Flying the
Turbine Brave The Turbine Brave has a thick wing chord and handles much like a Thrush, except lighter on the controls.
by Bill Lavender A couple of aircraft manufacturers have tried to bring a less than 300-gallon capacity ag-aircraft to the marketplace in recent years, but have not been successful. Even the two leading aircraft manufacturing companies, Thrush Aircraft and Air Tractor, still have a piston engine, 400-gallon capacity aircraft in their fleet, but rarely produce one. It seems evident, at least in the North American market, there may not be a place for a 300 or less gallons agaircraft. Maybe that is not exactly true, since no less than four 285-gallon hopper capacity Turbine Brave deliveries were made in 2014 with another five scheduled for 2015. The Turbine Brave is a Piper Brave PA36 with a factory 285-gallon hopper and a PT6A-20 engine installed per an STC held by Souther Field Aviation based in Americus, Georgia. This is not a new
STC, but one previously held by Turbines, Inc. of Terra Haute, Indiana. Souther Field Aviation, owned by Frankie Williams, bought the STC in the fall of 2013. Frankie is intimately familiar with the conversion. During his 39 years as an ag-pilot, he has owned a Turbine Brave for the past 14 years and has logged over 6,500 hours in it without any issues. After Souther Field Aviation acquired the Turbine Brave STC, the company immediately began applying for and were issued 197 PMAs that enabled it to efficiently convert a piston Piper Brave to a turbine powered aircraft. These PMAs covered the manufacture of the engine mount, cowlings, oil cooler bracket, instrument panel with
appropriate instruments, wiring harness, throttle quadrant, air filter assembly and other necessary items to make the conversion. The Turbine Brave conversion comes with a fresh overhauled PT6A-20 and a new 3-blade Hartzell propeller; the same propeller used on the PT6A-34AG engines on Air Tractor and Thrush aircraft, except with shorter blades. All accessories have a fresh overhaul, or are new. The air filter is a reusable wire mesh, like found on the King Air. The kit is more aerodynamic than the piston version Brave and weighs approximately 200 pounds less. The fly away price is $245,000 USD. Delivery time is 12 weeks from receiving the piston version Brave to converting to the Turbine Brave. Acquiring the engine takes most of the 12 weeks, often requiring 6-7 weeks delivery time. The deposit for buying the Turbine Brave conversion is used to purchase the engine.
The Turbine Brave conversion comes with a fresh overhauled PT6A-20 and a new 3-blade Hartzell propeller; the same propeller used on the PT6A-34AG engines for Air Tractor and Thrush aircraft, except with shorter blades.
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agairupdate.com
An Arizona operator bought the first Turbine Brave conversion from Souther Field Aviation in April 2014. He has since ordered two more. A Kansas operator has also bought one. Now with