Round engines and jets

[planedriver]

Some observed differences in round engines and jets

 

1. To be a real pilot you have to fly a tail dragger for an absolute minimum of 500 hours.

 

2. Large round engines smell of gasoline (115/145), rich oil, hydraulic fluid, man sweat and are not air-conditioned.

 

3. Engine failure to the jet pilot means something is wrong with his air conditioner.

 

4. When you take off in a jet there is no noise in the cockpit. (This does not create a macho feeling of doing something manly).

 

5. Landing a jet just requires a certain airspeed and altitude---at which you cut the power and drop like a rock to the runway.

 

Landing a round engine tail dragger requires finesse, prayer, body English, pumping of rudder pedals and a lot of nerve.

 

6. After landing, a jet just goes straight down the runway.

 

7. A radial tail dragger is like a wild mustang---it might decide to go anywhere. Gusting winds help this behavior a lot.

 

8. You cannot fill your Zippo lighter with jet fuel.

 

9. Starting a jet is like turning on a light switch---a little click and it is on.

 

10. Starting a round engine is an artistic endeavor requiring prayer (curse words) and sometimes meditation.

 

11. Jet engines don't break, spill oil or catch on fire very often which leads to boredom and complacency.

 

12. The round engine may blow an oil seal ring, burst into flame, splutter for no apparent reason or just quit. This results in heightened pilot awareness at all times.

 

13. Jets smell like a kerosene lantern at a scout camp outing.

 

14. Round engines smell like God intended engines to smell, and the tail dragger is the way God intended for man to fly.

 

16. Round engines have a tendency to make strange noises, especially at night over water, which causes the pilot to not only study the operators handbook and ERSA, but mainly concentrate on his prayerbook .

 

 

[Sapphire]

17. Round engines can have 14 or more pistons pumping away. If you can beat that then you are superman.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

18. In a jet you don't need to send someone to top up the oil mid flight!

 

 

[facthunter]

Some radials can be described as 14 cylinder oil pumps..... NOTHING!!!! beats the noise of a few, ( or 4) on take -off.. In flight, they don't shake, they sort of "rumble".. starting them up correctly without backfiring or over richening them requires uncanny skill, two hands and all your attention. Nev

 

 

[kaz3g]

Some radials can be described as 14 cylinder oil pumps..... NOTHING!!!! beats the noise of a few, ( or 4) on take -off.. In flight, they don't shake, they sort of "rumble".. starting them up correctly without backfiring or over richening them requires uncanny skill, two hands and all your attention. Nev

And they have such beautiful symmetry to go with the sound!

 

Kaz

 

 

[Yenn]

Round engines are a bit like Rotax 2 strokes, you need to have a forced landing field in site at all times. When I was being checked out in one years ago, the instructor asked where I would go if I had an engine failure. I said the area directly beneath looked good, until he ointed out it was the warragamba Lion Park.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Hey once your safely on the ground the flight is over......anything that happens after the flight is over gets investigated by other people and instead of being an idiot that flys and deserves to die, you'll be an idiot that went into a lion enclose and deserves to die..... a much better outcome for your buddies here.....may result in useless legislation banning entry to lion enclosures by light aircraft!!!

 

If caught in that situation try to hit as many lions on your landing roll as possible, any that you miss may not be relied on to return the favour!!!

 

 

[facthunter]

The idea is right the reason is incorrect. THEY eat the dead lions instead of eating you.

 

Well designed and maintained radials are probably amongst the most reliable of the reciprocating engines ever produced. Some designs were more prone to failure than others. Argueably the 4 row engines being very complex were sometimes disappointing. It's hard to know whether it was design , maintenance or operating technique. The last ones gave the best HP/ Lb of fuel used ( specific fuel consumption) of any engines (Excluding the few diesels produced). The radial cylinder configuration lends itself to supercharging. Military engines are run at higher power settings than the civilian equivalent so have shorter overhaul periods. They are quite complex to operate having things like RPM and MP to balance, and there are plenty of prohibited rev ranges to avoid, and most aircraft with them in had a flight engineer who (sometimes) was the only one to start them.

 

Until the Lockheed L-188 Electra, all the long range stuff was powered by Big radials. The DC-7 C was the last of a line of fine Douglas Airliners in the old style.. Nev

 

 

[planedriver]

You are such an inspiration Nev.

 

Many of the young guns on here, wouldn't realise that in-flight meals often consisted of a a few slices of bread and a long handled toasting fork, where they could make some toast from the glow-in-the-dark exhaust.

 

Would I even try to kid you of all people?

 

I must admit that many moons ago, I was very concerned seeing a glowing exhaust at night while flying in an Aviation Traders ATL98 Carvair (DC4 conversion), after putting up with a very wobbly face with all the vibrations during engine warm-up prior to take-off.

 

How things have changed, to what we have nowa days!

 

The severe shaking and rattles now seem insignificant, and a thing of the past

 

 

[Yenn]

I don't think that the reliability extended to the Bristol Centaurus, but what an engine. It powered the Sea Fury, which I think holds the piston engine speed record.

 

The one I was flying behind was a 7 cylinder Franklin in a Fairchild Argus. I wonder if it is still flyung.

 

 

[PA.]

17. Round engines can have 14 or more pistons pumping away. If you can beat that then you are superman.

17.1 Round engines always have an odd number of pistons.

 

 

[Sapphire]

17.1 Round engines always have an odd number of pistons.[/quot

 

answer

 

I don't know much about radial engines but googled that info. Only wrote it for the punch line.

[PA.]

17.1.1 4 Stroke Radial engines have an odd number of cylinders per bank. (You can have 2 banks of seven to give you 14.)

 

17.1.2 2 Stroke Radial engines can have any number of cylinders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Alltrue PA. they have a lot of character. That's a good schematic. If you look carefully you will see the firing sequence is to always skip a cylinder. Every second cylinder fires. There is no indication of firing except the two valves remain closed around TDC on the firing cylinder. On load the bearings are not highly stressed. The big end is more stressed if the engine revs are set high and the throttle is closed. The most interesting radial is one called a rotary where the engine case rotates fixed to the prop and the crankshaft stays still. Massive gyroscopic effect, but they spin a very large prop at a relatively slow speed. Around 1100 RPM. Pretty much disappeared entirely at the end of the first war as they were only good for fighters using too much fuel for transports and having a fairly short service life. Nev