what does turbine time mean? i see it on hiring minimums sometimes. someone please inform me. thanks

It simply tells how much experience or flight hours you have logged on turbine driven aircraft. A pilot only having flight time on a prop plane will most likely have a hard time getting into airlines with jets. They will have to pay for the type ratings and therefor prefer turbine experienced pilots. Handling is also complete different to props and more to keep your eye on.

I'll make a minor correction here. Turbine time also includes turbo-prop time.

Now I get to steal AirRabbit's rant switch.



I don't know who invented the absolute crock that jet engines are difficult to manage. I have well over 5,000 hours of turbo-prop time and I'll take a pure jet engine for ease of operation anytime. There are fewer variables and fewer moving parts. I honestly think that this myth was invented years ago by the military mafia (sorry ex-military pilots, I think it exists) to help keep civilian pilots unqualified for airline jobs. Thank God things have changed.

I'm finished now.

Yeah, I was about to bring up the minor point that my 605 hours PIC in a King Air is, in fact, Turbine Time (not to be confused with turpentine --- common mistake).

Haha Turpentine LOL! Nice.



I thought you flew the MD-11 which isn't a turbo prop? Correct me if Im wrong.

There is a pretty good chance that the MD-11 wasnt the very first airplane he ever flew.

Well of course, but it seems that the majority of users to this forum are in the 15 - 25 years barcket. I have no idea how old Ranger is nor am I aware of his total time but judging by reading some of his posts I'd say...Id best keep my mouth shut here before Ranger knocks me on the head lol!

Its great to have experienced pilots on this forum to help us wannabies and enthusists our with our questions and querries. But back to the question, If you don't mind me asking Ranger, what a/c do you have 5000hr turbo-prop time on? Please say the Beech1900!!!

Main Entry: gas turbine
Function: noun
: an internal combustion engine in which expanding gases from the combustion chamber drive the blades of a turbine

As mentioned, a turbine engine can be a jet or a prop, the latter simply being a jet engine with a prop slapped on it with a gearbox to step it down a bit:

Main Entry: turboprop engine
Function: noun
: a jet engine designed to produce thrust principally by means of a propeller driven by a turbine with additional thrust usually obtained by the rearward discharge of hot exhaust gases

Main Entry: turbojet engine
Function: noun
: a jet engine in which a turbine drives a compressor that supplies air to a burner and hot gases from the burner drive the turbine before being discharged rearward

Clear as mud?


Seriously, now? No it is not a turboprop.

...see ... and I thought that a turbo-prop was a colloquiel term for an "unducted fan-jet."



(I'M JUST KIDDING ... AGAIN)

No, not the 1900. I flew one of the only airplanes specifically designed to take perfectly good jet fuel and turn it into pure noise. 28 years ago I started flying Swearingen MetroLiners for a small commuter airline out of Palm Springs, CA.

Military, at least Air Force, pilots will remember the venerable T-37, which also held that honor … the original version, the T-37A, was equipped with two Continental J69-T-9 turbojet engines producing 920 pounds of thrust each. The revived version, the T-37B, had two Continental J69-T-25 turbojet engines producing 1,025 pounds of thrust, each.

It handled well and was agile and responsive, though it was definitely not overpowered. It was capable of all traditional aerobatic maneuvers, and besides it being "fun" to fly, it had one very noticeable and unpleasant characteristic: it was very noisy, even by the standards of a jet aircraft! The engines emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the airplane as a "Screaming Mimi", and it was often referred to as the "6,000 pound dog whistle". The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name: "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet". It was often described by its pilots as the original and only device (at that time) that was deliberately designed to convert JP-4 (military grade jet fuel) into noise. Personnel on the flight line were required to wear ear protectors – not the type that fit neatly inside your ear canal – the big, bulbous type that were unofficially known as “Mickey Ears.” Everyone associated with the Tweet wound up with some hearing loss - even those who were religious Mickey wearers!

Hey, AirRabbit! I remember the Tweet. The first time I heard one running was at Da Nang, Vietnam. There was a neat little Chinese restaurant located at Gunfighter Village on the US air force base at Da Nang. When my C.O. was benevolent enough to give a few of us a day off we'd sneak over there for a good meal. You air force guys really know how to live. Is it true that they build the golf course first and then see if there's money left over for runways, hangers, etc. when they build air force bases? But, I digress. Anyway, that restaurant was located right along the flight line and we would occasionally see, and more obviously, HEAR the Tweets taxiing around. They were flown by Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) guys.

One of the last ground missions that I ran involved the use of VNAF Tweets. We sort of accidently walked into a very large NVA base camp. All 6 of us. After my point man pointed this out to me, we very carefully backed out of it. Long story short, we got away as fast as we thought we could and positioned ourselves on a ridgeline across from that camp. The next day we were sent a US air force FAC (forward air controller) and two flights of VNAF Tweets to bomb that camp. Now, you have to remember that the camp was geographically large. About 500 meters by 1,000 meters. Anyway, the first Tweet makes his bomb run. We see the bombs come off of the racks. We wait. And wait. Finally, we hear this faint "boom" as the bombs miss the entire front face of the mountain and land on the backside. No biggie, we have more airplanes and bombs. Second run, faint boom. Out of 8 jets we got 3 to hit anywhere on that base camp. And then brigade wanted us to walk back in and do a BDA. We basically told them not a chance and walked straight away from probably a division of very irritated and very much alive NVA regulars. I'm convinced that the noise made by the Tweets scared 'em a lot more than those bombs that kept on missing.

Thanks, Ranger! I needed a chuckle today! I expect that there are several similar stories about the "Vietnamization" effort ... but that's a whole different story.

I KNOW there are stories like that involving "foreign" military ... back "in the day” it was with the Iranians (yes, I know, but...) anyway ... the MLG on theTweet were quite far apart ... VERY WIDE ... and you taxied it with rudder pedal steering via an engagement button on the stick … conveniently found right under the ring finger of your right hand when you had hold of the stick. One day, on returning to the traffic pattern, an Iranian student found a pretty stout cross-wind, and went around, twice. Finally the RSU (Runway Supervisory Unit - they actually controlled the runways, not the tower) got another Iranian student in the RSU cab at the approach end of the runway to "talk" to his countryman in his own language. They finally talked him down ... actually, he made a pretty decent approach, and landed almost in the center of the runway ... but he began to drift downwind toward the edge of the runway. He was advised by his fellow-countryman-student-translator, "aileron into the wind, aileron into the wind," followed by "keep the nose straight, keep it straight." One could imagine the kid with almost full cross control in the airplane ... right aileron and left rudder. Then came the critical advice …"use rudder steering." So when the lad engaged the nosewheel steering switch on the stick and had all that left rudder applied, that Tweet almost did a wingover; a very SHARP left hand turn; almost 90 degrees to the runway; and plowed a new path to the parallel runway ... he forgot to pull the power off!

But that wasn’t’ as bad as the one who, after executing a decent T&G, was reminded to clear on both sides of the airplane after getting airborne again, and he did. But he forgot to disengage his head from his arm. Looking back over his left shoulder, almost turning around in the seat, he brought his right shoulder and right arm through the “left / aft” movement at the same time, allowed the lad to roll left, to almost inverted, and pulled straight into the ground – from about 150 feet. OUCH!

I could go on, but someone is likely to think I’m being prejudicial … and, they would be right.

I used to see Tweets (after HEARING them first) all the time around here while they were low and slow on approach to ARA. I don't see them anymore. Are they still used as trainers?

Now all I see are the T-6A Texan II and T-34C single turboprops (would love to get my hands on that Texan).

Boy thats no joke...those things are loud as can be. Its not a nice noise either...like my Lear 24 makes

It must be a nice feeling knowing that as you advance the throttles to takeoff power, you are shaking every window within a three square-mile area!

I think Becky has the names of a couple of towns in Northern California who could use a demonstration flight or two, if only to make life interesting for the town counsels...

Watch yah-sef Ran-jah...ya gonna find yah-sef sleepin' wit' da fishes...I gadda pair shoes fer yah...

The best thing about training with the T-37 was that if you were missing your pen, or maybe short a little drinking money, you could roll her over and pick stuff off of the canopy. I found over $2 in quarters once. SWEET!

I cant say ive had the pleasure of hearing a T-37 on the ground but they flew over nonstop in tech school, them and T-38's which seem to have to fly fast just to stay airborne(heck with those short wings its almost as bad as the f-104). I dont know how annoyingly loud and screachy the T-37 is but to this date nothing is as peircing that i have heard compared to the F-15. When i deployed last year i help do an engine run and my ear protection didnt really do much. The noise is so crisp when i sat i my truck with the windows rolled up(AGE bobtails have sound insulated windows) if i cracked it 1 milimeter the sound came in like there was no window. And talk about waking the dead, how about being 100 feet away on the arse end of a F-15E unleashing 250 gallons of fuel a minute in a insane display of JP-8 to noise action. Shakes your chest forever. One guy(lucky) got to stand 10 feet away from the afterburner flame and said it was moving so much wind it was almost sucking him into it. Anyway im rambling. Oh yea Combat Takeoffs are great, the GR-5 Tornadoes didnt do them though, they climb out as if they arent worried about enemy missiles or gunfire.

When I was a young buck brown bar in the Tweet, I remember my instructor telling me that if I could put his fancy gold-plated cross pen on the glare shield, by using only the aircraft controlls, I could have it ... and he promptly dropped it down between the throttle cables and connections between the two seats, onto the floor. I still have that pen. It's in my shirt pocket right now. And, you're right 27driver, I had to pick it out of all the "trash" that I managed to get entangled on the VOR antenna in the top of the canopy and strewn all over the glare shield! What a mess. The ground crewman that met us didn't say anything, but he sure gave us a really strange look when we parked!

You did notice the top line of my Sig. didnt you?

Rabbit - ah yes, T-37 - the 6000 pound DOG WHISTLE

And then when they made the A-37 by putting in the same engines as in the T-38 what they managed to do was make it "difficult" to fly in known icing... (did have a lot more power, though)

i think guys are getting off topic on me lol. thats okay though. i had the question of how do people build up hours with turbine powered aircraft? are all multi engine planes considered turboprops/turbine?

No. The only airplanes considered to be turboprops or turbo-jets are the ones equipped with turboprops or turbo-jets. Either one will allow you to build time in a turbine engine powered airplane; but very rarely do you see people logging just turbine time - its either turboprop or turbojet.