Piper Cheyenne down at Ft. Lauderdale lot

A Cheyenne is a turboprop which was originally based on the Navajo. Depending on which model it was, it could be fairly similar to a Navajo or not.

RIP.

 

the early reports from FAA had the aircraft as a PA-31 which is a Navajo, a pressurized turbo recip predecessor to the turbo prop Cheyenne... apparantly in the shop for electronics work on a test flight with the owner of the shop and his son on board...

early reports were quoting double engine failure... since the two planes look similar, there could have been confusion in fueling, back in the day
when turbo props were being introduced, there were planes marked with "turbo" for turbo charging causing planes to be misfueled... checking the fuel truck ticket will quickly eliminate that issue...

 

the trouble is the PA-31 can be a long list of variants, with the T designator going to the Cheyenne. PA-31 usually goes with the Navajo and Chieftain variants with the Lycoming 540 recip power, while the Cheyenne takes a T designator normally referred to as Cheyenne. There is a lot of room for confusion under PA-31. PA-31P ( pressurized recip ) looks like a PA-31T (turbine). It will take a positive ID and not news reports to determine which aircraft model was actually involved.

Navajo ( Chieftain ) ID normally goes with the non pressureized recips

All Cheyenne are turbine power and pressurized,

 

Turbines can run on pump gas or aviation fuel (100LL) for a while, what will happen after a period of time is the fuel pump (the one that makes around 1,000psi or more) will go bad and start squeaking do to lack of lubrication / oil in Av Gas but in my experience it takes several hours for this to happen not a few minutes.

I had a boat with twin turbines, it ran best on a 50% diesel 50% regular gas mix.

Water is completely different if it had been siting outside for a long time while in service lots of condensation / water could have formed in the tanks and they didn't get it all drained.

 

Florida is very good for doing this, especially on the coast. I experienced it many many years ago. Low tanks and a moisture laden atmosphere do bad stuff. I think that you are on the right track.

 

condensation in a fuel tank from "breathing" happens but not a significant amount can be accumilated under normal usage, it is more an urban myth than truth and has been debunked time and again ( google the internet for the research )... most fuel contamination occurs from water intrusion from bad seals on filler caps or is pumped in at the time of fueling... an FBO should have fuel logs on all fuel that is delivered and consumed, they should have procedures and equipment to keep water intrusion in AV fuel almost a non issue... this is driven by their insurance carrier, fuel vendor, and basic responsibility...
it has nothing to do with Florida

 

Well, I guess that someone was secretly pouring it into the tanks at night. The early 707's that operated in the southern area of the planet, like the Caribbean, had serious problems with water born microbes that lived in the water condensed in the tanks and were eating the structure up with their secretions. I have drained water from the tanks many times.

 

fuel can degrade in a few weeks and will grow all sorts of crud if left unchecked... don't doubt that you found water in the tank, significant amounts of water either leak in or is pumped in, not from condensation. Find the research and go over it.

 

If it was a Cheyenne, it is unlikely to be the result of misfueling or water in the fuel, unless there was a LOT of water in the tanks. Turbines are very forgiving of those things.

If it was a P-Navajo, which looks a lot like a Cheyenne but is piston, then misfueling is definitely a possibility.

 

Reports are another went down in the DC area.

 

googled that one... took time out of my very busy schedule (sic)

a Sirrus SR-22 went down in Gaithersburg MD, had engine problems, deployed parachute, pilot walks away, instructor does not make it.... one site had good video of the plane cockpit "undamaged"...makes one wonder what happened to instructor as it appeared survivable