Turbos altitude advantage

[JamesC]

Many TSIO 360's go past TBO as we know. Also they make them better now eg. my SFRM TBO is 1600 hrs.
Engine management planning however as we know should be in the pre-descent checklist so that you can plan ahead and then ahead some more so that the standard 1" per min MP reductions can happen etc. The other thing is not shutting down for 5 mins until after touchdown to reduce coking. As we know sometimes ATC mismanages the flow and leaves you too high - luckily the Skymaster has plenty of drag with the gear out (140 KIAS ext'n but 130 KIAS I have been told is much easier on the gear, so I do that - means sometimes you have to pull up slightly, start extension, continue descent) and also the 1st notch of flaps is 165 KIAS which is really useful. My acft has speedbrakes- useful sometimes esp in long descents from the high teens in winter. All this to say that even though it is 'just' a Skymaster, with the TSIO's you still need to manage power and speeds really much like a bigger twin, though not to the same extent as in a geared engine environment. All really doable (ideally) with practice and good checklists that you stick to. You always have to fly the plane and not just be along for the ride, but perhaps just moreso with TSIO engines.