AMEN TO THAT! I basically had to fight my team to allow artist time for such a rare airplan that so few people know about,, but I did finally win the argument, and we are indeed working on an amazing N844X for X-Plane right now!
I saw a video with a garrret its true burns almos half fuel... Austin im from Venezuela i love how roroaima and tepuyes are recreated in explaine...only missing piece is angel fall ..
Would love to get my hands on one of those, but the piston version for the range. Just found your blog with your build of this plane on it and how you were looking at building a jet which was what I wanted to do. But just too expensive, sourcing the engine I would have wanted and making it work with the avionics. The Garmin packages I was looking at are not jet friendly and I think Garmin would not sell a G3000 for an experimental. Want to be able to fly it to Europe. Wanted a jet so it wouldn’t take so long.
Hey Austin, quick question. Your decal says Lancair/Meyer Evolution. Was this just an aesthetic personalization of your aircraft or is there something different in the "Meyer" version? Beautiful bird by the way, but you already knew that!
It's a HOMEBUILT plane, NOT built by Lancair, and NOT certified by the FAA (!)... and I helped with a lot of the construction. So TECHNICALLY I am the builder of record, and technically, accordinfg to the FAA registry (where it is registered but not certified) it is indeed a Lancair/MEYER airplane, since I am the one that built it :-O In fact, ALL homebuilts are like this: They are ALWAYS listed on the FAA registry as make/manufacturer, where the manufacturer is the guy that built it (!). For whatever reason, nobody but me puts that literally official designation on their cowl though!
Awesome video :) The only thing I would add is ITT is the abbreviation for Interstage Turbine Temperature as the thermocouples on any PT6 engine are located between the compressor turbine and power turbines. Inlet Turbine Temp would be considerably hotter than what is indicated on the gauge. Very small almost irrelevant detail but may benefit someone that's curious.
@@austinmeyer The temperature is highest prior to flowing through the compressor turbine. As the gas passes through the compressor turbine blades, there is a pressure and temperature drop due to some of the energy being consumed to drive the compressor, then subsequently again the temp and pressure is lowered as it passes through each of the power turbines due to the energy being used to drive the reduction gearbox and propeller. My apologies if my previous comment didn't make sense.
@@jascott62 Uh-oh. "The temperature is highest prior to flowing through the compressor turbine" Sorry. I cannot agree to that at all. The compressor, by it's very name, compresses. That's the fist part. The compression. You said "As the gas passes through the compressor turbine blades, there is a pressure and temperature drop". So you literally just said the pressure DROPS as the gas through the COMPRESSOR. NO WAY. The compressor: COMPRESSES. That means it brings the pressure UP. So, you got something, possibly just terminology, backwards for sure.
@@austinmeyer I'm not sure you understand what the compressor turbine is. It's simply the turbine that drives the compressor rotor. I was never referring anything to the compressor itself. I don't think I have anything mixed up as I have built and test run hundreds of PT6 engines over the last 15 years so I have a pretty solid understanding of how they work.
@@jascott62 oh oh oh i see what you mean now. Got it. The turbine that DRIVES the compressor, not the compressor itself! Ok, yes, got it. So the flow is compressor, turbine that DRIVES then compressor, turbine that drives the prop, in that order, and the temp is measured BETWEEN the turbines. Got it. Mentally i just glommed the compressor and compressor turbine together as 'the compressor'
Yah 850 horsepower is just a NUMBER... but it is really something special to feel that kind of power being transferred to the air. Flying, you can really telly that the whole thing is just a super-lightweight carbon fiber envelope with a super-lightweight turbine engine and a little bit of tenuous wiring and sensors that can just barely watch what is really going on: turning burned fuel into moved air.
Yah I am improving the PT-6 engine modeling in X-Plane based on all the stuff you see here in this video. And now, we use the SAME CODE for flight modeling for desktop and mobile (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so all of those engine dynamics will be in mobile for the kingair. Then in the future we get my evo in there yes.
I’d love to see the fuel burn comparison between a 350 hp lycoming/continental and a 350hp turboprop. I want to see 100-400 hp turboprops but for some reason they don’t exist and when someone does make one, they disappear.
Oh the turboprop almost always uses more fuel then the recip... and by kind of a lot. the only reason they are ever worth it is 5hey put out TONS of power from a TINY package... and do it for TWO THOUSAND HOURS with almost NO MAINTENANCE. (but when maintenance DOES happen its INSANE expensive) so the turboprops are only good in CERTAIN WAYS.
Now for some numbers: the turboprop uses easily FOUR TIMES THE FUEL PER HORSEPOWER as a recip when running at very low turbine RPM: that is at very low power or low altitude, where the turbine spins slow in the thick air. BUT, up hi, at high power settings, the turbine spins at max RPM, and suddenly it starts working right!!!!!! THEN, the fuel burn gets amazingly comparable to a recip!!!! (in fact, when the pt6 is at max turbine RPM, it burns LESS fuel per horsepower than a continental TSIO-550 running at full rich mixture!!!!!) so, at wide on throttle on a pt6 at hi altitude it is MORE efficient than an old continental at full rich. BUT, of course, you almost never run the continental full rich, and you DO spend a lot of your flight in taxi, descent, landing, instrument approaches, etc... and those all involve low engine power, where the turbine is just fuel-wasting junk. the turbine only works hi and fast... and then it simply destroys all other powerplants... but you have to run at max power to get that efficiency! and at max power, of course... you have hi fuel flow even if it IS efficient, because of all the power output.
@@austinmeyer Thanks for sharing,’you sure know a lot and I much appreciate it. I love the evolution! Same with a turbine legend. I would love to have a turboprop designed to fly in the 7-10,000 ft producing say 250hp. So I could own a smaller less powerful and therefore less thirsty 250 engine in comparison to a 600hp engine. And considering that kerosene is cheaper, burning 50-100 litres of kerosene is fine with me.
Oh how I love the sound of the start-up. HOWEVER, it seems like you could easily destroy your engine if you don't do the right thing at the right time. Correct?
You kept flipping the pages faster then I could read them. Pausing RU-vid videos blurs them. I could read them on pause on this video only because the print was very large but then could not see your gauges at all. I still don't know what NG actually stands for. I have been trying to find that out for some time and no one ever says. Please tell me. I love the look and sound of that little plane. Just awesome!
its the rpm of the gas generator, in percent. 100% Ng is max speed of the gas generator. The gas generator is the teeny little turbine that spins at like 50,000 RPM to send exhaust out to a turbine, or little windmill, that is hooked to the prop.
Question- why are turbo prop engines started with their props full feathered? Why don’t they start with the prop 90 degrees flat at 0 degrees to not produce any thrust? Wouldn’t they spin up faster and easier and be less stress on the blade and mechanical parts?
YES!!!!! BUT, the part you forgot is... the shut down! The prop SPRINGS to feather, and is only HELD FLAT by OIL PRESSURE! AAANNNND the oil pressure comes from the ENGINE. So they make the prop SPRING to feather so if the engine quits, the prop feathers for best glide! Great idea! So, 100% guarantee, when engine not running, prop will be feathered. The spring guarantees it. So the prop only CAN go to flat pitch AFTER there is oil pressure.. in pother words AFTER the engine is running! :-O
One other thing to keep in mind -- on the PT6, the core of the engine is not physically connected to the prop. That's why you hear that whine come up quickly, at the same time you see the prop begin to turn in a somewhat leisurely fashion. It's the hot gases from the core stages of the engine that turn the final turbine disc in the engine that actually rotates the prop (and it turns in the opposite direction from the core stages). Anyway, since they're not physically connected, it's not putting very much drag on the engine core, so it can start up fine. The prop itself would come up to speed faster if it weren't feathered, but that's not all that important.
@@austinmeyer i see. Does it start cooler when using ground power? (Starter turning faster) Is there even a reason to want a cooler start? Would it affect engine longevity or something?
@@runninggames771 Oh yes ground power gives more juice to the starter which lets more air in before we add fuel… And keeps spinning the starter with electricity while the fuel is being added… So yes ground power gives a cooler start for sure. This is much more significant than most people realize. And yes, I'm sure engine longevity is improved if the temperature doesn't spike so much every time you start it up
Yup! I came here straight after watching Mr Meyer talk about how this plane starts up in a video about flight sim hardware. I cannot do his discription justice but NOW I see what he means. WOW this plane is a _BEAST_ !! You are a very luck gent to one one of these good sir! Fly safe.
It's a beautiful little airplane. Love the turbo prop. I saw one at KSNA a while back and marveled that it was so sleek and, parked, it looked like 400mph. And, I had just landed a 737-700 and was sitting in it's left seat, envious. Fortunately, they paid me to fly the 73...not nearly enough to own something like the Lancair. Im cautious about laying out the bucks for X-Plane 11 (now retired, age 65), the only way I can afford to fly much of anything.
Austin Sir, any videos discussing the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020? Curious on how this new technology will impact Luninar Researches developement for Xplane 11 next year?
Hello Meyer, Cool video! I’ve only been flying with PT6 engines for 4 years, as an instructor. Your engine might be a bit different but with the ones I operate, such as the PT6A-27/-34 , I believe any starting temperature above 850 C is a bit unusual and should be investigated for cause. One thing that helps is , waiting for the NG to stabilize then introduce fuel, getting above the minimum you stated of 13% is important, but waiting till it reaches its full potential before introducing fuel , allows for more air to keep the engine cooler. On our planes we have a minimum starting voltage of 24 volts, but even at 23.4 on yours, I was surprised it manages to get the NG to an acceptable figure for start. All the best!
Just curious as to how the battery starts charging when NG reaches 11.% and before the engine lights. Is the battery just recovering on it's own once the initial load to crank the engine diminishes?
Wait I think that the battery is NOT charging until I turn on the generators AFTER the ITT has stabilized (cause the air con and generator drag the little turbine down, so I like to spin it up good before I load it up with stuff like that)
So now that Eldridge has bailed from Evolution and the insurance companies have had enough of all the electrical problems, windshields blowing out in flight, landing gear failures ext.ext. what are you going to do with this boat anchor without any factory support.
Not a boat anchor! I have 400 hours in it, flying about 100 hours per year! The company shutting down or slowing down has had ZERO impact on my use of the airplane. It has literally not cost me single flight, dollar, or minute, except for the two minutes spent typing this reply!
-42. That is the 850 hp variant. Yah my ITT's do seem to run a little bit high compared to some other PT6s... might be my ITT probes are not perfectly calibrated or something.
When it's time to change battery(s), look into something with a little more juice. A Meridian we used to fly with the -42 would hit high 700s on a standard temp sea level start and mid 850s after a quick turn. We also keep our planes on battery tenders (if that works in your hangar situation). Gives us a strong mid 25v when we turn the master on. You have a beautiful plane sir. Love your videos
Dunno, unless it is resonance with the airframe or something. A Kingair has a big metal airframe reflecting the sound around, but my little carbon-fiber Evo does not....maybe that makes a difference. NONE of the PT6s have any sort of muffler at all, of any sort.
because pt6 engines come in different versions, with more or less hp depending on the plane they come with. then you got other factors influencing the startup. for example, a new and strong battery will spool up the engine faster which sounds different. the props come in different sizes and shapes, making different noise. oh, and i am sure the microphones make a difference too
