Charles – Glad to hear you can fit your tall frame into the PA46. It’s interesting to see the Meridian has the option of moving the front seat backward, over the wing spar. That should help. Folding all the seats down is also a nice option.
I got into the Eclipse somewhat by accident, and love it. I was looking for anything faster than the Cirrus, after my 4th or 5th coast-to-coast trip in the Cirrus. Like Tom Milam, the author of this thread, I thought it would be easiest to move to a turboprop single, to avoid the extra work of a multiengine rating and type rating. But an Eclipse partnership turned up nearby that worked out great for me, so I jumped through the hoops of the multiengine rating and type rating. The performance of a twin engine jet is impressive (fun to fly!); what a time machine! But all of our airplanes are time machines.
Yea, that is a /47 PC-12 which is the same as mine (a /45) except it has a 500 lbs higher max gross weight. Looks like the take-off would work up to 27C including a 25% margin (my minimum margin for take-off) at the higher gross weight and still retain accelerate-stop capability…
[Whoops…just realized KEGE has a 9,000 FT runway…I was thinking it was 6,500 FT…so there is LOTS or margin on this take-off…]
My guess is the pilot wanted to fly the full ODP (not the climb in visual conditions version) and thus needed the 520 FT/NM to 12,000 FT climb gradient off RWY 7 (or 820 FT/NM to 9,000 FT off RWY 25) and was not confident he’d have it (it would be really close depending temps and winds aloft). Certainly a conservative approach.
In any event, with good VFR, it is a departure I’d make in a /45 or /47 by circling above the airport to 10,500 FT and then proceeding on the published ODP route.
KEGE is a very “interesting” challenge in terms of aircraft performance calculations.
In my bird (not an NG), I’ll hit the “recommended” temp limit of 720 ITT at about 14,000 FT on a typical summer day…meaning I can maintain max climb torque to that altitude without exceeding 720 ITT. Pratt and Whitney says you can run the engine at 760 ITT all day long (top of the green arc), but Pilatus recommends no more than 720 ITT unless needed for safety reasons. Sort of like the 380 CHT vs. 420 CHT on the IO550. I haven’t flown an NG, but it is designed to run hotter (a -67P instead of a -67B engine), but I’m sure it will eventually reach a temp limitation at some altitude.
So, yea, the higher power PT6 (1,200 SHP vs. 500 SHP) will hit temp limits eventually, but never for take-off and initial climb. The POH performance charts take all that into account, so there should not be any surprises.
Forgot to mention…the PC12 performance app is a free download on iTunes if you want to play around with high density altitude take-off and landing calculations. Only limitation on the app is it provides only cruise climb data and not max climb rate data…still have to get max performance climb data from the book.
