Hi all. perhaps this is is dumb question: The Cessna 172R is a fixed pitch aircraft that lacks a MAP gauge. Would it be unusual to find it turbocharged? I've only seen turbochargers on ac with MAP gauges and prop govenors. The question came up because I peeked into the aircraft.cfg of the Realair 172 recently and saw that the turbocharge flag is set and the critical altitude is set for 8k. This aircraft doesn't seem to climb as if it is turbocharged. Could this be correct?

There is no STC for installing a turbocharger into a 172 although I would imagine it was tried in the 60's when turbos were the rage... popular additions to Piper's Apache. A more common STC is to put the O360 or IO360 in 190 and 210 hp versions and a CS prop although this is not approved for the R, S and SP versions. The 190 hp version was sold as the XP, the 210 hp version was sold to the military as the T-41 and in France built by Reims and commonly referred to as the Reims Rocket.

Thnaks Zane