CenterHillAg
PATRON
Texas Coast
Talk to Younkin about the 985 too. After flying behind engines from a handful of the shops, I’ll take a Younkin any day of the week. I’ve never flown a Beaver but have a couple thousand hrs sitting behind 1340’s and 985’s on AgCats, and the 985 is by far my favorite of the 2. It’s just a well designed, reliable engine that still doesn’t have much competition in its class. I currently have a 1300 hr engine on my backup plane that’s still running great, burns 1 gal/8 hrs of oil. I usually warm up for 30 mins minimum, 45+ on a cool day, and 20 min cooldown at the end of the day. Running them hard and adding 50 rpm to any power setting kept pressure out of the heads and running smoother, 31”/2150 initially, 30”/2050 once the load was light, 29”/1950 heading back to the strip. I limited myself to 35” on takeoff, I can count on one hand the amount of times I needed 36.5”, and it was always my fault for overloading. Keep the mags dry or you’re in for a long dryout and warmup. Beware of cylinders with Tulsa’s “barrel reconditioning,” they’re gonna pop. Don’t touch any engine controls until you’ve made the runway if a jug pops, it’ll keep running and get you home. I’m not sure if you can see the cylinder heads on a Beaver, but watch for them twitching if you can, any time I saw the engine twitch while flying I knew something was happening, either mag issues or a jug about to pop.
I’ve went on way too long, but I’ll always love the 985. Unfortunately the economics of maintaining them correctly will make their commercial use continue to drop, 2 years into running a PT6 and I’ll never go back.
I’ve went on way too long, but I’ll always love the 985. Unfortunately the economics of maintaining them correctly will make their commercial use continue to drop, 2 years into running a PT6 and I’ll never go back.