MU-2, Pilot Perspective

[sweptwingz]

Don't let them scare you too badly....

I ran an MU-2L (long body / freight mod) for a Part 135 auto parts on
demand in the Great Lakes and Canada. It is a fantastic airplane, but
you MUST know it's quirks....it does not suffer fools lightly.
The "Mits" is a trim hungry beast, any change in power or configuration
usually requires a complete retrim. It is nowhere as near a dynamically
stable as a King Air. Fly it by the numbers, and remember to use a
checklist EVERY TIME you take off. Forget the take off flaps and you
will rapidly become familiar with that seldom mentioned V speed, "Vcr"
(That's "Accelerate / Car'" because that's what you for all purposes are,
a 140 knot automobile, that will shoot off the runway's end.)
Hard IMC single pilot with an inoperative autopilot was a "no go"
at my company due to the Mits's lack of stability. Know the autopilot,
and learn it's quirks well, as uncommanded pitch downs have killed more
than a few pilots. Good headsets are a MUST. The Garrett TPE-331s
are world renowned for the MU-2 salute....that's a ramp lineman with
his hands mashed tight against his ears.
Now for the good stuff: It hauls bootie, sips gas, rides great in
turbulance due to the high wing loading, will carry a whale of ice if
you keep it scooting, has huge flaps that will allow incredible short
field operations, is built like a tank, and seldom breaks.

In summary, it's a neat machine...just stay current and play by the rules
and you'll do fine! I loved the MU-2.

 

[FRDOG]

Don't land it hard with full tanks cause you'll f up the spar.....you can tell the ones that have been landed hard and the ones that are cherrys by how the wing oilcans when you move the tank up and down
-dog

 

[328dude]

Actually, the MU can be taken off without flaps. Not that you would want to for all seriousness, but if your fooling around and empty, its fun. *Only long runways though*

Performance wise, it can be put into 2000 foot strips and taken out of. (not to heavy). a arse chewing resulted after CP found out. Fun stuff. LOL

The cabin dump comes in handy for Mountain Dew farts. Or, you can pull the door seal breaker. Not recommended. Ears will hurt with the later.

Spinning tip tank fuel gauges are very common. Wip out the calculator and keep mental notes of your fuel. Don't trust the gauges.

Some MU-2's have a breaker panel in the back of the plane. Really sucks if you pop one and your full of crap and don't have anyone to crawl back there.

Make sure the line service guys put your tow link back togehter. You will do this atleast once.

Backing up with beta is fun.

Vmc is very violant with no flaps. Screaming is optional.

Rolls like a dream and high speeds. Make sure someone shows you how. Never had the guts to do it myself though.

If you have the emergency hatch on either the captains or FO;s seat window, DO NOT GO OUT HEAD FIRST!!!!!!!!. You will break your arse.

One of the biggest pain is putting extra seats in the back. Screwing around with those pegs and sliding them is a royal pain in the arse.

So many memories and good times with this thing.
Wish I would have stayed.

Anybody else have any memories?

 

[bart]

Thanks Everyone!

Thanks for all the informative and entertaining posts. Have now flown 4 Part 91 legs and start indoc training on the 21st and MU-2 School with Reese on the 3rd of March. I have 1 landing under my belt... the most challenging I have ever made (with a 4 knot wind down the runway).

I can say that learning this plane will be a challenge and it has my respect. I can also see that I am going to love flying it. I have a great Captain working with me and he has already shared some great insights into the aircraft with me. Thanks for all the stories and I look forward to sharing mine with you.

Frank Bell

 

[skyking328]

Reece Howell training = Safe MU2 pilot

Sir you are very lucky to get trained by Mr Howell. I used to fly the MU2 out of Smyrna TN. I logged a little over 2000 hours in that airplane and flew it all over the country. Reece is a great instructor. Listen to what he has to say and use some good common sense and you will get lots of enjoyment out of the airplane. Just be careful in icing conditions. Dont get slow or fly around with a high pitch attitude. The autopilots have a bad reputation. I used to turn mine off for all approaches and when I encountered moderate or greater icing conditions. As Reece will show you, TRIM is the key to flying the airplane especially if you loose an engine. Good luck and fly safe!!!

PS: Before takeoff always check 5 to stay alive - 3 trims, flaps, and condition levers.

Take care

 

[throttlejockey]

I have never flown an MU-2 but my father was VP of Marketing for Mistubishi back in the early 80's and had his own Solitare Demonstrator.

He used to demonstrate the aircraft into and out of 2000' ft. unimproved airstrips that would scare all the prospective Beech demonstration pilots away.

He often concedes that the Solitare was not for the faint of heart, but waxes poetically about the fact that it is a true pilots airplane.

He always told me that if you know the airplane well enough, had good initial training, and do not get slow, you will have the best time of your life.

So enjoy!

throttlejockey

 

[Lindy]

More Memories

Something interesting about the fuel system.....it's pressurized. This is important because if there is a problem with a fuel cap not sealing correctly (or perhaps not installed correctly) you will not be using the tip fuel. This of course leads to a tip having too much fuel for landing. Yep, like a Learjet, there are restrictions on the amount of fuel you can land with in the tip.

It is a great airplane to fly!! Everyone stated that it is not for the meek or the mild, which is true.

And if anyone ever tells you that the airplane will not fly on one engine, that person is wrong. You need to know how to fly the aircraft, know the procedures, and find a place to land. During training we would feather one and perform turns INTO THE FEATHERED ENGINE. It still flew nicely.

Now, I'm not 328Dude by any stretch of the imagination (losing a blade??.....you are my hero) but the advice posted has been worthwile.

Since you are just starting you need to know the following: (1) Aerodynamics of the Aircraft...Spoilers vs Ailerons (2) Fuel System (besides the tips, there is only one manifold in the main tank, fuel gauge inaccuracies, etc.)

Good Luck

P.S. I'll even tell a story.....It was my first trip after training and the ink on the 135 letter was still drying. I was to ferry another crew from airport Y to airport X, about a 40 minute flight. As I taxi out, I am performing the checklist The flaps wouldn't extend. Now, I am reviewing everything trying to figure out why. Checked the flap handle position, breaker, etc. So, I taxi back in and have maintenance have "a go" at the airplance. Interesting development. At first they thought that it was the flap motor (mx needs to climb up on a ladder to acces the aft part of the wing to inspect the motor). Eventually, they had to pull the entire panel apart (it will be on the left hand side) to find the problem. The flap circuit breaker was split UNDER the CB Panel. Never seen a breaker "brake" from the bottom before.

I don't think it was specific to the MU-2, but it is a "different" story.

Enjoy the aircraft!!

 

[con-pilot]

Ok, I’m going to jump in here. I managed to fly MU-2s (the series were the G, J, K, L and the M) for around 600hrs and lived though it, mostly by skill and luck.

The MU-2 is the worst airplane I have ever flown, period. And I have flown a lot of airplanes. It has the worst accident record of ANY type airplane ever put into production. The loss rate is so high (48%) that if the MU-2 were in combat operations the U.S. Air Force would pull the aircraft out of the field and ground them.

The MU-2 is the ONLY airplane that the FAA has reevaluated its airworthy certificate at the request of the NTSB.

The blasted things tried to kill me more times than I can remember, following are a few of the worst things that happened to me.

1. J model, on short final the flap handle slipped out of the full flaps position and started to retract, only by applying full power as fast as possible did I avoid hitting the approach lights.
2. J model, a short behind the baggage compartment bulkhead (inside the pressure vessel) caused the wooden, yes wooden, bulkhead to catch on fire. The only thing that saved us that day was that an ex-air force pilot was on board and he flew the airplane while I went back and torn the bulkhead apart and put the fire out. By the way, the cabin door on the J model is in the baggage area. If anyone is wondering way I didn’t just let the autopilot fly the airplane it was because I had killed the electrical system because the only thing that can cause a fire in that area would be electrical.
3. J model, landing in Salt Lake City during reported LIGHT icing. I had to use full power to get to the runway from the outer-marker due ice build up, yes the de-icing equipment was working and the wings were clear of ice, it was the rest of the airplane.
4. J model, the left tip tank fuel cap failed on takeoff (yes it failed, they found the pieces on the runway) creating a huge imbalance and I was barely able get the blasted thing on the ground with part flaps and full spoiled deflection.
5. M model, on take-off as I retracted the flaps and trimmed the nose up the right thrust lever started to move back to idle. I stopped trimming and shoved the bloody lever back to full power. As I started trimming nose up again the right thrust lever started back towards idle again. Now I must admit that I was bit puzzled at this point, however by this time nothing the MU-2 did really took me by surprise. For those of you that have had the misfortune to fly MU-2s you will recall that there is not enough room in the cockpit to have the autopilot mounted like normal airplanes. It is stowed under the throttle quadrant for ease of getting in and out of the cockpit. Before this happened ever time I would get into the left seat I would pull the autopilot head up and lock into position. Yup, a wiring bundle for the autopilot managed to wrap itself around the trim wheel and the bottom of the right thrust lever. And no, trimming nose down did not push the lever back up. An AD note came out of this incident.
6. L model, the right engine oil filter housing cracked and the engine seized up. This happened in cruise and the engine did auto-feather (or whatever they called it in the MU-2, negative torque thingy or something), however an MU-2 on one engine is not good no matter what the situation is. Oh yeah, I had one passenger and a light fuel load, was able to stop the decent around 12,000ft.

Anyway those are the worst things that happened. I had to crank the gear down about five times due to icing on the gear door proximity switches. On at least three occasions we couldn’t open the cabin door because the door seal froze and would not deflate, that was always embarrassing.

The only way to fly these pieces of junk is to never, never get slow, stay way ahead of the airplane, keep it on the ground until you get single climb speed and look for another job with a different airplane. Oh yes, one more thing, don’t believe that crap about the MU-2 being a good short field airplane, it ain’t.

 

[328dude]

That crap about being for short runways is for fun only. Not recommendend for loaded down airplanes.

Had the same problem with the proximity switches till the company had us hose down the gear prior to flight into forcasted icing with WD-40. Works like a charm and never had another problem.

Oh, its called NTS. Remember, brings it within 80 degrees of feather. (wow, I amaze myself).

Are you saying this airplane got the best of you? And you never had fun?

 

[bigD]

You guys are killing me here! The MU-2 has always been one of my favorite planes (the thing looks like it's built like a tank), and now all this talk about it being challenging but fun to fly has me really salivating for some dual. Does anyone have contact info for Reese Howell's school? I tried a search on Yahoo and didn't come up with anything. It sounds like he's ground only, but he's probably the best place to start.

 

[skyking328]

Reese Howell Contact Info

You can start by calling 615 459 8883. That is Corporate Flight Management in Smyrna TN. They will give you Reeses' phone number. He is the best.
BTW I have over 2000 hours in the Mits and have flown them all. Marquise, F,G,J,K,N, and P...I think thats it?? Its a great airplane ...if maintained correctly. Good luck!!

 

[bigD]

Thanks skyking! I appreciate it. Now I need to see how I'm gonna fund this little endeavor.... =)

 

[328dude]

Skyking? Did you fly checks in one of the zones at night? Just curious. Where'd ya fly the Mits?

BigD.... You might have to part with the Playstation 2. LOL

Good luck man

 

[skyking328]

Moo2

I flew air ambulance out of Smyrna TN for about 2 years and then did some corporate flying in a Marquise for Corporate Flight Mgmt . I flew the frigin thing all over the place. The airplane is funny like that, you either love it or hate it.
Where did you fly them? Heck we probably know each other.
Take care

 

[bigD]

328dude - I think I'm gonna have to part with a lot more than a PS2! Maybe sell the car, too? =)

It looks like Reese only does flight instruction in the student's plane. Which, of course, is a problem for me. Guess I gotta wait for that freight job, huh? Oh well...patience is a virtue when it comes to aviation, I suppose.