pilotyip
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 13,629
For the sake of the future of aviation, we must get rid of turbines. Turbines don’t have enough control levers to keep a pilot’s attention, there is nothing to fiddle with in flight. Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lanterns. They are ruining aviation; they require no skill to start. We need to go back to round engines. Anyone can start a turbine, you move the switch from OFF to ON, and if it doesn’t work call maintenance. It is harder to get on to Flight info.com. Cranking a round engine requires skill, luck, finesse and style. Round engines have a plan of humiliating pilots, yesterday three strokes of prime was a perfect start, today three strokes either floods it or gets nary a burp. They never start the same way. You have to sneak up them to start them. Just when you have figured out the perfect start combination, it does not work anymore. On some planes, the pilot is not even allowed to start the engines, it is only done by a professional mechanic. Turbines start by whining for a while, and then it gives a small lady like “poof” and starts whining more. Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG! dead silence followed by more rattle-rattle another bank, a big macho fart or two, lots of smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. It is kind of a guy thing. When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on getting through the embarrassing moment where you make it backfire and the mechanic has to pull the cowl off to inspect the exhaust stakes. The sure sign of a rookie in the round engine business. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: useful but boring. Turbines rarely break; turbine pilots don’t worry about their engines. Round engine pilots sweat every takeoff, because they have so little power and the likely hood of a failure is highest during takeoff and go-around. The round engine sounds like it will blow at any minute; it tends to concentrate the mind. Just went to C-47 ground school, getting ready for the show season. Thinking about how to start those 1830's
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