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Old 22nd Sep 2005, 01:06
  #15 (permalink)  
nomorecatering
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Oz
Posts: 905
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Boney,

If hes using the right approach technique, and already has cylinder head temps of around 300 deg F and using a low manifold pressure, the turbo will be cooling down during the approach. In this case a long taxy, cooldown period will only make the cylinder head temps rise.

Excerpt from John Deakins "Those Fire Breathing Turbos Pt 6"


Cooldown/Shutdown

I would guess that when you see (and hear!) someone running their engine in the parking spot after landing "to cool the turbo," you are almost always seeing someone who is getting it hotter than it was when he arrived at the spot. If you don't make the high-drag approaches, and you lean brutally after landing, that turbo will be just about as cold as it will ever get, short of a shutdown. On the other hand, if you've made a long, high-drag approach with high power, or you're one of those dreadful types who taxi with cruise power while dragging the brakes to keep the speed down, or you have a long, sharply uphill taxi to the ramp, you may need the cool down. A tip that might do your engine more good is to hop right out after shutdown, and pop the cowling open (or even just the oil access door) if you can. That will let a LOT of heat out of the accessory section, avoiding "cooking" the components, hoses, and seals there. But even that little tip is probably completely unnecessary if there is more than 3-5 knots of wind blowing in the general direction of either the front or the back (cowl flaps open, please) of the engine.

George Braly again:

We know of one operator of a turbo twin Cessna. He owned the aircraft for 15 years before the issue of "turbo cool down" ever showed up in the aviation literature. Through three full TBO runs, with almost no premature engine or turbo problems, this operator would routinely land at his uncontrolled airport, turn off at mid-field, taxi about 100 yards, and immediately shut down both engines. The aircraft was then promptly pushed into a T-hangar, where it could not benefit from any natural wind for a further cool down. These would have been ideal conditions to promote problems with turbochargers not being properly allowed to cool down, if there was any truth to this OWT. This operator, in more than 8000 engine hours, never experienced any problems with the issue of "coking" a bearing on a turbocharger.

Finally, here's a graph of the type of descent I've just described.



Click for a high-resolution version.

The chart begins at 11:49:21 PDT, on 10/02/2000, at 10,500 feet. Note that TIT and EGT is read against the left side numbers, while all other parameters are read against the right side. For the first five minutes, I pre-cool the CHTs by beginning a gentle descent, and reducing RPM and fuel flow on the lean side. That CHT drop too fast for you? Fine, you have complete control over how fast you drop the CHTs, take all the time you want.

At about 11:55:00, I simply pulled the throttle back, and dropped the MP from 31.0" to 18.0". In order to demonstrate where the mixture ended up to a passenger, I fiddled with it a bit, and added just a bit of fuel. In fact, it would probably have been better if I'd just left it alone (as I usually do) because that extra tweak actually caused the CHTs and EGTs to RISE! Uhh, what WERE you saying about "shock cooling"? We have just pulled off 12 full inches of MP in one swell foop, and all engine temps go UP! The reason is, of course, we have gone from very LOP (and relatively cool CHTs) at a very high power setting, to just ROP at a very low setting. The linkages in my engine are "just right" for this purpose, yours may vary, but at worst, you'll need to fiddle with the mixture once, to get it just ROP, or wherever you want it.

For the next 10 minutes on the chart, we descend at about 1,000 fpm, at about 140 knots, gear up. If I'd wanted more descent, all I had to do was run the IAS up to the bottom of the yellow arc, or put the gear down, or even pull off more MP. For a couple minutes in the pattern, the CHTs dropped very gently and then they rise a bit while taxiing in. At shutdown, they begin a long, slow cooling process.

Well, we've gone from startup to shutdown, with a "flight time" of five months! I hope I've not led you too far astray, and above all, I hope I've made you think.

I think I'll take a break from engines, for a while!

Be careful up there!
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