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> Private pilots just don’t fly that much compared to the small commercial operators. (And the few that do are likely to upgrade to turbine equipment, burning J
by jabl 6y ago
> Private pilots just don’t fly that much compared to the small commercial operators. (And the few that do are likely to upgrade to turbine equipment, burning Jet-A.)
Why aren't those small commercial operators that fly a lot then upgrading to Jet-A burning equipment?
- sokoloff 6y agoCost. Turbine engines are expensive to buy. (Think $500K-$1500K each for small ones vs $35K-75K for pistons.) Cape Air passengers aren’t willing to pay enough to let Cape Air operate B200s or Metros. The mostly business owners flying themselves privately in support of their business have more money to spend on tools to run their business than Cape Air pax or banner tow advertisers. They went turbine because turbine engines have incredible dispatch reliability. Believe me, if turboprops cost anywhere near the same, the piston airplane market would evaporate overnight.
- jabl 6y agoNote I carefully said "Jet-A burning" rather than turbines specifically. As OP mentioned, diesel piston engines burning Jet-A or diesel are fairly popular in Europe. Of course, that still requires a new engine or even a new plane vs. the cost of keeping the current one running.
- sokoloff 6y agoYes. You carefully (half-)changed the subject in text and then shouted “hah; gotcha!” when I missed it. There is no aviation diesel available for 402-sized airplanes and none for helicopters that I’m aware of. Banner tows could fly anything, sure.
- jabl 6y agoSorry, I didn't mean to trick you into some trap.
- sokoloff 6y agoCool. It’s the turbine that provides the reliability and that happens to burn Jet-A rather than the Jet-A that provides the reliability and happens to be a turbine so the subject change was extraordinarily unlikely to be detected. Spinny-spinny works a lot more reliably than the suck-squeeze-bang-blow monkey-motion needed by reciprocating engines.
- NikolaeVarius 6y agoWait what, Turbines are suck-squeeze-bang-blow, albiet without the monkey motion.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sokoloff 6y agoI’d replace “bang” with “burn” in turbines, but the real key is rotary vs recip.
- nine_k 6y agoDon't most helicopter fly on (unleaded) jet fuel already, their engines overwhelmingly being turbines?
- torginus 6y agoMy pilot friend once told me that turbines aren't really appropriate for hobbyist use - they are limited in start/stop cycles due to the heating/cooling stresses, and consume tons of fuel at idle. They are also really, really loud.
- baybal2 6y ago> Turbine engines are expensive to buy. A big paradox given that they are not that expensive to build. Such a prehistoric engine as PT6 cannot possibly cost so much to build in materials. It actually went up in price over the years. As I know, the main PT6 line don't even use monocrystaline blades.