Turbo Lance II opinions

Hello,

I'm looking to talk with someone who's owned a Turbo Lance for their
opinions on ownership and maintenance.

Thanks.

My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin for
my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility. It was
a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo airplanes. I
found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my expectations. Mine had
most of the availible speed mods and an intercooler which I recommend. I
only had if for about 16 months so I can't tell you what the long term cost
of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2


"John Doe" wrote in message
k.net...
Hello,

I'm looking to talk with someone who's owned a Turbo Lance for their
opinions on ownership and maintenance.

Thanks.

Hello,

I'm looking to talk with someone who's owned a Turbo Lance for their
opinions on ownership and maintenance.

Thanks.


I used to fly one for a small company. It's a good airplane overall, lots
of room and payload. When this company was looking for an airplane, they
asked me to research the Turbo Lance II, specifically a 1979 they were
looking at and eventually purchased. I discovered from an analysis of
accidents in the NTSB database that this model has had a number of smoke in
the cockpit and/or fire in the engine compartment events due to the
turbocharger. IIRC, one of the events occurred even though an AD
specifically designed to stop this kind of thing was incorrectly done, and
some of the fault was laid on the AD itself for being difficult and
confusing.

While I've since lost the data, somebody posted a question about this make /
model in this newsgroup or R.A.P a few years ago and I responded to it (not
under this username) by posting my summary of what I learned about the
plane. You can probably find it in google / dejanews.

Engine temp control is important and you ought to have an all cylinder
engine monitor on it like a JPI. Get the cowling mod because it provides a
little speed increase and more importantly improves cylinder cooling.

Wasn't there a change in the exhaust system to iconel that fixed the
problem?

Mike
MU-2


"Vertical Rate" wrote in message
.. .
Hello,

I'm looking to talk with someone who's owned a Turbo Lance for their
opinions on ownership and maintenance.

Thanks.


I used to fly one for a small company. It's a good airplane overall, lots
of room and payload. When this company was looking for an airplane, they
asked me to research the Turbo Lance II, specifically a 1979 they were
looking at and eventually purchased. I discovered from an analysis of
accidents in the NTSB database that this model has had a number of smoke
in
the cockpit and/or fire in the engine compartment events due to the
turbocharger. IIRC, one of the events occurred even though an AD
specifically designed to stop this kind of thing was incorrectly done, and
some of the fault was laid on the AD itself for being difficult and
confusing.

While I've since lost the data, somebody posted a question about this make
/
model in this newsgroup or R.A.P a few years ago and I responded to it
(not
under this username) by posting my summary of what I learned about the
plane. You can probably find it in google / dejanews.

Engine temp control is important and you ought to have an all cylinder
engine monitor on it like a JPI. Get the cowling mod because it provides
a
little speed increase and more importantly improves cylinder cooling.

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin
for my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility.
It was a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo
airplanes. I found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my
expectations. Mine had most of the availible speed mods and an
intercooler which I recommend. I only had if for about 16 months so I
can't tell you what the long term cost of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2


With all that being said, why did you sell it so fast?

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin
for my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility.
It was a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo
airplanes. I found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my
expectations. Mine had most of the availible speed mods and an
intercooler which I recommend. I only had if for about 16 months so I
can't tell you what the long term cost of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2

I must admit that I'm not very smart on the turbo options. This would be my
first turbo engine.

I've seen some Lance's advertised with Turbo and then there are some that
specifically advertise Turbo with Intercooler. Are these two seperate
options available or are they one in the same? The Lance I'm looking at
just says Turbo in the ad and doesn't mention any intercooler.

Thanks.

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin
for my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility.
It was a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo
airplanes. I found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my
expectations. Mine had most of the availible speed mods and an
intercooler which I recommend. I only had if for about 16 months so I
can't tell you what the long term cost of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2

I must admit that I'm not very smart on the turbo options. This would be my
first turbo engine.

I've seen some Lance's advertised with Turbo and then there are some that
specifically advertise Turbo with Intercooler. Are these two seperate
options available or are they one in the same? The Lance I'm looking at
just says Turbo in the ad and doesn't mention any intercooler.

Thanks.

"John Doe" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin
for my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility.
It was a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo
airplanes. I found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my
expectations. Mine had most of the availible speed mods and an
intercooler which I recommend. I only had if for about 16 months so I
can't tell you what the long term cost of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2


With all that being said, why did you sell it so fast?

I needed an airplane that could cross the Sierra in virtually any weather so
I needed deice and radar. I was making flights where I had to be at the
destination.

Mike
MU-2

"John Doe" wrote in message
news

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
My first airplane was a 79 Turbo Lance. I bought it for the roomy cabin
for my dogs, reasonably fast cruise and fairly good altitude capibility.
It was a releative bargin compared to other six place, 170+kt, turbo
airplanes. I found it to be a good airplane for me and it met my
expectations. Mine had most of the availible speed mods and an
intercooler which I recommend. I only had if for about 16 months so I
can't tell you what the long term cost of ownership would be.

Mike
MU-2

I must admit that I'm not very smart on the turbo options. This would be
my
first turbo engine.

I've seen some Lance's advertised with Turbo and then there are some that
specifically advertise Turbo with Intercooler. Are these two seperate
options available or are they one in the same? The Lance I'm looking at
just says Turbo in the ad and doesn't mention any intercooler.

Thanks.



The intercooler is a aftermarket STC'd modification. Without it, the
airplane will not be able to maintain high power settings above about
16,000' without overheating.

Mike
MU-2

I've seen some Lance's advertised with Turbo and then there are some that
specifically advertise Turbo with Intercooler. Are these two seperate
options available or are they one in the same? The Lance I'm looking at
just says Turbo in the ad and doesn't mention any intercooler.

The intercooler is a aftermarket STC'd modification. Without it, the
airplane will not be able to maintain high power settings above about
16,000' without overheating.

An intercooler is a radiator that cools a gas (air) instead of a liquid.
When air is compressed (what a turbocharger does) it heats up. When a
gas is heated it wants to expand (return to an uncompressed state), so
you place an intercooler (or two) inline following the turbocharger and
before the engine air intake, to cool the heated, compressed air before
it enters the engine, providing cooler, more dense air to the engine.
Cooler dense air can absorb more heat than hotter dense air and provide
greater expansion and therefore more power.