Der offizielle Werbe-Teaser von Socata


Bericht auf aerotvnetwork

Zitat

Could an airplane hit the bull's-eye more squarely in today's environment than the TBM 850? I don't see how. The turboprop single burns about half again as much fuel as a typical piston twin, but it flies at least 100 knots faster on that fuel. And its range easily stretches out over 1,200 nm even with a little headwind. And now it has the latest in avionics technology with a three-display Garmin G1000 integrated system that features the giant 15-inch multifunction display (MFD) in the center.

The TBM has been popular as a rapid personal transportation airplane for years, but with the 850's top cruise of 320 knots while burning 65 gallons an hour of fuel that more and more costs $8 and up per gallon, the airplane offers an almost unbelievable speed return for the fuel. Pull the power back a little and you can cruise at 280 knots or so on about 50 gallons an hour. But around the airport it slows down to the same airspeed, and thus same pilot demands, as a high-performance piston single.

Socata introduced the 850 in 2006 when it increased cruise shaft horsepower from 700 to 850. That extra power added about 20 knots to top cruise speed and made the airplane even more desirable. But it was not possible at that point to also update the avionics to a fully integrated glass cockpit because the technology at the right price and size didn't exist. Now it does, in the form of the G1000 system.

The 850 is actually one of the last production single-engine airplanes, piston or turboprop, to convert to a glass cockpit, but unlike some others, the conversion is complete with a crew advisory system (CAS).

Turbine-powered airplanes have a warning and caution panel made up of individual annunciator lights, and master warning and caution lights. Each light is there to alert the pilot to a problem or to indicate the status of airplane systems. Warning lights, in red, are reserved for urgent information such as low oil pressure. Amber lights indicate an abnormal condition such as pitot heat not energized. The master warning or caution light comes on to alert the pilot to look at the individual lights in the annunciator panel. Each of these lights is fundamental to the airplane certification, so an equivalent method of alerting the pilot must be demonstrated before anything can be changed.

Because of the complexity of the warning and caution annunciation system, most turbine airplanes have kept the old-fashioned lights in place when they converted to a flat glass display for flight and engine instruments. But not Socata with the TBM 850. The company spent the many months and much money to convert the system to a plain language CAS that shows warnings and cautions on the flat-panel displays. This is a big deal in terms of effective crew alerting, and also in cleaning up the cockpit. In the new 850 the three big flat glass displays show everything needed to fly and monitor the airplane in plain language, leaving only the master warning and caution lights to call attention to the messages. That's why the 850 glass cockpit looks so clean and modern compared to some others that have converted from steam gauges to glass.

The TBM also has complete redundancy in attitude-heading reference (AHRS) and air data computers, as well as in displays. With dual AHRS and air data computers they can monitor each other and warn of discrepancies that would indicate a failure. If a sensor quits, the pilot, and autopilot, can fly on by using the operating sensor from the other side of the cockpit that can display accurate information on both PFDs. And, of course, an independent attitude gyro, airspeed indicator and altimeter are located right in front of the pilot to backup everything.

Following the best human factors, the TBM 850 has its flight guidance panel mounted in the center of the glareshield. The flight guidance panel contains the controls to select heading, altitude and all autopilot modes and is a place you look very frequently in busy airspace, so you want it up where you can see it without diverting your attention from the PFD and the view out the windshield.

As with other systems in the G1000 family, the avionics in the TBM 850 can be operated using knobs and buttons on the edges of the displays. But the 850 also has a remote keyboard control unit that, by pressing buttons and turning knobs on the unit, can be used to operate most functions of the system. I like having both data entry methods. For some chores, such as entering the alphanumeric characters that define a waypoint, the keyboard is fast and handy. For other chores, such as selecting display modes or map range, I find the knobs work better. And in bumpy air, a knob is almost always easier to grasp and use accurately than a keyboard.

Socata also used the production block point change for the avionics to convert the air conditioning system to an engine-driven compressor from an electrically powered unit. The engine-driven compressor delivers dramatically improved cold air flow immediately after engine start. The cold air -- or warm air, as required -- is controlled by separate systems for the cockpit and cabin. Now a pilot baking in the sun won't need to freeze a rear-seat passenger who is sitting in the shade.

The newest 850 also has just over 100 pounds more fuel capacity because of some changes around the filler port. The landing gear has also been beefed up to handle the twisting loads of tight turns on the ramp. There haven't been gear problems in previous versions of the airplane, but ways to strengthen the gear to withstand fast, sharp turns on the ramp without a significant weight penalty were identified.
Despite its enormous capability -- or more accurately because of it -- the new G1000 system saves a little more than 100 pounds of weight in a typical 850. Some of the weight savings comes from the consolidation of dozens of flight and engine instruments into the three glass displays, but much of it results from savings in wire weight. Most of the sensors in the G1000 systems are modules that connect to the rear of the displays. In the previous system each sensor, whether it be for GPS/nav/comm or attitude, had to be linked to a dedicated display by wire bundles. In the earlier airplanes the autopilot is a distinct system with need for wires to connect it to all sorts of equipment including air data, attitude, nav sources and so on. Now the GFC 700 autopilot is essentially built into the G1000 system with need for wires to link it to only a few remote elements such as the servos.

As I walked around the new 850 preparing for flight I was again impressed by the obvious strength and purposeful nature of the design. The wing is quite thick with a nearly constant chord. But with a span of more than 41 feet the aspect ratio is high. That's what you want for an airplane to climb quickly to its certified ceiling of 31,000 feet, but still deliver predictable low-speed flying qualities and stall characteristics. The wing was designed from scratch for a specific altitude and speed profile and delivers with minimum compromise.

The large cabin door that was originally designed as a utility door offers easy access to the cabin. Seats -- even though they meet all of the latest crashworthiness G-loading standards -- can be removed by pulling a couple of pins. Many TBM owners find it convenient to fly without the left-side rear-facing center row seat, making it easier to reach the pilot seats and giving rear-seat passengers more room. Socata is building some TBMs with a forward pilot door, which some people love and others are happy to do without. The pilot door's weight chews up nearly all of the gains from the G1000 system and adds nearly $90,000 to the price. I would happily live without it. The already comfortable interior of the 850 has been upgraded in the new model with excellent leathers.

Socata chose to use the pilot's PFD in a composite mode as the initial startup display. In composite mode both engine and flight instruments are combined on a single display just as they would be if a display failed in flight. With this display you see the engine instruments to monitor the start, while the AHRS is aligning. When you turn on the avionics power, the rest of the system comes to life. The big MFD can display system synoptic pages so you can check the operation of the electrical system with its multiple buses and dual generators, or look at a detailed fuel status page. The CAS messages tell you what's left to do before takeoff, such as turn on pitot and stall warning heats.

For takeoff in the new 850 it is recommended that you still trim the rudder pretty far right to an index mark on the scale using a rocker switch under your thumb on the control wheel. This counteracts propeller effects on takeoff and initial climb. However, once in flight with the rudder trimmed a new automatic rudder trim feature of the G1000 yaw damper takes over and keeps the rudder trimmed for the remainder of the flight.

The TBM 850 flies like any other powerful single, except that it has more power than most. With 130 knots selected in the FLC (flight level change) mode the long nose points to the sky and keeps going up. On a standard temperature day the airplane can get to 25,000 feet in about 14 minutes. Pretty good for only one engine. And all 850s are eligible for RVSM approval so they can fly up to the certified ceiling of 31,000 feet instead of the maximum 28,000 feet for non-RVSM airplanes.

Socata converted the 850's cabin pressurization controls to an electronic system, but for some reason kept the mechanical dial where you set cruise altitude and field elevation. All other pressurization information such as cabin altitude, rate of climb and PSI are shown on the MFD, so it's odd that the system wasn't completely automated, but the workload is hard to complain about with only one required setting.

I don't know what to say about the operation of the G1000 system that you haven't read before. I watched it fly a full RNAV approach including procedure turn, glidepath capture and miss to a holding pattern entry. I could look at a Jeppesen chart of the procedure, or a map over topographical colors, or XM Weather and all of the things we have come to expect from current avionics systems. The 850 does not yet have Garmin's synthetic vision technology (SVT) but will as soon as it is approved in Europe and then the United States. It will be a software change to that exciting new safety capability.

Zitat

Front office changes
The TBM 900 was first revealed to AOPA Pilot in a February 12 visit to the TBM factory in Tarbes, France. There, an evaluation flight demonstrated not just the performance boost, but some major changes in the cockpit and aircraft systems as well.

Daher-Socata chief experimental test pilot Stephane Jacques was our minder and demonstration pilot for the flight, and there was a lot to see. Complaints about access to the front seats were fixed by narrowing the pilot seats, shortening the center console, and rounding its corners at floor level. Now it’s much easier to make a graceful entrance from the cabin. The forward pilot entry door, which used to be optional in previous models, is now standard.
The start sequence is easier, too. A new, 300-amp starter generator (up from prior 200-amp units) and an automatic switch from starter to generator function at 50-percent NG makes for faster starts with less workload. To start, just turn the overhead start switch On, wait for 13-percent NG, and move the single power lever into the low-idle position. After that, within 28 seconds the starter cuts out, and by 40 seconds ITT has stabilized and the start is complete. Battery starts on previous TBMs could take twice as long. By the way, a new GPU system lets you not only make assisted starts, but allows the power cart to charge the battery in case it’s depleted.

The TBM 900 has a single lever that incorporates both power- and condition-lever functions. Don’t look for a propeller control because none exists. The single lever rides in a lower-case “H”-shape gate system. The right side of the “H” controls the condition lever actions, so for a start you lift the lever and move it up and into the first detent to introduce fuel and put the engine into low idle. Move it forward once more and you’re in high idle. To operate it as a conventional power lever, move it to the left and into the run for calling up forward thrust, beta, and reverse-thrust functions.

Gone is the old propeller governing system, so don’t look for that little bump on the cowl that faired the old-style governor. The 900 uses mechanical stops to prevent prop overspeeds, and an electrical governor made by Czech manufacturer Jihostroj to keep rpm between 1,950 and 2,040. This means there’s but one prop setting, always kept very close to the 2,000 rpm redline—and thus no need to manually adjust the propeller. It’s all automatic, and all fail-safe. If there’s an electrical problem, the propeller continues to govern. If for some reason it begins to inadvertently feather, pulling the prop circuit breaker restores normal governing.

The most obvious cockpit improvement must certainly be the new control yokes. They’re both beefy and ergonomically correct, with seven switches and a recessed area that acts as a thumbrest. Customers complained about the clunky-looking old yokes, and Daher-Socata listened.

There are new landing gear, pressurization, and alternator systems as well. The landing gear lever illuminates when the hydraulic pump is running, and when the gear fail to extend. Pressurization is all automatic, and only requires entering the destination airport’s elevation—which can be called up automatically when
the destination is entered on the MFD’s flight plan page. Also new is a 100-amp standby generator.
In flight

We lined up on the Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees’ airport’s Runway 2, pushed up the power, and soon were at the 85-knot rotation speed. Seconds later we were in a 170-knot climb doing 1,700 feet per minute. We were held at 5,000 feet, then 8,000 feet during the climb, but we were still climbing at 400 fpm by the time we approached FL310, 20 minutes later. (The POH said we’d get there in 17 minutes.)

Up at FL310—the 900’s maximum operating altitude—we set torque at the top of the white carat on the torquemeter for a maximum cruise power setting and saw a 327-knot true airspeed while burning 60 gph in -54 degree Celsius (ISA -10) conditions. A glance at the G1000 multifunction display’s map page showed that we could continue cruising for three hours, 10 minutes. At a long-range cruise setting we cruised at 262 knots and fuel burn went down to 39 gallons per hour. Daher-Socata’s TBM factory is at the Tarbes airport in the far southwest of France, very near the Pyrenees Mountains. At this power setting the MFD’s range ring put our 45-minute reserve range well to the north of Scotland—and that was with a 30-knot headwind.

A descent to level off at FL290 gave us the best cruise speed at our near-ISA temperature conditions and our weight of 7,050 pounds (maximum takeoff weight is 7,394 pounds). At 100-percent torque we saw 330 knots on 65 gph. We’d been flying for 38 minutes at this point, but we still had a 1,000-nm range according to the G1000.
An emergency descent demonstration to 10,000 feet pegged the vertical velocity indicator past its 6,600-fpm limit, but the automatic pressurization kept the cabin in control by keeping its descent to 830 fpm.

Then it was time for some stalls. There was an approach to landing stall, which produced plenty of buffeting as a warning, but no tendency to drop off on a wing; same deal with departure stalls. Then Jacques demonstrated the sorts of aggressive stalls he’d performed during certification flight testing. To the tune of 40 degrees, up, up, up the nose went until an abrupt stall caused the left wing to start a drop. But Jacques showed there was still aileron control. He countered the rolloff with full opposite aileron and the airplane hung there with wings level—thanks, he said, to the stabilizing effect of the winglets.

Back at Tarbes we flew an ILS using 25-percent torque, 10 degrees of flaps, and gear down and full flaps at one dot above the glideslope. The result was a very stable 85-knot trip down the final approach course. There is the impression of being nose-low on short final, but it’s best to resist the temptation to flare too soon. Save that for the last 20 or so feet of altitude; go to idle thrust, hold the nose off, and you’ll see that the 900 can indeed make nice landings—even though some say the landing gear can make for some hard arrivals on occasion. Once the nosewheel settles to the runway, pull a gob of reverse thrust, apply brakes, and chances are you’ll stop in well under 1,000 feet. The POH said our ground roll distance that day would be 1,200 feet, but that’s without reverse thrust.

A new commitment

In 2009 French industrial conglomerate Daher bought a controlling interest in what was then EADS-Socata, the manufacturer of the TBM (and before that, a line of piston singles). The TBM 900 is the first airplane to be certified under the new ownership, and proof that Daher is as enthusiastic about building airplanes as Socata was.

For the past four years a team of 75 employees at the Tarbes facility has been working in secrecy on the TBM 900, under the “Century” project name. The team was fixated on product improvement, knew that the TBM was a good design, but also knew that unless they made it better the market would not tolerate any deficiencies, real or perceived. “That’s why we invested so heavily—even though it was the worst of economic times,” Chabbert said.

The investment seems to be paying off. At a customer meeting in March, Daher-Socata said orders for 10 TBM 900s were placed, sight unseen. Ditto 30 more orders by distributors convinced that the customer base would respond. That’s 40 orders—the same number of TBM 850s sold in all of 2013. The 900 is priced at $3.711 million.

At the factory, production of TBM 850s was stopped at serial number 684. From now on, the TBM 900 is the future of Daher-Socata’s airplane business unit, and things are looking up. When we left Tarbes, four TBM 900s were on the ramp and eight more were on the line. And the airplane had not yet been announced to the public.