Relay-Version: B 2.11 6/12/87; site scolex Path: uunet!olivea!samsung!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!hplvec!bills From: bills@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Bill Standerfer) Newsgroups: rec.aviation Subject: Mitsubishi MU-2 Pilot Report Message-ID: <2510122@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM> Date: Mon, 01 Apr 91 12:28:46 PST Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO Lines: 163 I had the opportunity this past Sunday to get almost 6 hours of right seat time in a Mitsubishi MU-2, so here's a little pilot report. Yes boys and girls, this is a *real* pilot report, not one of those fake ones like the B-29 report. First, the mission. An aquaintence, the MU-2 owner (his fourth), had to take his daughter and friends back to college after spring break to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On the return, we would pick up an AirLifeLine passenger returning from Rochester, MN. Another AirLifeLine pilot would get him to Cedar Rapids to meet us. Our load out is seven, with only four returning. The airplane is a Mitsubishi Marquise, the largest and last model of the MU-2 line. There are only 4 MU-2's younger than this one, and, since it isn't flown much, it is probably the lowest time MU-2 flying today. 100BY is dark blue with red and white stripes, making it really stand out on the ramp. Seats for 9, including the crew. All gray leather upholstery. Wing span is about 50' or so. I can just walk under the wings without ducking. Props are about 9 feet in diameter, four blades. The engines on this airplane are 875 SHP Garrett turboprops. The owner was very emphatic about the reliability of the engines. He thinks that owners of 421's and Dukes are kidding themselves about the relative cost of ownership. The TBO on these turbine engines is 5600 hours, plus hot section inspections each 1800 hours. Also, he adds a quart of oil every 200 hours or so. The Garrett engines are direct drive, unlike the very popular Pratt and Whitney PT-6. On the Garrett, the prop is driven directly by the engine, through a gear box. You can spin the prop by hand and spin the whole engine. The PT-6, however, drives the prop from a free turbine at the end of the exhaust stream. If you spin the prop on a PT-6, only the last turbine moves. This makes the PT-6 somewhat less efficient than the direct drive Garrett. The entry door for the Marquis is behind the left wing, to the rear of the cabin. There's a large space at the rear of the cabin for luggage. The rear four seats are in the club arrangement. In front of them on the right is a bench seat for two facing the isle, and on the left is one seat facing forward. A small bulkhead is just behind each pilot's seat for refreshments and Jepp manuals. Walking up the isle is close, with the cabin height a little higher than a Malibu's. Not particularly graceful, but very comfortable after you get seated. Once seated in the front office, you find yourself at the business end of a very well equipped airplane. The pilot has the normal flight director and HSI displays, the four inch size, making them very easy to interpret. Other flight instruments are pretty standard, but with a few extra goodies like a radar altimeter and altitude select for the autopilot that most of use don't usually see. On my side are a complete set of instruments, including a second HSI and RMI. The landing gear switch is on a little subpanel next to the pilot's right knee. Engine instruments are just to the right of the pilot's flight instruments, in two colums. At the top are the torque meters, then EGT, fuel flow gages, and oil pressure gages. The radio stack is in the center of the panel, and includes radar, plus the comm and nav selectors, and audio panels. Across the very bottom of the panel, below the radar, are the fuel system gages. The lower subpanel, below the yoke, on my side are the cabin environment controls for setting pressurization levels and heating and air conditioning functions. An eyebrow strip on the glare shield has mode selector buttons for the autopilot. The center console has the thust levers, prop condition levers (prop pitch), and various other fuel and starter switches. Trim wheels are farther down, ending with the main autopilot control head and a Northstar M1 loran. An emergency gear extension lever is next to the pilot's seat rail (500 cranks to get it down!). Above the crew in the ceiling are light switches, de-ice controls, etc. The fuel system 100BY is very simple to operate. The engines feed from a tank in the center section of the wing, above the fuselage. There are tanks in the wings, outboard of the engines, then the tip tanks. You put the transfer controls to AUTO to let the system automatically pump fuel from the tips and outboards into the center tank. Total fuel capacity is 403 gallons of Jet-A. This is an all electric airplane. Both gear and flaps are driven by electric motors. Roll is done with spoilers; there are no ailerons. Let's go fly! Starting is quite simple. Basically, turn on the fuel and press the START button in front of each thrust lever. Monitor the EGT to make sure there's not a hot start. We start the right engine first and let it run, charging the batteries, while we get our clearance. We get our clearance and start the left engine. Simple as that, we're ready to go. If we had been at the end of the runway, we would have been ready for takeoff. No runups in a turbine airplane. I taxi out to 17L at Centennial, cautioned NOT to use the brakes. If we need to slow down, we slip the thrust levers into reverse slightly. If you need to, you can actually back the Marquise into a parking spot. The prop condition levers have three positions: flight, taxi, and emergency shutdown. The only way they could be simpler is if they weren't there at all. At the end of the runway, we're cleared for takeoff. Into position, condition levers to takeoff, thrust levers forward, setting either redline torque or EGT, whichever comes first. On takeoff, its usually torque. At cruise it will be EGT. Accelleration is brisk and before I know it, we are at Vr, about 100 knots (Vmc is 99). Ground roll is probably around 4000 feet. Gear up and accellerate to 160 knots for climb. A left turn northeast bound to clear the airport area and call departure. "Your airplane", he says. My airplane!? Not needing a second request, I eagerly comply and away we go! Our initial clearance is to 8,000', but departure and Denver center keep up with us, so it is a direct climb up to FL270 without stopping. We get out of the light bumps passing through about 13K'. Initial climb is about 2,000 FPM, slowing to 500 FPM or less as we reach FL270 (FL310 is the certificated ceiling). On the way up we are cleared direct to Cedar Rapids. The pressurization system keeps the cabin altitude at about 8K'. 100BY has control feel a lot like a 310. A little heavy on roll, but not too bad. Pitch is fairly light for small changes. Flap extension makes small pitch changes. At cruise, it is stable and easy to maintain altitude, but you have to make corrections gently, otherwise, at these speeds, you'll be winding the altimeter quickly. At cruise, we engage Otto the pilot and enjoy the ride. Airspeed is 182 KIAS, for a true of about 275 knots. Ground speed increases to 310 knots as the winds pick up over Nebraska. Fuel flow at FL270 is 250 pounds per hour per side. That's about 75 GPH total. I'm glad I'm not paying the fuel bill for this trip! The cockpit in the MU-2 is several feet forward of the engines. It is a little strange to look *back* to see the props! That arrangement also makes the noise level higher than one might expect for a turbine airplane. We can carry on a comfortable conversation up front, but I'll probably wear headphones when I buy my Marquise. :-) Chicago center kept us high longer than we wanted, so at about 80 NM out, we had to hurry the descent. Pitch down to 250 knots (red line) and thrust to flight idle. Interesting to see the VSI leaning on 4500 FPM down! Down to 3000 feet and approach clears us for the visual. Gear down and 5 degrees of flaps below 175 knots. 20 degrees of flaps below 155 knots. Turn final at about 130 knots, letting it decrease to 100 to 110 over the fence. Landings in an MU-2 are, shall we say, abrupt. The mains have very little give in them (they look a lot like the gear of an F-18, but smaller), so the airplane has a reputation of being difficult to grease on. The nose falls through and we're down. Thrust levers to idle, then pull up slightly and over the detent into full reverse. Minimum braking gets us slowed in maybe 3000 feet to exit the runway and on to parking. You can get this airplane into and out of a 2500 foot strip if it is very light, but the pucker factor is very high. We exchange passengers, refuel, and repeat the process for the return trip. I fly the climb again, direct Des Moines, then to SMITY intersection (an arrival gate for Denver's airspace). We have filed for FL240, but request and get FL220 to reduce the headwinds on this westbound leg. Our groundspeed is only 241 knots initially, but picks up to about 280 before we start down into Centennial. At FL220, we indicate 211 knots, with 310 pounds per hour each engine (92.5 GPH total). True is about 280 knots. On this leg, the owner did his Jepp changes while I monitored the flight. :-) Before I know it, we're on final for 17L at Centennial, almost 6 hours flying time since we left. Over much too soon for me, but I'm very tired and dripping with facts and impressions I've gathered during the afternoon. Of course, when discussing the MU-2, the accident record always comes up. This owner attends a Flight Safety International recurrent course every year for several days of simulator and systems work. The FAA completely recertified the airplane some years ago and only recommened some changes to the POH. If properly flown by a properly trained and current pilot, the airplane is quite safe. Well, this got a little long winded, so I'll quit for now. I hope you enjoyed the trip. Bill Bill Standerfer -- KF0DJ -- Baron N1746W bills@hpisla.hp.com or {...}!hplabs!hpisla!bills Hewlett Packard Measurement Systems Operation PO Box 301, Loveland, CO 80539 -- 303-679-2378