DU aviators, have you ever seen a turboprop biplane?

[jmowreader]

Someone at the Lumberton airport has one, and I wonder what it is:

it's yellow
it's shaped kinda like a Stearman
it's about the same length as a Stearman but it's a lot taller, so it looks kinda squished
it's powered by a turboprop engine--you can see the exhaust stacks sticking out the sides of the cowl right behind the prop
it appears to have an open cockpit

I was at first thinking An-2, but that plane isn't shaped like a Stearman

Any ideas what it could be? I googled to no avail.

[MicaelS]

1. Grumman Ag Cat upgraded to turboprop?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_Ag_Cat Grumman G-164 Ag Cat (G-164B Super B Turbine)

[jmowreader]

3. Yes, that's it. Thanks.

[Pierre.Suave]

2. weird

but I guess you could upgrade almost anything to turboprop nowadays if you had enough money.

A better question would be, why?

[MicaelS]

4. More power

Base models had piston engines of 220-300hp. The turbine has 750 shp.

[Pierre.Suave]

7. I know that

but I have seen no problems with piston powered cropdusters. The increase in fuel has to be horrendous. I dont see how it can be cost effective for him or the farmers that would have to pay the higher prices to make up for the fuel cost increase.

[jmowreader]

12. You'd spend less time flying back to the airport to load chemicals into the plane

If you can carry twice as much chemical per load, that halves the number of trips you have to make back and forth to the airport...that would cut down your fuel burn right there. It also reduces the amount you have to pay the pilot, because he's spending less time flying between your field and the airport and more time spraying chemicals on it.

Air Tractor is another brand of cropdusting plane, and all but one of their planes are PT-6 powered. They come right out and tell you: this plane will save you money because you'll spend less time flying back and forth to the airport.

[yellowdogintexas]

6. for cropdusting, need the power. nt

[jmowreader]

10. Because of the fuel, in addition to the added HP

We know a man with a King Air, and he hates to go online to look up fuel prices at destination airports. So...that task devolves to me. Right now, jet fuel is either about the same price or actually lower at many airports. For instance, at Lumberton Airport jet fuel is a dime a gallon cheaper.

Plus...jet fuel is the Tree Hugging Hippie Liberal aviation fuel. Avgas all has lead in it, but jet fuel does not.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Ag Cat.

Some of them now have PT-6 turboprop engines -- crop dusting is kind of dicey at best, so they need a lot of power.

[Pierre.Suave]

8. really?

they need that much power?

how did they do it before with piston powered planes?

personally, I think it is overkill.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. They crashed a lot.

The PT-6 STC lets them carry a lot more payload as well as providing more power.

[BlueCollar]

11. turboprop vs. piston or all jet

Been in the flying business all my life. I'll take a turbo=prop over a jet or piston...


any time, anyplace, anywhere.

Safest and most reliable aviation propulsion system out ther IMO.