when I finish building my Thatcher CX4 and if I do I hope I don't wreck it.  :)