How-to Guide: Rig and Match Your PT6A Engines

In this series of videos, produced for Pratt & Whitney Canada, Rob Winchcomb, PT6A Customer Manager for P&WC provides guidance on rigging PT6A engines. So, if you have experienced difficulty with rigging PT6A engines, you’ll want to check out these useful video modules.

With a long history working with PT6A engines, Rob Winchcomb hasn’t always found rigging these powerplants easy. Nevertheless, he’s learnt some tricks and tips over the years which he shares in a useful video series created for Pratt & Whitney Canada. The series is designed to make the task much easier, more efficient, and more importantly, repeatable for operators of PT6A-powered aircraft.

The principles applied in the series are not only for operators of the Beechcraft King Air B350 twin-engine turboprops (featured in the videos), but owners and operators of other aircraft, covering the majority of PT6A engine types, whether installed on single- or twin-engine aircraft.

This series of video modules is designed to provide simple, straightforward steps that should enable you to deliver a well-matched aircraft each and every time.

Whether you operate just one aircraft, or a fleet of aircraft, you want them all to behave the same way, providing for an enhanced pilot and passenger experience. The collective goal of these videos is to give you the necessary tools to efficiently rig and match your engines while spending less time, and burning less fuel in the engine run bay.

A Guide to Rigging PT6A Engines: Engines with Woodward FCU (Part 1)

Part 1 of the series (posted above) provides an overview of the PT6A Engine Control Components with Woodward FCU, including:

• The Cockpit Quadrant
• The Propeller System
• The FCU Input Lever Assembly (including Setting Compressor Speed Deadband and Low-Idle Speed)
• The FCU Lever Position that sets Compressor Speed
• The FCU Power Lever Input and the Important Positions
• The FCU Condition Lever Input
• The Manual Override System (fitted on some controls)

A Guide to Rigging PT6A Engines: Engines with Woodward FCU (Part 2)

Having covered the system components and adjustments, Part 2 looks at how they’re connected together on the engine and mated to the aircraft. Importantly, this video looks at how adjustments are made to match both engines together without cockpit lever splits.

Static rigging of power levers is depicted in the following sequence:

• The Propeller Levers (how to begin the rigging of the propeller lever)
• The Condition Levers (how to begin the rigging of the condition lever)
• The Power Lever Front Section
• The Power Lever Rear Section (including Cambox rigging)
• The Cockpit Deadband Check
• Re-checking Deadband Before Continuing…

A Guide to Rigging PT6A Engines: Engines with Woodward FCU (Part 3)

Part 3 looks at how to use the adjustments outlined in Part 2 to get both engines matched together on a twin-engine turboprop. Having completed the static rigging, and rigged both engines to be physically the same, it is now time to see how they’re matched when they are powered-up in the engine run bay. This video module includes…

Power Lever Matching:

• Forward and Reverse NG Pick-up and Deadband
• PLA Lever Stagger with Matched Engine Torques
• Re-checking Power Lever Stagger
• Max Reverse Compressor Speed
• Adjusting Max Reverse Compressor Speed

Other Engine Settings:

• Adjusting Low-Idle Compressor Speed
• Adjusting High-Idle Compressor Speed
• Adjusting Maximum Compressor Speed
• Maximum Propeller Speed
• Maximum Reverse Propeller Speed
• Flight Idle Blade Angle Check

Do you have any questions or comments having watched any of these videos? Contact Pratt & Whitney Canada at PT6.Rigging@pwc.ca

Read More About: Engine Maintenance