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Jet Journal
It’s All About the APU
It is 8 degrees Fahrenheit on the ground in Lincoln, Nebraska with ice and snow on the ramp, and a nasty wind blowing down from somewhere near the Arctic circle. Having just arrived by airline, fel- low Lear pilot Tim and I are cautiously slipping and sliding our way across the icy ramp to the FBO
hangar where there is a Lear 45 awaiting us. One of the companies we fly for recently purchased this Lear to replace their old Lear 35 (see “Old Dogs & Old Airplanes,” T &T, October 2018). Assuming we don’t freeze to death first, we are going to fly it home later in the afternoon.
A Lear 45 is almost identical to the model 40 we commonly fly except it is four feet longer and has two additional passenger seats (for a total of nine). The airplanes also have a common type rating, which is an advantage in that it makes pilot scheduling easier and training costs much lower. But, the real benefit of the 45 for us is that it has an APU (auxiliary power unit), which as we stand shivering at the FBO’s frigid entrance door, is something we think will make our cold weather operations much more comfortable, particularly to isolated parts of Alaska.
Just as we get done stomping the snow off our shoes, the FBO’s office door is opened by the airplane’s salesman. He is a friendly fellow wearing jeans and has a somewhat scraggly long grey beard, all of which strikes me as rather odd for a business jet sales guy – most of whom
look like they shave twice a day and dress in dark suits with white shirts and ties. But hirsute appearance notwithstanding, he gives us a big smile, welcomes us to Nebraska and invites us into the warm room where fresh hot coffee awaits. He says our airplane is out in the hangar ready to go and asks if we would like to the line crew to pull it outside. To someone from the Pacific Northwest where the weather, by comparison, is just plain balmy, that seems like a funny question. The idea of a pre-flight out in the snow and freezing cold is not at all appealing, and something we are not well-practiced.
Upon hearing this, our new bearded friend takes us out into a very large han- gar with a clean white floor and five oth- er business jets in various stages of repair scattered about. It feels like 80 degrees, and I cannot help but note the space
has some very large natural gas-fired radiant heaters hanging down from the ceiling, which are roaring away like a jet engine afterburner. We see our “new to us” airplane parked in the corner under one of the radiant heaters, and a couple of technicians with polishing rags still in hand doing the finishing touches. They have it so shiny that when I get closer, I can see my face mirrored in the paint.
Tim and I begin our pre-flight, and other than the extra feet of fuselage length, find little difference between this airplane and the Lear 40 we left back at home base. Entering the cockpit to look over the gauges and switches, I can see the white lettering and switches on the APU control panel on the center console are almost worn off, whereas those of the HF radio control panel look brand new. Years ago, an old airline pilot told me that when getting in a new (to
by Kevin Ware
32 • TWIN & TURBINE
March 2019