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HawkDsl

Jet Prop Re-Paints

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Great story on the rw Piper.

 

I think Carenado planted some virus in my head, this must be a very nice plane to have for real. I'm also a Lancair fan, but that Meridian seems like a great combo. Not too small, not too big. Conventional materials, t(h)rustworthy PT6 in the front, flight into known icing stuff, weather radar, (rw) G1000. Great package.

 

Not the fastest plane out there, but surely very versatile and, from the reports, nice to fly.

 

Ok, 2 million bucks may take some time from now on. ^_^

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LG911: Thank you, it was my pleasure!

 

CooIP, LOL... yea.. 2 mil. At my current level of employment, it'll take me 35 to 40 years to buy that one! They have some real zingers for options too. TAS, 46,000 - TAWS, 11,500... Hell, ChartView (& Safe Taxi) is 3 grand.

 

Red line IAS is 188... I was "sternly" corrected to that fact after I mentioned "180" to the rep. It also has some serious weight limits, in that, if I packed my family in there with all our "stuff", I would be flying with half tanks, or about 500 to 600 NM range... which if you think about it... is better then what the family car can do. They say 300 knots (GS) is typical speed though (@ FL280)... and unless you want to be put under the jail, no four wheel chuck wagon can do that! Nothing beats the TBM 850. It has it all. Weight, speed, style... but double the price... and to be frank... the TBM people at Airventure were arse's.

 

EDIT: Even though Meridian has some capacities issues, my rep pointed out that your blatter does too! LOL. My load would be my brother, his wife, and two kids... On our way to inlaws in the outerbanks, NC (KMRH). 45 min. flight from my airport (KHEF) with the Meridian (vrs 6 hrs in the car). My sister, hour and a half. Vacation to yellowstone, and Sturgis Bike week... 5-6 hours. It would be life changing on so many levels.

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300kts would be nice and a serious bit faster than our retrofit turbine is. On the Piper site, I saw them comparing the TBM and the PC-12 to the plane. Didn't make much sense to me, way larger engines over there. The PC-12 even being much larger itself.

 

Well, 2 million are cheap in that regime though, as you say. TBM charges a lot more, same for the PC-12, which, for itself, is the bomb. Take the avionics alone on the PC-12NG.

 

Right you are, doesn't look like one can really load much into the JetProp without losing on the fuel load. In the sim, I have two boys and two girls and a bit of baggage, gives me some 50% fuel until reaching MTOW.

 

But I would love to fly that one for real.

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But I would love to fly that one for real.

 

Absolutely!! I was in a PC-12... it is a HUGH plane. It's like a Simi-truck with wings. They never really caught my fancy though. I always thought they had a utility truck look compared to the racy Meridian and TBM's. Flight panel is equally gigantic, coming up to the bridge of my nose. I think it's impossible, short of a tank in the back, to over load it though!

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A friend's dad used to be a corporate pilot for a guy that owns a PC-12. On a flight to Texas, the engine started losing power and they made an emergency landing. Upon inspection, they had some cracked turbine blades. I never learned the cause, but in the end, the repair bill was over a quarter of a million dollars. Ouch!

 

Bill

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I guess you name it, Bill. There are cheap machines and there are aeroplanes.

 

But maybe PW helped a bit on that case. I saw that they offer some packages on the warranty and repair stuff. We have that engine trend monitoring thingy in our JetProp, being a part or at least of great use when it comes to showing that the failure wasn't caused by mistreating the engine.

 

Well, the first part of surprise of course is the crippled engine and the landing, but, as you say, the repair bill then is the next shock.

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250 K.... That's right around 1/3 the cost of a new PT6... and looking around, is about the average cost of a rebuild. Unless the metallurgy is bad, that's a sign of overheating (ITT). But as they say... if you can walk away... it was a good landing!

 

700,000 for a single engine is really ridiculous if you think about it. The PT-6 is produced on the same level as a small block Chevy for Petes sake. I know they have to meet far more requirements then good old GM does (Mil. Spec's for example), but come on!

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I'd say that, starting on the material level, the Chevy block doesn't come close the PT6. Take the single crystal blades for example. The hot section of those turbines features some materials being far away from every day engines, not to mention the advantage the average piston engine has when it comes to the sheer numbers of them being build.

 

So it's tough comparing the costs. Funny enough, the higher cost of the turbine is just one factor when it comes to the whole plane. The turbines lead the pistons by a large margin when it comes to reliable operations for example.

 

So looking at how much the 'simple' PT6 comes in may not offer the whole picture. Ask the folks retrofitting turbines to their former piston planes. Means some guys already running some expensive engines (turbocharged piston) and replacing them with even more expensive ones.

 

Not only do they look at Jet A now being their fuel but also at other factors. Our, now, JetProp is a good example. It's not just about having a few more SHP to spare. Well, not only. :P

 

I think I saw the costs on a twin engine Duke being around 1.1 million for the whole package, which also includes the instruments and that certification stuff. Certainly not cheap, but pointing at way lower than 700.000 per engine.

 

But, we may agree, the expensive stuff starts after having bought such a nice plane. :( Very Solid and stable income needed. Maybe we should just sell turbines. ^_^

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Thank You Dolf, glad you enjoy it!

 

CooIP; very true that it's a bad comparison. They do pump out some PT-6's though, and with as many as they are making, still surprised at the cost. Also heard 1.1 for a Tduke. That's a sweet deal if you can find a good B60 for cheap (and yes, I have looked..LOL.. found one (1980) w/o engines for 38,000!!).

 

Royal Turbine is also working on Baron conversions (!). I guess the hard part of that would be finding a P-Baron.. they stopped making pressurized Barons :( ... but 2013 models might be turbo charged.

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Umm the texture bmp's on this livery are 21 MEGS each!!  Can we say OOM error?  The Carenado paints are 4Mb each. When you do a repaint, take this into account.

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Umm the texture bmp's on this livery are 21 MEGS each!!  Can we say OOM error?  The Carenado paints are 4Mb each. When you do a repaint, take this into account.

 

I did not notice the size, and it's been so long, not sure if there is a reason... but try it if you like... I doubt you'll have any OOM's.

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I did not notice the size, and it's been so long, not sure if there is a reason... but try it if you like... I doubt you'll have any OOM's.

 

Well... I guarantee OOM's if you still use an XP system (like I had refused to upgrade from Win7 fearing it would jack the frame rates...) But, yeah OOMs are less of a concern now Since i FINALLY bought Win7. But you should always as a rule pay attention to texture sizing efficiency it will help load things in memory faster and allow switching between views much faster, or even improve FPS.

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i FINALLY bought Win7

 

Welcome to the future!

 

No one has ever had any problems with the paint as far as I know, all I can say is try it.  Most paints will have multiple layers for a single color, so that may be where the fat is.

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