Not sure how uncommon you'd call the TSIO 360, there was about 2500 turbo Seneca produced from the Seneca II onwards, plus all the single engine turbo aircraft variations that have used it. I've found the operational problems with them have revolved around the installation especially ancillaries. The Seneca II with EB was pretty good, the Seneca V with the RB was horrible, the III and IV were ok. The V also had density controllers and other nice automatic controls for the turbo, I think the latter IVs had this as well.
We used a 110kt climb in the V, and the earlier models the 100-105 got you up nice and quickly, 117kt sounds like it would work well.
I'd be interested to see what fuel burns vs speed you could get from a Seneca II with LOP ops. These were very misunderstood aircraft that could offer a very cheap twin both in purchase and operating cost. The two blade one we had was light, could carry 5 adults with bags and cruised around 170ktas at about 65%. I don't think the 3 blades, like the Seminole ones had any benefit due to the low power output, the III onward had more power with 220hp so it was more justified.
When we operated the Vs the engineers didn't like the recommended procedure of leaning to peak and requested we lean 100' ROP.
Last edited by 43Inches; 17th May 2014 at 03:41.