Originally Posted by
PT6driver
It's also my understanding that Pratt & Whitney says you don't need to observe any specific TQ values in cruise so long as you stay under the Max. Continuous ITT.
Who told you that?
Torque is a limiting value, as is temperature.
In many cases, turbine installations have torque limits that aren't due to the engine, but for the airframe.
Torque is usually a limiting factors at lower altitudes and cooler days, and temp at higher altitudes and hotter days.
If you hit a torque limit or a temp limit first, you stop. Some days you're torque limited, others temp limited, depending on the conditions and location, for departure, and nearly always temp limited in cruise at higher altitudes.
Be careful about the rumors and wives tales that you'll her about Pratt said this or that...I recently talked to a pilot who was convinced that while he had a five minute allowance, he could simply back off to a lower temperature and then go back to the five minute overage again...and again...and again. His reasoning was that it was five minutes at a time, and that so long as he only did five minutes, he could keep doing it. Not so.