For those who fly behind turbines

M

mustang51

Guest
This is a must read for you all. A short easy test will follow. If you don't pass it you will be on the ground for 30 days.

We gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation and our hearing...A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat. Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from "OFF" to " START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after awhile. My PC is harder to start.

Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a sleeping wife. On some planes, the pilots aren't even allowed to do it...

Turbines start by whining for awhile, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder. Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho fart or two, more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a GUY thing!..When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting.

When you have started his round engine successfully your crewchief looks up at you like he would let you kiss his girl too! Turbines don't break or catch fire often enough, leading to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind! Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's attention. There's nothing to fiddle with during the long flight.

Turbines smell like a Boy Scout Camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.

The test:
I know you all can name the 4 cycles of 4 cycle engine. How many cycles does a turbine have? I you say only one because it is straight through you are wrong.
Engines get their power from burning?
Motors get thier power from using what?
I will not be grading you on this....others will...and what they say stands.
Good luck....must go now..have other things to do. :wave:
 
Turbine engine 5 steps, and I remember this from 1980:
Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Turn, and Blow. How's that for cycles! :d
(afterburners would be additional)
 
I've never figured out why igniting a fuel-air mix in an open tube with a lot of whirly things inside, doesn't just blow a big fart out both ends... :weightlifter:
 
JK....think it's only three. AB's would just be part of the whole thing...right? A little extra blow maybe. The grading panel may have to ground you.
 
Now that's what we are talking about jkcook. Forgot to say that it almost takes three hands to get all the stuff turned on at the right time. Is there anyone out there that can tell us what it was like to start one with the "shot gun starter"? What is the real name for that system?
Bob
 
mustang51 said:
Is there anyone out there that can tell us what it was like to start one with the "shot gun starter"? What is the real name for that system?
Bob
Click to expand...

Cartridge starter. Using one to start a radial engine is well illustrated in the movie Flight of the Phoenix.

-James
 
jkcook28 said:
Turbine engine 5 steps, and I remember this from 1980:
Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Turn, and Blow. How's that for cycles! :d
(afterburners would be additional)
Click to expand...

Rolls-Royce says a turbine has 4 stages: same as a 4-stroke.

Intake - compression - combustion - exhaust.

From Rolls Royce Ltd : The Jet Engine - published 1969 and reissued 1973

But yeah most big whirly props sound better, although I have to say that 4 x RR Olympus Turbojets sounds pretty good too (and you get a *lot* of switches!)
 
Yes you could say a turbine has four cycles. No right answer yet, to my way of thinking, one was close. How about the other two questions, those are easy.
 
Engines get power from buring some sort of fuel, like gasoline, while "motors", technically, are electric devices that produce rotational energy by placing a a magnet in an electric field, which causes it (the rotor) to turn. Or something like that!

I like shop heaters and cranky engines too. All airplanes are fun!
 
mustang51 said:
Now that's what we are talking about jkcook. Forgot to say that it almost takes three hands to get all the stuff turned on at the right time. Is there anyone out there that can tell us what it was like to start one with the "shot gun starter"? What is the real name for that system?
Bob
Click to expand...

I believe the proper term is Coffman Starter, It's essentially a high air pressure starter that is triggered with a Shot gun cartridge mechanism.

I'm a mechanic by trade, so I've got a rare chance to study one. :jump:
 
Pistons aren't the only things started by those things. The Pratt & Whitney J-57-P-59W's mounted on the old KC-135A's had what amounted to an Estes rocket engine - an Estes engine that was 6" long and 8" wide! They burned in about 5 seconds and in that time the pilots had to do all the lever and switch flipping they normally did in 15-20 seconds. Eng's 1 and 4 were started that way, then those were run up and the inboards were started on bleed air. Less than one minute from butts in the seats to taxi-ready ain't nuthin' to sneeze at!

The only bad part was cleaning the cartridge receivers afterwards!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top