If you plan to cross the Atlantic ocean, you better choose a proper plane if you want to make it safely from one end to the other. The route spans across hundreds of kilometers of ice cold water, icebergs, rocky terrain over Greenland and in general not especially plenty of opportunities to go down if necessary. So what you want is something a) reliable (aka not a single piston engine) and b) fast and c) well equipped with modern avionics.
We are privileged to be flying the best performing and best equipped single engine plane out there: The Socata TBM 850 manufactured by Daher (France). The wild lady is fitted with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D engine, rated at 850 hp in flight (700 hp at take-off), accelerating up to 320knots (600km/h) up to FL 310 (31,000ft, 9.5km) with a range of roughly 3000km. It allows us to cross the Atlantic in less than 12 hours with 4 stops.
The nicely designed lounge style cabin is designed to seat 6 people including crew.
For the techs geeks amond the readers, here some specs of the TBM 850:
- Powerplant ……….Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66D, 850-shp
- Length………………………………………………..35 ft
- Height ………………………………………….14 ft 3 in
- Wingspan………………………………………41ft 6 in
- Wing area ……………………………….193.75 sq ft
- Wing loading ………………………….38.16 lb/sq ft
- Power loading …………………………….8.7 lb/shp
- Seats ……………………………………………………….6
- Standard empty weight ………………….4,762 lb
- Max ramp weight …………………………..7,430 lb
- Max takeoff weight ………………………..7,394 lb
- Max useful load …………………………….2,632 lb
- Payload w/full fuel ……………………………633 lb
- Max landing weight……………………….. 7,024 lb
- Fuel capacity, std ….301 gal (292 gal usable)
- Performance Takeoff distance, ground run …………2,035 ft
- Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle ….2,840 ft
- Rate of climb, sea level ………………2,005 fpm
- Cruise speed/range @ Max power setting ……..315 kt/1,150 nm (415 pph/62 gph)
- Max operating altitude …………………31,000 ft
- Sea-level cabin to ………………………..14,390 ft
- Landing distance over 50-ft obstacle …2,430 ft
- Landing distance, ground roll …………1,840 ft
