Definition
The pedestal-mounted control assembly in a turboprop cockpit that houses the engine and propeller control levers — typically the power lever, propeller lever, and condition (or fuel cutoff) lever — arranged side by side and moved fore and aft within a slotted housing.
Plain English
It's the panel between the pilot seats where the throttle-style levers for the engine and propeller live. You move these levers forward and back to control engine power, propeller speed, and fuel flow.
Context Anchor
Seen in turboprop cockpit descriptions, engine-control discussions, and checklist items that tell the pilot where to place the power controls.
Derivation
Quadrant' comes from the Latin quadrans, meaning 'a quarter' — historically a quarter-circle shape. In aircraft, the term refers to the slotted housing the levers travel through, which on early designs traced a quarter-arc. The name stuck even as modern quadrants are mostly straight slots.
Why Pilots Care
Correct movement of the levers prevents engine damage and keeps the aircraft performing safely at every phase of flight.
Intuition Check
A power quadrant is not a part inside the engine and it is not a measurement of power. It is the cockpit control area where the pilot moves the power-related levers.
Example Sentence 1
After start, the pilot advanced the power lever on the power quadrant to taxi power and confirmed the propeller lever was full forward.
Example Sentence 2
During engine start the pilot sets the condition lever in the power quadrant to the required position.