The turbocharger is a useful part of a pilot's toolbag. When flying an airplane with one installed, it can increase our rate of climb, boost our groundspeed and lift us above a lot of the weather. It also can be used to pressurize the airplane's cabin, allowing us to enjoy a shirtsleeve environment in the flight levels. But there's no free lunch: Turbocharger installations can be maintenance-intensive, heavy and increase a pilot's workload. Modern turbocharger systems minimize or eliminate many of these drawbacks, of course, but bring with them one thing missing from normally aspirated aircraft: additional opportunities for in-flight failures. How a pilot handles a suspected turbocharger system failure can depend on how well he or she understands what's going on, or not.
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