Marty,

I was leaving KCOT for KHOU (about a 175 mile flight). There was an MOA just outside of KCOT and ATC asked me to climb to FL230. I was climbing out at about 1500 fpm at about 150 knots indicated. As I passed through FL210 the right engine shut off -- no warning and no indication of anything amiss. I did not feather it immediately because I had so much altitude but the airplane began a descending right turn. With the prop windmilling there was no indication at all of the engine trying to restart.

At 17500 I went ahead and feathered the prop and with a little left rudder hit the autopilot and the airplane continued along just fine on one engine. I asked ATC to allow me to stay at 17500 while I did some troubleshooting. The good news was that my flight path took me over airports that were all suitable landing sites and evenly spaced if I felt that landing was the best option. Because I was having no issues maintaining speed, altitude and heading I continued on and continued to analyze what I had.

I was impressed that I could still climb if I needed to -- albeit I could only make about 400 fpm at that altitude on a single engine. It was at least comforting to know that I had a lot of reserve if necessary.

As I descended through 12000 feet I unfeathered the prop and reintroduced fuel to the engine and it restarted normally and ran. Nevertheless, I reconsidered keeping the engine running because i did not know why it quit in the first place but I suspected a turbocharger issue. I decided since the airplane flew so well on one (and I did not know if I had lost an exhaust pipe or something else critical) I resecured the engine with the knowledge that it was probably there for me if critical.

I landed at KHOU on one engine and taxied to my hangar. One nice byproduct of the Aerostar is that with the hydraulic steering you can still taxi on the ground normally with one engine. The only thing "odd" was that with the propeller feathered there was still a fair amount of drag from the dead engine. It was much more than "training" where you simply make the dead engine idle. The experience gave me a lot of confidence in the plane.

I have not found the A* to be a difficult, or overly expensive, airplane to maintain. Don't get me wrong, it is a complex go-fast airplane, it isn't like maintaining a Bo or a C182, but the systems are robust and well designed. But don't forget, you are maintaining an airplane that if manufactured today would cost well over a million dollars.

In my opinion, one of the significant drivers of the escalating cost of ownership is the dwindling number of aircraft and the resulting escalation of per unit cost necessary to for service facilities to remain solvent. However, I must admit some of the charges simple are absurd. For example, Garmin charging a 1000 bucks to update software and change a $12 battery. I bought a battery off eBay and changed it on my desk in 15 minutes. If you are not willing, or able to do this expect to pay the above-quoted prices for the annual blessing of your aircraft.

Eric, do you mind sharing the cost of the turbo including labor? With four installed I'm guessing I should plan on one per year on average? Or four every 500 hours ?

I paid 1500 per for overhaul about four years ago. I put over 300 hours on the turbos after that, and the new owner said the turbos look great and are working fine.

Tim

Running LOP and using 1650TIT as the limit.

A good O/H lasts 500hrs, after that issues may arise (like difficulty maintaining MAP at altitude at lower RPMs, or blowing oil).
By 1000 hrs you'll have sent all four off.

The other components that wear out about as fast as the turbos are the wastegates.

The only place that does good work repairing (or replacing) wastegates is AAC, and they are expensive items.

(All this stuff is why you really want to go up to FL250 on the pre-buy test flight to verify everything is working as it should.)

The wisdom is that the turbos last about 1000hrs. But as Forrest said, they probably get a little less sprightly at around 500hrs. Waste gates can be overhauled, but eventually they just re-shape and the butterfly won't seal properly. They're abut $3.5-4K from AAC.

Each ?

Eric, do you mind sharing the cost of the turbo including labor? With four installed I'm guessing I should plan on one per year on average? Or four every 500 hours ?

Each ?

I've had good success with these guys.

http://www.approvedturbo.com/


Also, I'm at 1900+ hours (1500+ LOP) and still running the same cylinders.

Good compressions, decent oil pressure, good oil analysis, clean oil filters, and one quart every five hours (AS 15-50). Plan to keep running them until something changes.

One other thing on the wastegates -- Aerostar will rebuild your existing wastegates if they ar repairable. In talking with them the issue will be whether or not they have enough material around the shaft area for them to drill out the hole slightly and install an oversized bushing.

I bought new wastegates this time because I wanted to get the plane back in the air. I also sent them the pair that I removed and they were both "rebuildable". They came back with all new guts and I put them on the shelf.

You da man.

You da man.

Hmmmm. 4k for a wastegate x 4 . Instead of calling the airplane "well-supported," we should change it to "well-extorted." I talked myself off the ledge on the MU2. I think I'll go back there and look some more. It has pricey components, but they last and I don't think it has more than 2 of anything.

MU-2s are often the next step for Aerostar owners.

I got some time in one back in the 90s, coming out of the 1900 (B & C), it rode nice, but it handled like a truck.

Maybe Craig H. will come along and enlighten us on the wonders of the MU-2.

Here's a nice article form back in 2008:

http://mu-2aircraft.com/upload/news/MU2News_73.pdf

It has (2008) cost of ownership numbers..... $2,900.00/HR.