A Garmin 530W/430W combination is more than adequate for the Lefferts family. There were only two practical … New Fuel Filter 15. MORE (Maintenance on Reliable Engines) is an Arizona-based company that can extend the TBO based on condition observed during the hot-section inspections. The $450,000 conversion can be applied … High-speed cruise at FL190 is 260 KTAS on 80 gph and long-range cruise at FL250 is 245 KTAS at 68 gph. TBO is 3500 hours. In this report, we’ll look at the better-known ones. It has proven over decades of operation to be the most reliable and affordable (cost vs. capability) special mission platform on the market. We note that props on Soloy Mark I conversions of the 206 have about the same degree of erosion as piston 206s, perhaps due to the relatively low prop RPM of the Soloy installation—max RPM is 1810, and taxi RPM is about 1200. Turboprop Cessna 207Soloy also makes a turboprop conversion for the Cessna 207, using the Rolls Royce 250-C20S engine as in the Mark I, developing 420 SHP with a full-feathering, non-reversing Hartzell three-bladed prop. ☕ 1 min read. In the 1980s, Soloy branched into converting the Cessna 206 and 207 to turbine power, doing so for both land and seaplanes. On a flight from the Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to the John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio, the Cheyenne II burned 100 gallons of Jet A and put 1.2 clicks on the Hobbs. ADS-B is provided through a Garmin GTX 345 transponder. As with the Mark I, cruise RPM is 1810. Maintenance, including airframe, engine and APU, is estimated to cost … 2-Tach Generators 11. Lisa Lefferts preflights one of the PT6A-28s on the Cheyenne II. The Leffertses plan on 575 pounds/86 gallons in the first hour and 475 pounds/71 gallons per hour on subsequent hours at maximum cruise power. In the Lefferts family’s case, the Aerostar couldn’t fit in their local airport’s T-hangars, so storage for the Cheyenne was a neutral cost. Climb performance down low is spectacular. Handling-wise, the Cheyenne won’t be mistaken for the fingertip handling of an Aerostar. They removed the nose engine, lengthened the nose, and replaced the rear engine with a turboprop… Decrease landing distance by 50%. Operating temperatures have to be managed carefully. Inertia Separator System 9. Minus 10 degrees out? Both units are serviceable for now and work well for the family’s missions. The Boss 182 engine conversion is the only late-model engine upgrade approved on floats! Fire it up without worrying about preheat. The piston airplane is only certified on wheels. More Speed, More Climb, More Costs Turboprop conversions from pistons: big performance – at a price There's no such thing as a free lunch. The Cheyenne’s handling is very conventional, unlike the unique handling characteristics of the Mitsubishi MU–2, for example. ONLY 30 hrs since Conversion. With beta and reverse thrust, the Cheyenne also uses far less runway on landing. Legacy equipment in the panel include the Bendix DH-866 attitude indicator/flight director and Bendix M4D autopilot. But, either piston engine in a Malibu will also require a Top Overhaul at about 1000 hours SMOH, which will cost … It’s the only twin-engine turboprop on this list, so it burns more fuel than the others at 101.7 gallons per hour, which, at $5 per gallon, is $508.50 per hour. In the case of the -28 engines on the Cheyenne II, TBO goes out to 8,000 hours if an engine meets its stringent specs. It keeps the 3.35 PSI max differential pressurization of the P210 and its max operating altitude of FL230. With that kind of range and endurance, fuel can be traded for cabin weight, making a decent compromise as to number of passengers versus distance to travel. Pete Bedell is a pilot for a major airline and co-owner of a Cessna 172M and Beechcraft Baron D55. “From what I can tell there is no other turboprop that will operate as economically. Cheyenne's old-school pressurization controls. Silver Eagle IIO & N recently obtained an STC to carry out its Silver Eagle conversion on non-pressurized Cessna 210s. Double your rate of climb. O&N provides a one-year warranty on all parts they touch in the airframe, with two years on the engine and avionics. Thus far, 17 airplanes have been converted to fly at what Rocket shows as a max cruise of 290 knots at FL270. The fuel system is modified via a purchased STC from the original 120 gallons to carry an additional 10 gallons in each wing, plus a Rocket Engineering-developed 11.5-gallon header tank in the fuselage, which directly feeds the engine. The TP 100 turboprop engine … With 45-minute reserve up high, range is about 1000 miles and endurance about 3.5 hours. The result is that the light weight of  turbines is offset by the need to carry more, heavier fuel to achieve reasonable range. If you’ve flown a Piper Navajo, you’ll feel right at home in the Cheyenne, complete with the need for a huge amount of nose-up trim for the landing flare at forward center of gravity. Max cruise at 8000 feet is stated as 167 knots while burning 30.5 GPH, giving basic VFR range, with 45-minute reserve, of 350 miles and endurance, with 45-minute reserve of just over two hours. For those who fly regularly where the avgas supply is iffy or who want a big performance bump and turbine reliability in an airframe that is as familiar as an old boot, these mods are worth serious consideration. 2009/2020 Jetprop DLX. As with almost any turboprop, to get range and endurance, higher is better. With the 4000 pound gross weight, about 750 pounds can be carried in the cabin with full fuel, a respectable load. Depending on winds and power setting, Steve figures an 800- to 1,000-nautical-mile range. Texas Turbine Conversions’ most recent and highly successful STC effort provides Cessna Caravan owners with unprecedented thrust, performance, and efficiency regardless of operating conditions. According to the O&N folks, most owners also opt for Flint tip tanks, adding 32.5 gallons of fuel, for a total usable of 148 gallons. Royal TurbineThe Royal Turbine is a conversion of the Beech B60 Duke. There’s no zero fuel or max landing weight. O & N AircraftBy installing a 450-HP Rolls Royce 250 B17F/2 in place of a TSIO-520 on a Cessna P210N and making numerous airframe mods, O & N Aircraft Modifications, Inc., in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, created the Silver Eagle. After a few years of ownership, his hunch has been verified, and in the meantime, his family has a safer, more capable and comfortable airplane. Shorten block-time up to 25%. Aftermarket designers have hung ever-larger piston engines on factory airframes, with varying levels of success, for decades. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. So what’s the true cost of ownership? For decades, the drumbeat has been steady—turbine airplanes are unobtainium as private aircraft. Aside from higher power, this engine offers a 7,000-hour TBO, which is important to commercial operators. Cost-effective turboprop engine performance solutions for government and military customers seeking upgrades. Turbine AirNot one to sit on its laurels, Rocket Engineering  doesn’t limit its work to the JetPROP. At press time, all we know is that the fuel system holds 252 gallons and the price of the conversion, if you provide the airplane, is $1.5 million. If they continue to use the airplane as a business and personal steed, it will provide decades of service on the current engines at their current rate. Using the optional Flint tip tanks, figure on a 45-minute reserve VFR range of 1175 miles and 5.6 hours endurance, at max cruise. Not a member? Obviously it wasn’t … Gross takeoff weight for the Mark I is 3600 pounds and advertised empty weight is 1908 pounds, giving a useful load of 1692 pounds. Box 2305 Oshkosh, WI 54903-2305 USA Telephone: (920) 236-7820 28 volt Electrical Generator Control System 14. Steve’s a classic over-analyzer with an open mind and savvy business sense who has always been an airplane nut. Already a member? We sell a variety of Blackhawk-powered aircraft featuring low … We like what we see. Our experience is that such data can be a trifle optimistic, especially when it comes to cruise speeds and useful loads. A 19-seat twin-engine STOL turboprop developed from the CASA 212, the aircraft first flew in 2017. Piston airplanes, in general, need more routine maintenance than any turbine. A comfortable seven-seat cabin setup is roomier and more comfortable than the Aerostar the Lefferts family previously owned. Oh, there’s still the looming overhaul of two (gulp) turbines, to the tune of $500,000—but, under Part 91 operations, there’s no requirement to overhaul at TBO. US$ 4.5 million, US$6.5 million as of 2012. Lisa and Steve Lefferts’s turbine experience has been good so far. American Aviation's Aerodynamic Speed Stacks pull double duty of reducing drag and directing turbine soot away from the airframe. Two PT6A-35 engines rated at 525 HP are hung on what has long been considered a draggy airframe, turning it into an attractive hotrod. Generally, until the airframe reaches the size of a TBM 850, it’s difficult to find enough space to carry sufficient fuel to get practical-range out of a turbine-powered airplane with any useful load left for carrying people. Gross weight is 4000 pounds; our test flight in 2010 showed an empty weight of 2699 pounds. Developed from. After four years of work, the STC was obtained in August 2012. Carrying the full 88 gallons of usable jet fuel (590 pounds) means 1102 pounds in the cabin. First Word: Flying With Masks, Mustaches and Mics, First Word: Used Aircraft: A Seller’s Market, For Now. Turbine care enters a higher expense bracket but the intervals between maintenance are longer and far less work has to be done, thereby reducing labor costs. They also offer a similar conversion … A highly variable cost is hangars. The Mark II mod has a Rolls Royce 250-B17/2 developing 417 SHP for five minutes and 322 SHP continuously. Two prototypes are currently in flight test. With the optional Flint tip tanks full, cabin load is 310 pounds. Reduce take off roll by 40%. While some of the equipment, such as the Bendix attitude indicator and autopilot, are old, they work well and are still supported. This becomes particularly acute in the relatively small, piston-powered airframes, and their correspondingly small wings and fuel tanks, designed for piston fuel consumption specifics. Pilot Jaromir Hammer flew the Cessna for approximately 1.2 mi (2 km). However, there’s no free lunch; jet fuel weighs .7 of a pound per gallon more than avgas. For example, marketing literature from O & N Aircraft Modifications, maker of the Silver Eagle turboprop-modified Cessna 210, clearly describes the structural changes it makes as part of its upgrade to the airframe. In return, however, you get runway and climb performance that puts a typical piston twin to shame and vastly increases takeoff safety. … The penalty in fuel burn, on the other hand, is equally significant. A total of 96 have been delivered. Soloy certified its turbine mod 207 on floats as well as wheels. Engine TBO is 3500 hours. The first airplane has been delivered. Soloy specs show a max cruise of 179 knots at 18,000 feet and 170 knots at 10,000 feet with a max VFR range (45-minute reserve) at max cruise at 15,000 feet of 422 miles. It is also available on amphibious floats. Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association Find it free on the store. ConclusionTurboprop conversions are not cheap. FORTUNE Magazine named it the "Travel Product of the Century", and Basler Turbo Conversions … For more than five decades, active and dedicated aircraft owners and pilots have turned to AVIATION CONSUMER to answer their most important buying questions. This could be especially valuable as Soloy is marketing a version of the airplane with a law enforcement package where the ability for low-noise loitering at reduced power could be valuable and might make inroads into the law enforcement helicopter market. The option is also open to put the airplane on a Part 135 certificate if they purchase the MORE STC. And when you factor in all the costs and benefits, you may be surprised to learn that the true cost of a legacy twin turboprop may be quite close to that of a cabin-class piston twin. Browse a wide selection of new and used Turboprop Aircraft near you at Controller.com. New Fiberglass Cowlings 6. Not bad for a six-place airplane, although  it’s not a fill-the-seats-and-fill-the-tanks machine. Known as the JetPROP DL (economy) and DLX (performance) and equipped with a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-21 (550 HP) and -35 (560 HP) engines, respectively, the JetPROP series, at some 268 airplanes in the field, is currently the most popular general aviation turbine modification after the DeHavilland Beaver and Otter series, which aren’t commonly owner-flown and are beyond the scope of this article. Performance achieved with a Rolls-Royce Turboprop Engine conversion by Soloy Aviation. For the budget conscious, one could choose to skip the hangar, but that’ll cut into utility and convenience on frosty mornings, for example. Endurance, with 45-minute reserve, is about 4.3 hours. The maximum landing weight is 4100 pounds, so on any gross-weight takeoff, about 30 gallons of fuel has to be burned off before landing. This is a required inspection halfway to the 3,600-hour Pratt & Whitney TBO. Among the MKII’s many advancements is the upgraded 450 SHP, Rolls … The company is reporting a max cruise speed on the order of 300 knots. While the couple loved the Aerostar’s fingertip handling and performance efficiency at altitude, the annual maintenance costs were on par with entry-level turboprops, specifically the Cheyenne II. ©2020 Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. For instance, Malibu piston:- manages about 210 to 220 knots true … New Frakes Exhaust Stacks 5. In order to make turboprop conversions work in light singles, the engine has to meet a narrow set of parameters with regard to weight and fuel consumption. O&N advertises a max cruise for the Silver Eagle of about 220 knots at FL220 while burning 22 GPH. Max takeoff weight for the Mark II is the same as the Mark I, 3600 pounds, with an advertised useful payload with full fuel (88 gallons usable) of 1085 pounds. … Landing over the same obstacle is published at 1094 feet. Power and speed—two of aviation’s touchstones—have been pursued as long as there have been airplanes and people willing to throw money at them. On floats, gross weight increases to 3,370 lbs or 3,500 … Are there any major disadvantages over the equivalent piston engined / turboprop (putting aside the initial cost obviously). It has PT6A-21 engines rated at 500 hp. Number-cruncher Steve surmised he could purchase a 1980 Piper Cheyenne II and own it for a similar cost as their Aerostar. Airline pilots Steve and Lisa Lefferts found they could own a 1980 Piper Cheyenne II for similar cost as their Piper Aerostar—with the reliability of turbine engines. The conversion is currently priced at $895,000 with certification targeted for the spring of 2013. The cost is US$409,900. Engineering designed a PT- 6A-21 conversion for the Beechcraft Bonanza (B36TC). The performance data we quote comes from the companies themselves, so we recommend a degree of skepticism. The Cheyenne II, weighing about 8,000 pounds, turned in a speed of 242 KTAS on 66 gph with a density altitude of 27,100 feet. And at some $75,000 each, the engines (including turbos, accessories, and labor), aren’t cheap to overhaul at intervals typically less than 2,000 hours. Something like a Beechcraft Baron 58P can fit into a T-hangar, which minimizes storage costs. “This is where the Cheyenne shines,” said Steve. At FL200, the max operating altitude for the Mark I, max cruise is 156  knots with fuel flow at 20.4 GPH, generating a VFR range of 620 miles and endurance of 4.1 hours, each with 45-minute reserve. For each horsepower output, the turbine uses more fuel than does a piston engine. 3-Engine Mount Isolators 12. With 45-minute reserve at max cruise with standard fuel, VFR range is about 850 miles; endurance about 3.9 hours. Climb rate does peter out in the upper teens, however. Max gross weight is 4000 pounds, with Soloy publishing an empty weight with eight seats at 2175 pounds. That’s about double the fuel burn of the Aerostar. “It’s not a free lunch—you have to keep certain components in tighter specs but complying with the STC, you’re way ahead of the cost of doing an overhaul at the factory TBO.” It should be noted that factory TBO for versions of the Honeywell (Garrett) TPE-331 have been extended to 5,400 hours and beyond as they’ve proven their reliability. Published price for the conversion is $615,000. Flight Level 210 to FL230 is a good trade-off between speed and fuel burn. While the Pratts consume a lot more fuel than the Lycomings on their previous Aerostar, the couple enjoys the easy operation, safety, and reliability the turbines bring. If you’re seeking a cabin-class single that goes high and flies fast, Rocket Engineering converts the Piper Malibu and Mirage to turbine power. 200 amp Generator 13. The family took a recent trip to Tampa, Florida, and Steve ran the numbers for the Cheyenne versus the Aerostar 700. Top models include KING AIR 350, KING AIR B200, KING AIR 200, KING AIR C90, KING AIR 350I, and … Pilots calculate total cost for flying by including an “engine reserve” in their calculations. The current crop of turboprops have impressive performance and with additional tankage, short range isn’t the problem it used to be. It was warmer than standard and density altitude was 20,000 feet. 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