Lead Sled
Sitt'n on the throne...
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
- Posts
- 2,066
There's the old joke that says that the only problem with the Astra is that it has 6 hours worth of fuel and 4 hours worth of cabin.xrated said:...One big drawback it the size of its cabin...In addition, instead of hot wings, it has boots like a turbo-prop, or a slow Citation (or even an ancient Jet Commander). I've never heard of an Astra having icing issues but boots do warrent additional inspections and care. Why wouldn't IAI or Gulfstream make it a hot wing? The usuall answer is because if you used bleed air, the airplane would be significantly "underpowered".
As far as Hawaii goes, it can be done in the Classic and SP, but you've really got to watch the winds. It's much easier in an SPX or G100. The biggest problem that guys have in getting the range out of the airplane is that they don't bother to read the book. If you want book performance you have to fly it by the book.
As far as the "boots vs. heated leading edges" go, you need to remember that heated leading edges are considered anti-icing devices and pneumatic leading edge boots are considered deicing devices. There is a big difference between the two concepts.
The problem with heated leading edge anti-ice systems is that they need heat and lots of it. The heat typically comes from an engine bleed air source. Anytime you take that much heat from an engine you also take away a significant amount of power.
For anti-ice systems to be effective you must turn them on prior to entering icing conditions, otherwise they will just melt the ice and the water will flow back to places that are protected and refreeze - not a good thing. Also, chunks of ice can come off and go through the engines (B727, DC9, MD-80, Lear, Citation, etc. Anything with rear mounted engines.)
On the Lears that I've flown, turning on the wing heat had a significant effect on the climb capability of the aircraft, something in the range of 50% if I remember correctly. The Astras and G200 that I fly have the "old fashioned" boots on the leading edges. When I first trained in the aircraft, I was very sceptical - boots on a modern jet airplane, you've got to be kidding? In the real world, they're actually pretty nice. You only use them when you need them, and they don't extract a performance penality when you do. I've got nearly 4,000 hours in Astras and G200s and they work extremely well, I think. I say that because I can count on one hand the actual number of times that I've ever had to use them in self defense, all of the other times were for amusement purposes only.
'Sled
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