Whats the tally?
I wonder, with all the tinkering and fouled plugs, magnetos, oil consumption, vibrations etc disliking cold start, that piston engines endure, are they really that more expensive to maintain?
If the true costs of a piston aircraft that has a reasonable share of "normal" problems were laid out & compared to turbine that runs "reasonably" well on an average, would the costs still be that much lower of a piston engine than a turbine?
based over a series of hours checked at certain increments I wonder how close they would come if at all.
Surely with all the advancements we have made with technology turbines are getting better too.
Here we are starting to use diesels, which is essentially a beefed up petrol engine running on oil, & can run the same oil that a turbine uses.
Have we not made small turbines more efficient and cheaper to run?
I find it hard to believe that turbines are being left behind in technology advancements & operational costs.
Whats the word, bird?
HF