Congratulations! you are moving up into the aviation career world. No more paying for flying lessons, you are a Commercial Multi-IFR Rock Star with a job!
Hmm. Well, that is what we all think as we leave the confines of our comfortable flight school for our first big job. As mentioned previously I started off as a King Air 200 Medevac/Air Ambulance Pilot. I travelled from my home in Sherwood Park to Fort Vermillion, just short of a 7-hour drive. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only “Rock Star” pilot leaving for the little big leagues, my fellow Flight Instructor and friend Trevor Brooke were on this adventure together. We were both hired at the same time and were on the road to Northern Alberta to our new turboprop jobs.
Arriving in Fort Vermilion we were greeted by a happy bunch of people who were working really hard at their jobs. We started ground school almost immediately and began the transformation into CARS703 pilots. This entailed many hours of reading company policy, watching videos, doing tests and learning nothing about airplanes, what? Yes, it was hours and hours of company indoctrination before the technical ground school began. Then came the technical training, lots of information and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), we were told to memorize”Memory Items and limitations of the King Air 200″ and become super familiar with the Company SOPs. Soon Trevor and I were in the front seat of a Beech King Air 90 (not the plane we were being trained on) trying to make sense of the memory items and King Air 200 SOPs, all of this to prep ourselves for actual King Air 200 flying (kind of tough when your not practicing in the plane your going to fly).
SOPs, you say? SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures are legally required in multi-crew operations in Canada. Here is a good definition of Standard Operating Procedures:
Aircraft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are issued by [operator’s company name] for guidance in the operation of [aircraft manufacturer] [aircraft type] aircraft. The SOPs cannot cover all circumstances. However, they are intended to assist personnel to operate aircraft within the limitations of the aircraft flight manual. All personnel are expected to exercise sound judgment and consistency in their application.
The greatest advantage of multiple crew members on board an aircraft is that more than one person can contribute to the safety and effectiveness of the operation. In order for individual crew members to contribute as much as they can, they must both meet a standard, and (for the most part) carry out their duties in a standard manner. The SOPs deal primarily with the standardization of how the crew completes their duties. Standardization is one of the most powerful tools available to the crew to prevent the undesirable, to determine when something undesirable is occurring, and to deal with the undesirable should it occur. SOPs are provided as a part of the standardization tool. However, a standard procedure cannot be devised to cope with all situations. Although the SOPs are to be complied with to the extent practicable, there may be situations where compliance with some part is inadvisable. Should it be appropriate to deviate from the SOPs all applicable personnel shall be thoroughly briefed.
Beyond the SOP or part of the SOP are company limitations and memory items. This incredibly important information concerning engine rotational (Ng for PT6), propeller rpm, torque, temperature (ITT, Oil Temps), other aircraft related limitations and emergency crew actions are committed to memory.
In my previous blog, I mentioned temperature and torque limits. These are just numbers for you right now as a new turboprop pilot, what do these memorized numbers really mean for you in operational flying?
A not so modern panel, with classic round dial engine instruments (the kind Trevor and I learned on)
Firstly a few things about airframe manufacturer limitations vs company imposed limitations. As you know when flying a Cessna or a Piston Twin of some type you have limitations that are set by the particular manufacturer. The same goes for a turboprop, the limitation numbers are published by the manufacturer and are memorized by you.Each company may impose company limitations for ITT so as to save on hot section maintenance costs. Yes, these limits are lower than the manufacturer’s limits and in some cases by a lot. For example, one company used 720 deg C for climb ITT and a maximum of 700 deg C for cruise power.
The manufacturer’s limitations are 770 deg C for takeoff and 800 deg C for power – big difference eh!
Here is a typical cruise power chart for a King Air 200.
Let us say that the King Air 200 you are flying today, has a maximum takeoff ITT limitation of 770 deg, and a maximum takeoff torque of 2230 ft lbs and you are planning to takeoff on a nice 9 deg C day from Jasper/Hinton Airport CEC4.
What do think your engine limitations for takeoff are going to be? If you said both torque and temperature limits, you are absolutely correct, but which one is more limiting today? In other words, if you were sitting at the end of the runway and you apply power to your aircraft and you get a corresponding ITT rise and torque rise, which one of those limits is going to be reached first? Well from experience I am going to tell you on a nice chilly day like our scenario I gave you, you are going to reach a torque limit before an ITT limit. Let’s now suppose you are going to takeoff from the same airport, however, the outside air temperature on the AWOS is stating 29 deg C. Is anything going to change for you? Surely an engine can handle a 20 deg C temperature change, right? Well yes and no, the engine can handle the temperature difference just fine, but you can only increase the power levers until you hit a limit. Which limit are you going to hit first now? I am going to bet you will likely hit the ITT limit before you hit the torque limit.
So what the heck does all the ITT and Torque limits mean to you? You can likely see that the engine is not going to be producing the rated power you are hoping for. This now translates into your ability or inability to meet takeoff performance for the given situation you may be in. Losing engine performance at CEC4 on a 4500′ runway with lots of fuel and people on board is not a good thing, in fact, it might be really scary. But you are saying to yourself – it worked on the weight and balance, we are good to go! Are you really? Did it work on the performance charts? Factor in an unplanned bird ingestion just as you rotate and you are likely going to have a really really bad day at CEC4.
Now try a different scenario at Cooking Lake CEZ3, (2437 MSL, 2952′ field length) in your mind. It is 30 deg C OAT. Are you Temp or Torque limited? You are planning a full brake stand takeoff, holding those bakes really hard, advancing the power levers to either limit you have. You reach 770 deg C ITT and get 1800 lbs of torque (you calculated performance using the King Air POH charts, and they gave you a requirement of 2100 lbs of torque to lift the weight you are at today), are you going to release the brakes and go flying? I hope not!Remember – performance charts for any aircraft (turboprop or jet) are for a new aircraft with new engines. You are likely not going to have new engines in your aircraft. As jet engines age their performance decreases due to many factors, this performance loss must be considered carefully when considering performance charts.
Hopefully, that gives you a little insight into turboprop flying vs piston engines.
One more thing before I end Part 1: when you increase power for the very first time as the pilot flying (PF), you must keep your company limits in mind and increase the power slowly (If you move them too quickly you are likely going to get a big surprise as the engine may come up to speed so quickly that you over torque the engine! And yes it happens that fast.
If you are in a King Air 200, the first thing that will happen is that auto-feather system will arm (that’s a good thing, the PNF will call out “auto-feather armed”), as you continue to increase the power (to a point just before those limits) ask for your power to be set for you. What? Yes, if you are flying two crew, the pilot not flying (PNF) will set the power for you as you are now hurtling down the runway and should’net be looking inside the cockpit. As the PNF you will then move the power levers for the PF and set the required power (based on your company limits) and announce “power set” (or whatever your SOP states). And from my experience, as a newbie, you will be way past 80 knots blasting down the runway and almost be ready to rotate lol! So – this takes a lot of practice folks, and you can’t be going for perfection here. Just set the power as close to the limit as possible and move onto airspeed calls, etc. You are going to be a very busy person making speed callouts and performing actions…wait until we talk about jets!
My first King Air 200 landing in Fort Vermillion, oops watch that rudder when you pull the power back on those big 4 bladed props buddy……back on centre line too! Depending on your King Air, those 4 bladed props go into fine pitch asymmetrically sometimes and make your life fun
Relax – your a new turboprop pilot now, ask lots of questions, take lots of notes and study those SOPs and limitations.
Have fun Rock Star!