Piston engine or Turboprop?

[karlboy]

Hi - i'm looking to add a good ga aircraft to my collection but just wanted to know what the difference is between a piston engine and a turboprop. eg. Flight1 : Cessna - 421 Eagle or 441 Conquest.

What do you like best?

[AJW]

A piston engine is a reciprocating engine in which pistons attached to connecting rods turn the crank shaft. A turboprop is driven by a geared-down jet engine. Depending on what type of flight I want to make, I like both. The Dream Fleet Cessna 310 and MAAM DC-3 are great recip planes----and I really like the turboprop PMDG B1900D and Flight One Cessna 441 Conquest II. I recently completed an around the world flight in the Conquest, a terrific plane.

Anthony

[burnside]

In general, turboprop aircraft fly higher and faster than a piston engine aircraft. Most turboprops are pressurized and most piston engines aircraft are not, restricting them to 10,000 ft or less, unless the crew and passengers are on oxygen.

There are some great twins of both types out there - the Dreamfleet Cessna 310 (60's era cockpit), the FSD Seneca and Navajo aircraft, Milton Schupe's Commander (freeware), are just some of the good piston aircraft. For turboprops there are the FSD Cheyenne, the 441 Conquest, and the new FFG Kingair 200. My advice is to visit the web sites, look at the speed and range data and decide what kind of flights you enjoy, then match up the aircraft to how you will use it. Try some of the freeware aircraft like the Commander and the NAMC YS-11. So many aircraft, so little time...

Dale

[davidvoogd]

Personally I love both. Turboprops are quicker and can fly faster than piston engines, but are more complex and difficult to fly.

The Dreamfleet 310 is a great piston twin from Flight1, the Conquest II from Flight1 is a good turboprop. I have hte FSD Seneca but I personally don't like the panel as I find the gauges are too tiny, personal preference I guess (I do have a 21" CRT monitor btw).
http://www.flight1.com/

If you want a really complex turboprop, the new Aeroworx Beechcraft Super King Air is simply incredible, a bit hard on the system mind you. It's quite realistic though and well worth the money.
http://www.aeroworx.com/

If you are looking for a good entry, basic, and very very cheap turboprop as far as payware goes, the PMDG Beech 1900D is only $15 or so and is a very nice plane. The panel is pretty basic and straightforward, but does look good (especially with the Reality XP Jetline 2 Gauges!), but the model looks incredible, and it flies very well.
http://www.precisionmanuals.com/

As for freeware twins, two great pistons are The Aero Commander and the new Howard 500, or if you want a complex turboprop I hear the Fanda Dash8-300 is simply incredible.

[ronzie]

Now to confuse matters over the term turbo:

Besides the turbine (turbo) jet powered props, there are (were) turbo charged recips where the air input for aspiration in the carb or manifold was compressed, just like in some automobiles, to increase the amount of oxygen for combustion in areas of less air density. I do not recall what specific models these are but I was at first confused over the term turboprop thinking that refered to these supercharged aircraft. Since these usually used constant speed props you knew when you had one by the lower sensitivity to decreasing air density as you climb as noted on the manifold pressure gauge dropping much slower than a none-turbocharged aircraft. These type of smaller aircraft with turbo charging performed much better at higher altitude fields and, of course, hot weather which has less oxygen density.

I am sure there are some corrections due here but I think I got most of it correct and would appreciate some correction.

Are there any FS2K2/FS9 models that are turbo charged?

An interesting observation of turboprops that are of the loose-coupled variety is that there is a third turbine stage driving the prop via its gear chain. These can be noted by a breeze letting a prop "free wheel" with the engine off. I believe the King Air is one and have not noticed if FS models this.

A freeware B1900D but aliased to a King Air panel is at www.pmstone.com (Mike Stone). I customized a downloaded panel for it with many gauges I have including the payware JL2 from Reality-XP. I used images browsed att www.airliners.net under cockpit selection to see what a real one looked like. Since the PMDG one is within their simplified "Express" line, you might want to try Mike's first to see how you like the flight model. Not knowing the PMDG version of the panel (they also recommend the additional JL2) I can't comment on the comparison. Either way, it makes a nice charter aircraft for the basketball team or perhaps small commuter island hopping. It is a 19 passenger aircraft as I recall. It is a very popular STOL aircraft for small fields.

[AJW]

>Are there any FS2K2/FS9 models that are turbo charged?
>


The excellent Flight-1 / Dream Fleet Cessna 310 is turbocharged.

Anthony

[Bruce]

and to throw another type into the pot you have the supercharged recip engine (as opposed to turbo charged or turbo supercharged). these are generally the most powerful of the recip engines. other ways of increasing power from piston engines invloved the injection of various liquids including water.

[burnside]

And to add to the complexity - the NAMC YS-11 uses water/alcohol injection in a turboprop - the freeware aircraft models this quite well.

Dale

[ronzie]

The injection of water into the cylinder is also used on racing cars to enable advanced ignition timing without causing premature explosion (knocking). I'm not that great on the theory but alcohol was also injected I believe. It must be the same for aircraft.

[scott967]

The calclassic.com has some great propliners with P&W Twin Wasps that should give all the work out on radials you could want.

scott s.
.