To Turbine or not to Turbine?
#11
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#12
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#13
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Here are some advantages.
1) More power to weight ratio.
2) Much less maintanence. (Compared to 1200plus HP piston motors)
3) multiple fuel capability. Deisel ,home heating oil, Kerosene,
Jet. A fuel
4) Better Engine principle. A piston engine creates power
a cycle at a time in the cylinder. A Turbine creates power
continously.
5)Dependability. A 1500Hp engine has pushrods,cranks,rods
cams,chains. Blowers. All reciprocating parts. Back and forth movement.( Vibration) A turbine is highly engineered vanes and shafts all spinning creating vibration free power. Very dependable.Once ignited it only requires air and fuel.
Helicopters just dont fall from the sky.
1) More power to weight ratio.
2) Much less maintanence. (Compared to 1200plus HP piston motors)
3) multiple fuel capability. Deisel ,home heating oil, Kerosene,
Jet. A fuel
4) Better Engine principle. A piston engine creates power
a cycle at a time in the cylinder. A Turbine creates power
continously.
5)Dependability. A 1500Hp engine has pushrods,cranks,rods
cams,chains. Blowers. All reciprocating parts. Back and forth movement.( Vibration) A turbine is highly engineered vanes and shafts all spinning creating vibration free power. Very dependable.Once ignited it only requires air and fuel.
Helicopters just dont fall from the sky.
#16
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What insurance?
I don't believe anyone writes turbines.
Turbines have long service cycles but when they're do, they're expensive- REALLY expensive. You get the slightest bit of water or debris in a turbine's fuel system and you just bought yourself a nightmare. Same thing if you ever suck in a stray nut or bolt. You may find rebuilts but I doubt they'll be FAA-certified- thay means they could have been rebuilt with out of spec or non-spec parts and some of the due-diligence may or may not have been done while the engine was apart.
Marinizing a turbine isn't easy- ask Al Copeland. His mounting system wasn't very well thought through and one of the housings he had the mount flange bolted to broke, dropping the engine down. The exhaust burned through the fiberglass bottom pretty quickly.
#17
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#18
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Rigging is not that difficult. If you have the hardware, and its in good condition, your turbine supplier should be able to set you up with the necessary electronics and a couple basic wiring diagrams. Or recommend where to go.
#19
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Call John Cosker @ Mystic Powerboats. He's got the turbine install/ rigging thing done to a science, obviously!
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Dean
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#20
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You probably already know this, but the boat will just run different... Turbines spin up slower, you won't get that suck you back in your seat feeling when you push the throttles forward.
If you do a lot of running, without a bunch of slow down / speed up it's a good choice.
If you are in an area that has a bunch of speed zones, probably not so good.
The biggest benefit of them (IMO) is the lack of downtime. Great in an area that is warm year round, but if you have a winter down time it probably doesn't matter anyway. And, if it's warm year round (like S. Fla) there are 80 million speed zones, so it's not that great there either unless you just run out to the ocean and go for hours on end.
If you do a lot of running, without a bunch of slow down / speed up it's a good choice.
If you are in an area that has a bunch of speed zones, probably not so good.
The biggest benefit of them (IMO) is the lack of downtime. Great in an area that is warm year round, but if you have a winter down time it probably doesn't matter anyway. And, if it's warm year round (like S. Fla) there are 80 million speed zones, so it's not that great there either unless you just run out to the ocean and go for hours on end.