Grand Caravan, TTx and Baron Get McCauley Props

Some of Textron Aviation's light airplanes are getting a nose job, so to speak, as the company has chosen to swap out the current propellers for new McCauley blades for the Cessna Grand Caravan EX, Cessna TTx and Beechcraft Baron. The transformation will allow the airplanes to lose a few pounds, providing greater useful loads for customers. The swap out also makes sense for Textron Aviation as McCauley Propeller Systems resides under the Textron Aviation umbrella.

Within the next few weeks, the Beechcraft Baron will start delivering with a McCauley C512 aluminum propeller, a modification that improves the useful load of the twin by 20 pounds.

Cessna's TTx is getting McCauley's Blackmac Carbon Series composite propeller, which Textron Aviation says gives customers another 35 pounds of useful load, a smoother ride and improved resistance to impact and blade erosion. The Blackmac was certified last spring, has already received the STC (supplemental type certification) for the TTx and can be retrofitted to former models of the speedy single-engine composite airplane: the Columbia 400, Cessna 400 and Corvalis TT. Deliveries of new airplanes with the McCauley prop will begin later this quarter.

Finally, Cessna's Grand Caravan EX will be equipped with new swept scimitar Blackmac-series four-blade aluminum propeller, which Textron Aviation says brings the single-engine turboprop several benefits. In addition to adding 15 pounds of payload to the airplane, the new propeller improves climb performance by 10 percent, increases ground clearance by two inches and adds time to the before overhaul intervals, the company said. The modification is expected to be complete by the third quarter of this year.

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Pia Bergqvist joined FLYING in December 2010. A passionate aviator, Pia started flying in 1999 and quickly obtained her single- and multi-engine commercial, instrument and instructor ratings. After a decade of working in general aviation, Pia has accumulated almost 3,000 hours of flight time in nearly 40 different types of aircraft.

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