Having been blessed with a couple of trips in an actual TBM, I can say that the procedure for the inertial separator is to turn it on right before taxi and turn it off in the climb (about 10,000’). Reverse the procedure on descent/landing. If you watch Stevo, you will see that that is what he does.
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And that’s exactly how I’ve been doing it in sim based partly on Steveo.I love his videos because he often explains the reasoning behind why he does things he does, and it gives us good insight and better understanding. Other videos of people piloting the various TBM900 series seem to do the same. It seems to be standard practice. These guys know their ■■■■, and that’s what they do. So that’s how I do it in the sim as well.
I don’t know if I have an old POH, it states inertial separator ON for ground operations and before landing, before take-off it says as required. Also all performance tables are valid for inertial separator OFF so to me it does seem like taking off with inertial separator ON is kind on a non-standard procedure… It is a weird situation to take-off with invalid take-off performance.
Question is, what is worse for the engine, running with high ITT with inertial separator ON or risk on FOD. Running at higher ITT is definitely not good for engine life. Not sure if it really has a purpose or if it is bad operating technique spreading amongst pilots. Its bad that Socata doesn’t supply more info and leave it open to interpretation.
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Looking at the power setting ‘procedure’ some TBM pilots demonstrate on youtube videos shows that performance is obviously not a factor, the super slooow power application renders the takeoff performance tables invalid, even without inertial separator 
Not sure if the inertial separator offers any protection concerning bird strikes.
Is it possible that you are biased against using the inertial separator during takeoff due to learning an older procedure? And that there is in actuality no real concern?
What a bunch of nonsense. You know what a hot section inspection costs?
I’m just asking. The current procedure seems to be to have the IS on during takeoff
I’m not biased about anything, I flew the Kingair before were it actually WAS procedure to have the inertial separators ON for take-off. I have never flown the TBM, but as a commercial pilot I’m not a fan of operating outside the performance specifications of the AFM.
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With sentences like this: you seem to have a real hard time letting go of your established knowledge ??
I apologize if that offends you.
The average TBM flight is either short enough or light enough so that take-offs with the in-sep on are the norm and performance not a factor anyway, if not going into/from super short runways.
Of all the videos I saw of the famous S1K, I never saw him take off with the in-sep off either. I know it’s a TBM 850, but sometimes he flies the odd 930/940 in his vids.
If you need performance you just do a standing take-off an release brakes when your engine catches up on max TRQ/ITT.
I’m literally stating what it says in the POH (at least the version I have), how can that be biased?
If there are performance tables, could be. My POH doesn’t have any for the inertial separator on case.
Yeah and with the insanely high flat rated temperature I doubt you are actually limited, in most cases you’ll probably still be able to select a 100% TRQ, just at a higher ITT. So performance is probably unaffected, but who knows, without proper tables 
AFAIK the performance loss on the 930 is ~20%, that’s a lot.
That much?! On the Kingair it was only a few percent torque if I remember correctly…
I was surprised as well. The Dash7 also lost ~20% which was awful with the already underpowered aircraft.
Here is the most recent publically available POH for the later S/Ns of the 930.
Found here:
https://www.tbm.aero/media/downloads/
Section 4
Normal procedures
Before line up
[…]
9 - INERT SEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ON
[…]
After take-off
INERT SEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As required
So it’s in the checklist
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Thanks! Seems like they’ve changed it. Weirdly the performance table are all valid for Inertial separator OFF, which is what I would expect from Socata. Their documentation is always a pile of rubbish, at least my experience from other Socata’s I have flown…
Seems like the INERTIAL SEPARATOR message is a white message now and not a yellow message…
Looks like you can actually achieve 100% torque with inert sep on, otherwise the performance tables would be invalid.
@anon50268670 After flying the A320 for a few years I shouldn’t be too surprised about a cheap GA single…