This article is about the Pilatus Porter engine compartment and everything you can find in front of the fire wall when you open the cowling doors. I saw Pilatus Porter’s very short take off and steady steep climb right after it, plus many strange in-flight maneuvers proving the engine’s high power. So it was a suprise for me to see it live – relatively small looking – inside that long Porter’s nose. You can judge for yourself 🙂
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1/ Firewall
Let us begin with the firewall – the cross wall placed between the cockpit and the engine compartment. The camera is looking at the right-hand (starboard) side of the airplane nose section.
The light green surface in the upper left corner of the picture above is the windscreen. Please note – the fire wall surface was left unpainted.
Now the camera is in the same place but a bit higher looking more down (picture below) to see the bottom. The engine is on your right.
The upper picture was shot without the flash so you can see the light bleeding through the air outlets – three parallel slots in the rounded plate at the base.
Now we can look at the fire wall from the opposite side. Here you are – the camera is looking at the firewall from the left-hand (port) side of the plane, the engine is on your left now (following pictures):
Here you can better sense the high shine of the fire wall plate (picture below).
2/ Engine cowling doors
Both the engine cowling doors were shot in opened position. Their inner structure is well visible here. Please do not miss the safety prop rods – two for each door.
Opened right-hand (starboard) engine door (upper picture) and the left-hand (port) side door (lower picture). Please do not miss the cylindrical mesh (the inlet screen) in the lower left portion of the picture below and the engine air inlet well visible behind it.
3/ Engine
a/ Right-hand (starboard) side
Pilatus Porter is powered by the Pratt Whitney PT 6A-27 engine according to the info panel placed nearby. You can find this turboprop engine cutaway visiting this link.
Engine photographed from the right-hand (starboard) side of the plane.
The engine exhaust pipes were covered by the textile cups (upper picture). If you need to see the whole exhaust shape, please visit the walkaround chapter in my previous Pilatus detailing post.
The brown hose-pipe with a red sticker and black repeating text “FUEL” on it should connect the fuel pump with the F.C.U. Another two brown hose-pipes have a yellow sticker. The repeating text on it is “LUBRICATION”.
The blue battery (in the lower left portion of the upper picture) is labeled as “ÖBH BORDBATTERIE”.
Now let us go nearer to the propeller. We can see the rear side of spinner here:
A closer look (below) is the cut-out from the picture above.
This is the end of the engine where we can find the propeller shaft protruding from it.
Nearly identical photographs – the upper one was shot without the flash light due to the more precise colour definition, while the lower one was shot using the flash light to see the details more sharply.
We can see some propeller and spinner details here too. Please do not miss the placement of the propeller blade stickers and the HARTZELL stamp.
The black bars on the propeller blades close to the spinner are the electrically heated De-ice Boots.
b/ Center
Now let us knee down under the propeller and look up. We will see the portion just behind the spinner from below. Three silver tubes running down should be the oil piping connected to the reduction gearbox.
There are three more shots below showing you the air ducting section placed behind the air intake – which was removed here. The camera is placed under the exhausts looking toward the tail.
Let us look at the port side of the engine now. We can start near the propeller continuing backwards.
a/ Left-hand (port) side
Camera is looking at the spinner and the section behind it with the propeller governor on top.
The same place but in closer look (picture below). There should be the propeller governor on top and the overspeed governor (black cylinder with silver lever in the middle, below it). The text on a sticker is: Control lever must be safely wired in max RPM position except during ground test.
This is that end of the turboprop engine, where to find the accessory gearbox and connected equipment (lower pictures).
Here should be the starter drive on the picture below (black cylinder) and the ignition exciter box (that silver box with red stickers to the left and a bit down). A small silver cylinder should be the oil filler cap (upper left portion of the picture). The silver rectangular box just to the right should be the fuel heater.
Additional info regarding the engine architecture can be found on this page. This nice animation would show you how the Pratt Whitney PT 6A-27 turboprop engine works.
Note: Here you can find my previous Pilatus detailing post – PC-6 details Pt. I.
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Images Copyright © 2013 by Marcel Meres & Juraj Bojkovský.
Text Copyright © 2013 by Marcel Meres.