Turbine engines

[WebMaster]

Single engine is still single engine. You needed to watch Brian Von Herzon's speech on crossing the Atlantic.
In it, Brian talked about the inherent safety of 2 engines, and the incidences where reliable turbine engines have quit mid-flight. One was a PC-12, crossing the pacific. They got to check out their life raft, and watched their ELT float away and sink.

The single engine conversion of the skymaster has been done a couple of times. Never went beyond prototype. One, interestingly enough, was done by Basler, the people who provide fuel at OSH.

Two small turbines would be cool, but as I said, until, and unless, they become certified engines, the functionality of the aircraft would disappear. I mean, as a non-certified engine, you have to stay over non-populated areas for the first 40 hours. After that, you would be restricted to demonstration or proficiency flights. Not to mention the whole TSA thing about allowing people in an experimental turbine airplane. It just gets real difficult to operate a certified airplane as an experimental, and actually use it to go cross country when ever you wanted to.

BTW, does anyone know, does the new TSA rule about background checks, etc, apply to BFR's and IPC's? This thing is getting out of hand.