Airtest- Piper T.1040

And that, after sums have been done, two T1040s operating under the proposed DofA two-pilot configuration for an aircraft carrying more than nine passengers – and each aircraft carrying nine passengers ‘- would operate more economically than a big 18-seater.

According to AGA’s General Manager Barry Marshall, the T1040 will fill the gap in Australia’s market for a reliable, proven and cost-effective turboprop commuter with a first-class performance and a QC (quick change) capability to embrace commuter, corporate and freight operations.

The intermarriage of Chieftain and Cheyenne components has resulted in a tough and long-striding type, with few frills but still fewer snags as far as passenger comfort or freight handling within the cabin is concerned.

Cabin fittings in the T1040 are particularly suited for Australia’s commuter operators; hard-wearing side panels and carpeting are to full airline standards, and an optional pilot door and aft cargo door measuring 45 in x 44. 5 in permit the loading of bulky freight.

In flight, the T1040 shows itself to be a speedy and comfortable aircraft as far as the paying passengers are concerned. There is a moderately high noise level in the cockpit, but not enough to be annoying. We sat about level with the inboard exhaust nozzle of the port Pratt & Whitney of Canada PT6A-11 motor, the big Hartzell prop being some way forward of our ears, during our sortie.

That the Piper T1040 will make its mark on the Australian market goes almost without saying. Piper have long been synonymous with off-pavement operations in all Australian States, and the lineage of the Piper stable could have been made for bush and station routes.

Power for this tractable type comes from a brace of Pratt & Whitney PT6A-11 reverse flow free turbine powerplants, each rated to 500 hp and with a maximum prop speed of 2200 rpm. Enough has been written about the ubiquitous PT6 to fill a few volumes of This Is Your Life, an. d using two of these powerplants to give the T1040 life endorses the success of Piper’s new twin.

As in most PT6 installations, the cowling is sleek and beautiful.

In construction, the T1040 is pretty standard; built in three basic units – nose, cabin and tail sections – standard seating arrangements cater for nine passengers in the main cabin and two people in the cockpit.

Sam Dodd, who did the honours for our evaluation, recalled a painful experience while pointing out the Dutch Bam-type cabin doors with airstairs in the lower portion. Sam was severely beaned by the top half of a Dutch Barn door a long while ago.

There’s no chance of this happening in the T1040; the top portion is pushed out and held by a gas cylinder arrangement.

Fuel is carried in six tanks, three to each wing. Two bladder types and one nacelle tank, to be precise. Total fuel is given as 300 US gallons, 292 of them usable.

The propellers are by Hartzell, triple-bladed and 93-inch diameter, featuring constant speed, feathering and reversing. .

Emergency gear extension is pneumatic as a backup to handpump extension. The pneumatic side is taken care of by nitrogen bottles.

Flaps, ample and capable of lowering to 40 degrees, are insured against one-side extension or retraction by an electronic system that limits asymmetric flaps to five degrees if the operating system falls victim to a gremlin.

All this expertise and aeronautical excellence adds up, in an average model fully equipped, to about $1. 1 million at the time of writing,

Looked at broadly, the model we evaluated – the first in Australia and US-registered November 2605 Yankee – is what it is; a people-mover capable of QC-ing into a mix or pure freight carrier.

Five and a half windows a side mean light and a feeling of airy spaciousness inside the aircraft. The main cabin is not small – maximum width of 50 in, maximum length of 151 in and maximum height of 51. 5 in.

The aircraft at Bankstown wore badges denoting that it had already been shown to a number of interested customers; apart from the Australian insignia, national badges from Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, Tahiti, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia adorned the fuselage.

With Sam Dodd doing the honours during a walkround; we eventually entered the cockpit in a steamy hot + 29°C. TM panel was at once an honest and easy-scan drill. Basically, flight instruments on the left side, are repeated as an option in front of the co-pilot’s position; engine monitoring gauges sit to the right of the flight instrument bank, with radio/nav, radio and radar in the centre section.

Auto-pilot controls sit on the pedestal. An annunciator strip spans almost the entire length of the coaming.

We’ve written it before – we check out a lot of types in a year’s edition; and this aircraft was the one we really felt at home in as a commuter type, an honest, no-frills aircraft which sets out to do what it was made for.

As we found out during our evaluation, it has the ability to get up to operating height, fly far and fast, and then come back down again with all the delicacy of a single-engine lightie.

Thanks to its PT6s, it can manage short/medium hauls with ease without working up an engine sweat (even though we had to crack some oil cooler vent at 4000 feet because of the strong inversion temperature).

Air-oil landing gear struts take care of a variety of surfaces when working the routes, be they bitumen or packed gravel. Brakes are powerful and progressive, backing up the Beta controls when taxiing or slowing after touchdown.

The Beta mode is, as usual these days, used a lot during taxiing out and back again, and is most efficient.

Baggage stowing is a breeze in the T1040, as befits a true commuter type. Stowage space abounds aft of the main cabin door, in the rear of each engine nacelle, and in the nose compartment.

Each nacelle stowage can take 150 lbs, the nose compartment 300 lbs, and the cabin stowage can take from 100 lbs to 440 lbs, depending on the installation of the optional tenth and 11th seats.

Settling in, we followed Sam through a normal start drill.

Check both fuel pumps’ operative by watching for an indication of pressure; switch to the other pump of the same engine and note a continued pressure indication.

Ignition to ON/MANUAL and switch the starter ON. We watched for at least 12 per cent stabilisation on Ng (gas generator rpm as a percentage), then advanced the condition lever to RUN.

Check the ignition light on, and monitor ITT (inter-turbine temperature immediately upstream of the free turbine vanes) and Ng. If ITT shoots up beyond 1090°C for more than two seconds, pull the condition lever to STOP.

In normal start, switch off the starter when Ng stabilises at idle (52 per cent) and select ignition OFF/AUTO. Switch on the generator when Ng gets to 68 per cent.

It was hot inside the aircraft, so we switched on the 16,000 BTU air-conditioning unit after the right engine had stabilised at 60 per cent Ng – the compressor is mounted on the right engine.

Both P & Ws off and running, so we taxied out for runup checks.

With the power levers set at 1625 rpm, we checked out the prop overspeed governors. Prop controls. to full forward, pull out and up on the hydraulic topping governor and watch for an average 85 rpm drop.

Power levers up to 1800 rpm for an engine ice protection check, then bring power levers back to IDLE for a secondary low-pitch stop check. With + 29 degrees outside air temperature, we lined up on Runway 11 Centre and put prop levers and power levers forward in a healthy acceleration.

We were fairly light (about 6829 lbs which included about 1600 lbs of fuel and three people on board), but let the aircraft run to more than the recommended minimum airspeed of 89 knots indicated before lifting off and getting an initial rate of climb of 1000 fpm, with 15 degrees of flap.

Flaps milked up, undercart up in a quick cycle with little pitch, we increased the rate of climb to about 2000 fpm, with first readings well within normal operating limits and an IAS showing around 135 knots.

On the way up to 4000 feet it was obvious we were flying in inversion conditions. The temperature had begun to drop as we went through 2000 feet but shot up again to about + 24 by the time we reached the 4000-foot mark.

At that height we set up an approximate long-range power combination as per Manual, of about 1900 rpm Np (prop speed); 789 ft/lbs torque; 88 per cent Ng (gas generator revs), with an ITT of about 550 degrees.

For our weight and temperature, we should have been notching 174 knots. We made it 178 when the temperature was applied.

The visibility was putrid; dust and smoke from Victoria had permeated the upper atmosphere and it was obvious that this was going to be a short, sharp sortie – we just didn’t like flying around in thick haze . . .

Nevertheless, we did some asymmetries with Sam, noting that one’s foot could easily take up the yaw until rudder trim was fed in to compensate. We climbed in turns on one engine, with ease.

Ailerons were crisp and fully responsive in slow-speed flight, and the stall falls through cleanly and squarely – if one has the strength to fight the aircraft’s natural tendency to non-stall, and the muscle to match that powerful elevator down spring.

Coming back to Vsse (intentional one-engine operative speed); the makers recommend that 118 indicated should be the speed for which one aims when demonstrating or practising one-engine flying in the T1040. With full power on the operative engine and idle on the simulated dead one, we climbed healthily with 125 sitting on the clock. Vmca is booked as 87 knots indicated. . .

Back at Prospect Reservoir, we got a straight-in approach and hung out the undercarriage and first-stage flap. Under damage extension, speed is 156 knots, and first-stage (15 degrees) flaps are listed as 174 knots maximum – very healthy.

Flaps came down progressively as we came downhill at around the 104 knots mark. It required considerable effort to flare the T1040 until it settled, such as the down spring’s strength, even with a certain amount of back trim fed in.

Summing up: the T1040 is set to head any list of requirements by operators who don’t want to fall foul of the new DofA regulations, and who want an aircraft with no vices, comfortable yet rugged in the best traditions.

AUSTRALIAN AVIATION looks forward to another visit by this handsome aircraft. . . We also will be watching for the first operators in Australia to use the type and get more than satisfactory bottom-line results at the end of a financial year.