Flying the King Air with Tom Clements - Part 1

hello I'm Tom Plymouth's with flight review incorporated and I've enjoyed flying and instructing in King airs for over 25 years in the program you're about to view I'll be demonstrating procedures and techniques for flying the king air correctly and proficiently safely and to the extent possible simply as well the airplane we'll be using is the one you see here an early model c90 with Pratt & Whitney pt6a - 20 power plants however the procedures presented with some variations apply in many ways to all King airs from the earliest 90s to the latest 350s if you're preparing for an initial training class on a particular King air model or for that matter if you're getting ready for your umpteenth refresher course on this very very fine aircraft I think you'll find our video worthwhile so come on let's go flying you before starting engines checklist I'm going to be doing this as a do list I want you to realize that applying single pilot especially we must adapt ourselves to the cockpit and do things with certain flow patterns and then use the checklist and the way it's intended as a check that things have been done and you'll see me doing that during some of our flights however for training purposes and when you're new to the aircraft because we don't quite have those flow patterns developed yet the checklist becomes more of a do list for each step is read and then done appropriately so that's how we'll start out here and also I don't normally wear gloves for flying but keep your reflections down for the videotaping that's why I have these on today so before starting engines the exterior checks completed the baggage and door is secured the pass who's been briefed and now I'm pulling the parking brake handle pressing my feet a few times to build up pressure to set the parking brake the condition levers are in the fuel cutoff position the propeller levers are as desired which in most cases is full board unless there's a problem with wind their toys which the props will generate my levers at idle the cabin science which is on the beacon switch is on the battery switch is on and we're doing a couple things different now I have the battery already on and the avionics master switch on so the intercom works for the purposes of the video presentation voltmeters we're showing about 25 volts on each meter which confirms the current limiters are okay the fuel quantity we're a full of fuel the weight and center gravity we've checked that the center gravity is okay and our takeoff weight will be about nine thousand 100 pounds and I turn on the left right booster pump switches and the appropriate fuel pressure lights extinguish I'm ready for start as to which engine is started except for King airs with superchargers on the left engine there's really not much of a preference traditionally the right engine is done first and that's what I'll do first this time the right propeller is clear the right start switch is coming to the top position and then I'll take my finger away from it so I have no chance of turning it off too early and I'll point at a few of the items of interest where my eyes are going the ignition light came on the n1 gauge is stabilizing at 19 and a half percent one two three four five and the conditional ever goes full forward one two three I see a light off an n1 I hear it the ITT is coming up I have my finger at about 900 degrees ready to chop off the fuel temp goes too far and the engine is stabilized at approximately hiatal position 70 percent the propeller as you see is now coming out of feather I'll turn off the start switch turn on the generator switch you may notice the right IT heroes there is the generator workload increased and we're letting the battery charge down in this case to about a 30 percent reading because this airplane is equipped with nickel cadmium lead acid batteries with the nickel cadmium batteries and wait for a 50 percent reading we're there the right generator switch is being turned off the left for fire is clear I'll turn on the left start switch pause just a moment to let the n1 gage get past 12 percent approximately it's not critical and then restore the right general online here we go left propeller is clear let's start switch on right generator on the ignition lights on and with the help of the generator assisting this hinge is going to 22% waiting five seconds for the gold plug to get hot that should be long enough and this condition lever comes approximate to the 60% area today's warm enough that I'll be running the air conditioning so I'm estimating that's where I want my idols notice how much cooler the second engine starts because of the generator system the temperature is good the idle speed is good my left start switches off now I verify that both volt meters show the voltage of the operating generator the right generator 28 volts a verification that we did not blow a current limiter during the start at that time the left center switch comes on it was two generators sharing the workload we can match up the provision levers for approximately 60% idle I want you have your conditioned lever set to where the idle speeds are approximately together do the fine tuning to the propeller speeds the airplane taxis straighter sounds nicer at this time the propellers on the low pitch stops they're not on the governor and so what I do with the prop controls makes no difference unless I pull so far back the propeller starts to feather so with fixed-pitch propellers the idle speed is controlled by the power engines and so by just those condition levers which are quite sensitive to get the propeller speeds as close as practical together and once we have it was just tighten up the friction AAB and leave it there virtually from now on the after starting checklist procedure is a left-right flow pattern with the transfer pumps on the fuel panel coming on the cross speed switch and auto I'm verifying that the generator switches are on obviously we turn them on in the start but the main reason for this check is that had we used external power for the start the generators would not yet have come on until this point in our flow patterns the volts and amps are normal the inverter switch I'll check number one and it's working and go to number two just as we can alternate starts we recommend alternating the use of the inverter the avionics master as I said is already on but to protect the radios I turn them off individually so at this time I'm going to be turning the radios on here manually which would not typically have to be done dual control heat switches early King Air models had switches that we have to turn on for every flight to keep the Lions going to the fuel control and many later King airs those switches are hidden inside the power quadrant on the condition levers and they come on automatically when the condition levers are advanced from fuel cutoff the coffee bar switch I don't need to use today I'm verifying propeller levers arm feather or full forward so that if I had started the feather I don't leave them there too long it's not so much that's detrimental to the engine but rather we're not blowing air back across the oil cooler the battery vents removing our exhaust heat from the nacelle area and so forth that's why it's important to have propellers forward and not to stick too long in the feather position the conditioned levers because of the temperature today being about 20 degrees Celsius anticipating the air conditioning I have these up to run approximately at 60 percent idle which makes the engines nice and cool now when we turn on the air conditioning we'll load up the generators which will cause the ITT to rise here comes the air conditioning coming on the fuel control units are nothing more than governor's friend one and although like any governor may have a very slight error and let the end one change a small amount but in this case the N one state basically the same and the temperature went up as a generator load force the fuel control to put in more fuel to the engine to maintain that idle speed AC voltage I'm looking over the copilot side to check that it's proper which it is my engine instruments because we spend so much time looking at the left side of the engine instruments or the top for those King airs with vertical stacks whenever the checklist says engine instruments I try to force myself to go to the ones I don't look at very much the fuel flow of the oil temperature and pressure gauges now you may find it strange during the start I did not mention checking oil pressure that's because an early king areas such as this one the fuel flow the oil pressure and the port gauges all AC instruments alternating current they require an inverter to be on before they work and to save battery drain we don't have that Vertov durin starts so at this time is the first time I can truly check the tall perches okay the fact that the propellers came out of feather is an interim check that at least the engine had enough oil pressure to move the oil to the propeller governor and let the pump their premium colors out of feather for you who are fortunate enough to fly the later King Air models after about the 1975-76 timeframe your oil pressure gauges are DC powered they will be working during the start and they could have beat could be checked immediately when we started the engines the HSI and our my heading looks like its slaves properly the flight director button has been depressed to conduct a self-test for that not all King airs require that some do and now basically it's a matter of releasing the parking brake and taxing when we're ready for that procedure I'll release the parking brake check around for traffic and we need to roll to the far end of this runway two-seven for runway 9 departure with the wind lightly out of the East today as we roll forward I'm checking the brakes as I make the turn I'm going to check the turn needles for proper operation and you know the left turn needle is not working that's why we check those things well the reason is is because I had the circuit breaker pulled for that while we're doing some of these checks in the cockpit setting up the video cameras and consequently we didn't want that instrument to run that necessarily but that's why it's so important to check these things and regular basis I use the term judicious suspicion we never quite know when something's going to fail and if we're suspicious enough and a judicious manner maybe we'll find these little problems before they find us by surprise as soon as the airplanes taxing at a reasonable speed to avoid riding the brakes you'll notice I've picked the polymers up and come back into the beta range even though the n1 has not changed back the left to slip back just a little bit which I'll readjust but the propellers have increased speed well that's merely because we've made the propeller bite of air get less the blade has gone flatter and we've eliminated some of our residual taxi thrust so I can maintain a reasonable taxi speed here without using the brakes now to demonstrate to come to a stop we'll apply brake pressure and for a nice braid for the passengers just about the time we're coming to that stop we'll ease up on that pressure a little bit so we don't dip the nose and tip everyone's coffee cups and then once we're dead stop will hold the parking print or the brakes tightly we'll move the power levers back over the gate title that does two nice benefits two or three number one that makes airplane quieter by slowing the propellers down to their bigger bite of air the second it used to blow that wind back we talked about for the advantage is the better cooling for the oil coolers especially and finally if and when we ever shut down the airplane which involves feathering the throttle and the power lovers are back in the beta or reverse range position listen caused damage to a propeller linkage so always when you come to dead stop we get the habit pattern repeating those condition levers to the idle position to roll simply releasing the holding the brakes the airplane starts moving forward and once it develops a bit of momentum then back into the beta range to slow it down beta officially ends when the n1 increases when we pick up our if we pick up our slow speeds the potential for proper ocean increases so to be back in the striped area the reverse area below 40 knots is a no-no I'm going to demonstrate briefly here by taking a left eye lever back far enough that you'll see the n1 gage increase now there it is so now we're officially in the reverse range also you notice the propeller started slowing down as it took that negative bite of air so unless we're going fast after the landing on a roll out above 40 knots or we're in a very very swept clean run appear iya that's not a good thing to be doing it slow speeds sometimes where do the strong presence of a tail wind flattening the blades is not very effective for slowing down taxi speed an alternate position or technique is leave the propellers at idle or power levers at idle instead of the propellers now there's no surface area for the wind to push against and the airplane simply goes forward and as it gets quite slow and it needs some more thrust we bring pelvis full forward and the oil pressure build up in the prop dome slowly but surely bringing the propellers out of the feathered position back to low pitstop it's very important when we're doing that that we leave the power levers at idle I have enough momentum I should be able to make a pretty tight turn here just with a momentum alone combined with that low pitstop litang of thrust bringing me around now with a bit of experience in the airplane without without all the jabbering I'm doing for the instructional purposes we would be ready for takeoff at this time with before takeoff checklist completed however again I'll do it now as a do list not as a checklist so you can follow along with what I'm doing for takeoff check pressurization we're going to 16,000 feet and turn the cabin altitude knob and set the small into a sixteen thousand five hundred feet while I'm here I'll make sure the rate knob is appropriate from past experience and to make sure the cabin pressure control switch has not accidentally been moved to the dumpling position is still in the pressure position now four trim tabs rudder aileron elevator pitch trim all three are set properly the flaps in most 90s except for the F 90 takeoffs are virtually always done with flaps up except except for a soft field condition the F 90 is the 100 200 3 in series charts exists to give us an option for using approach flaps of takeoff but here we'll take off flaps up flight controls full travel proper direction freedom top and bottom the ailerons the elevators and rudder all free proper travel avionics I have the Unicom frequency in and I'm listening to that now I have a Columbus approach I think the proper frequency set for my next call I'm talking 1200 I'll set the altitude initially at about 6,000 feet both here and here and I think I can stay visual to at least 6 before we get our eye for our clearance higher up I have the flight plan set in with a leg to Finley and the initial course is 344 that's been set on the HSI let me set the heading bug on runway heading and set the flight director for go around and heading modes both nav 1 and F 2 are on Finley which is too far away to receive just yet at this time I happen to be monitoring guard the one 21.5 frequency in com2 that's just an old habit that if I'm not using that radio for something else would do that at this time I think my avionics are ready for this departure suction Matic pressure gauges are not in the video and the right side of the cockpit but they look normal for the idle power condition we're in fuel quantity it also looks still good I know we checked it before but that's important up to check one more time engine and flight instruments again the engine instruments looking at the ones that don't look at every time continue across everything looks normal ready to go friction locks when I'm doing the use of feathering and bait on the ground I have the friction knobs rather loose but now I want to make sure they're snugged up tight enough not that it takes superhuman effort to move the controls but certainly that they're not going to slip when we don't want them to slip and finally our takeoff data and briefing and even if it's just talking to yourself that's important here we have slightly over 6,000 feet runway we're not a gross weight so this takeoff is going to be done with the slow rotation starting at the v1 VR speed of about 97 but if we have an engine tire up to them or even after that if the gear is still down I'll be planning something to close the throttles and land in a remaining runway but once I've reached about 110 knots and I'm definitely airborne in a positive climb then the gear will come up any real engine fares at that point will be considered in flight emergency and we will in this case remain VFR return to Darby Dan for repairs if anything like that should happen that's the completion of the before takeoff checklist the runway lineup is next to go I'll make it call the radio let people know what we're doing and then the runway line up the flow pattern is a right-to-left progression as you'll see when we line up some King airs certainly they have enough power that they can take off with the air conditioning on and still be able to get full torque no problems with the ITT well within limits the old h20 powered airplane that's rarely the case except in a a cold day so what I've done now is turned off the air conditioning I left the fan going so we have some circulation now the flow pattern comes along to bleed air switches and again because it's summertime I'm choosing to leave those off in many caring areas you turn them on at this time or as we'll see turn them on right after take off one at a time transponders on the radar is on I'm getting the strobe lights the landing lights join the taxi light now and I don't need any ice protection items yet so I think we're ready to go looking around behind me for any traffic I move the power lever slowly until the propeller speeds around 1,500 to avoid ITT spiking at that point I just let fly as fast as I want with a slight hesitation right now the props come up on the governor's now bringing the torques up and watching temps it looks like I can get to about 1200 foot-pounds of torque 1150 with the temperatures well within limits I'm lightening up the control wheel at 80 knots and letting the airplane start flying here handler airborne positive rate coming up 110 gear up I'm turning on one bleeder and turning off the landing taxi lights watching that my power levers don't slip monitoring torques and temps because of the proximity to a cockatiel airport we're starting a quick turn out here at about 400 feet above the ground I'll verify the flaps are up I'll turn on the aw damn pert I'll pull the torte back to around 1100 knowing the clerk will increase when the propellers get reduced and now the prompts will come back to 2,000 rpm riding up the friction again restoring the props think on gonna set up a little altitude reminder with the green up since we'll be flying a hard altitude IFR eventually now readjusting my torque for purposes of normal operation flight training the limits we teach on these models is 1,250 pounds of torque or 700 degrees as hard limits if we had real emergencies and needed the performance of red lines we certainly go to that 750 degrees or 1315 port for today's training will gently use the 7 and 12 as limits Columbus approached King Air 9 for four to Quebec nine two four four two two that cop of uh Darby Danny's going to Mansfield yeah that's us training pipe like to go to Finley first in Mansfield okay let's see here maintain VFR it looks like you're three right now the Craig that's wrote it anywhere around three is fine VFR squawk is three four three seven three four three seven four forty clang yeah well level off 3.5 I'll be fine till now if we've done those that little Y pattern flow to the Y letter were the gear up and the lights off the center of the Y were to verify flaps are up or to retract them in some models and the base there is your damper on we've done that there's no big rush to get to anything real soon also turn on that one bleeder package and we are starting to pressurize the differential pressure is up to about point eight or so and the cabin is climbing at about 500 feet of minute drive so we called 1520 so in this busy traffic area I'd rather keep my attention more outside for scanning purposes rather than doing lots of working with checklists right now okay what I pointed out there was that to maintain 1200 foot-pounds of torque a moment ago took about ninety six ninety percent that has a change within reason now but as we go higher in the thinner air it's easier for the engine to spin and maintain that speed so it takes less fuel flow fuel flow has been decreasing which also gives us less power so the torque is coming down how are the ITT that you can't stop to change very much because of the fact that the thinner air gives less cooling the engine reduction air flow gives less heating and actually ITT stays pretty constant in the climb looks like the clouds are getting nearby prepare price protection on this model there are 13 items have to do I do those in the left-right flow pattern auto ignition switches of a pile of sub panel are now armed I reached below the panel and pull out the ACE feigns watch the torques get a slight reduction and e-center blue the bottom row of switches pitot heats I checked the load increase crop I look for its meter - good afternoon left left boot right left boot I check for generator output increases fuel vents star warning the PTO's feel that's installed some people run was on all the time they call the hot 5 and that's fine if they want to pull very little current very hard to tell that they're working by looking at the load meters and finally wind chilly not only there's the load increase but the Magnetic help of swing is a bit let me do that so now with all 13 items on I'm prepared for icing flight the only thing now is if I only start collecting ice on the airframe to make sure I keep the airspeed no less than 140 right now it looks quite light I'm not seeing anything clinging at all so I'm not hesitating let the speed slightly go below that and the climb now we have a bit of a breathing spell so let's do our after takeoff checklist the landing gear is up the lights of the handler off the landing thanks light switches are off the flaps are verified up the odd amperes on the propellers are about 2,000 the prop sink is on leader switches I'm going to bring the second leader on now and the temperature seems pretty good as is this altitude without air conditioning so I think I'll just leave everything as is there a pressurization with a slight surge the cabin went through and the left leader got turned on I see the cabin is it about 4,500 feet which is the altitude we have set it to go to the differential is about 2.2 psi so we are pressure 8 engine instruments again from right to left and I'm virtually at my 700 degree climb limit the limit I choose to use for climb so from this point on will simply have to abide with the drop in torque and not be able to gain it back because it would force the ITT past limits count science which will turn that off it's pretty smooth outside check I'm looking for fuel leaks for any oil out of the cowling any unusual thing of the wings that I should be aware of to ten thousand feet in the clouds as we're climbing out now let's do a bit of a discussion about the pressurization controller as you see the cabins at 4,500 feet which is what has been set for so right now the controller has brought the cabin to the altitude we've asked for has been obedient to our request this is nothing more than the governor for cabin altitude to hold the galley device at the cabin lower let's go to 3,000 feet which one to five notice the rate and what happens to the cabin one thing you notice about the raid is it went well below what it will stabilize that there's a rate sensitivity about the controller and to VoIP up in the pastures ears so good idea to not only turn the rate back and quit drinking we Trek Bentley for ticket back pause just a minute as I get that new one in here click confirm your landing and man filled whenever you're complete with your training there that is affirmative and now we're going directly friggin thank you so it's rate sensitive so to avoid given the passage here is unexpected thump when we set the cabin lower turn the rate low go very slow for a few turns until the rate of decent stabilizes then you can crank it on down so now stabilize I can sit in lower altitude no problem if I turn the rate to minimum after a time for response notice how slow the cabin starts going down between layers for a moment so I think I'll retract the ice veins although it looks like we may be going into clouds higher up so I'll leave the rest of the ice protection on and I'll return some exterior lights I'm going to turn the rate knob to maximum now I want you to observe after the slow response what the maximum rate of cabin decent is also notice that the cabin altitude is now descending under about 1300 feet the differential pressure is rapidly increasing up to 4 and going up because the cabin goes down and we go up there's certainly more difference between inside and outside pressure let's put the rate back at a minimum setting now let's bring the cabin all the way up let's start to come to 8,000 feet so it's your reverses travel and with the minimum rate set in barely be creeping up at all as I turn the right knob to maximum watch the cabin should get with the program pretty good although there's no big problem at running at maximum differential pressure the typical suggestion is to set the small window or in some later controllers the inner scale value to a number about 500 feet higher than you're planning to go now the controller does not know that we're looking there when we set the 16-5 all it knows that the big hand went back to about 45 4600 feet so that's where the cabin should level off at but not until I go to 16 5 of the airplane would you be at max differential consequently will be flying it's slightly less the max differential pressure I've just hit the altitude hold button on the autopilot as we reach 16,000 climb power is still set you notice the ITT around 700 agrees it looks like we'll be staying between layers for quite some time in that case I'm going to turn off the engine lip food heaters and the prompt II they along with the windshield heat are the larger user is electricity concerning the ice protection I don't want to choose to turn the winch you lead off because I'm afraid to let it get cold soaks they have to heat it up later so once I've got that on and need to use it later on I'll tend to leave it on but Bob peat lipid heaters and they can come off and on at will I'll also leave those other little hot 5 ounces they're pulling so little load now while the auto parts holding altitude and the airplane is accelerating the cruise it gives me time now to check the outside air temperature gauge and consult a graph or a table to see what the appropriate cruise torque the set is for all King airs except the Garrett power be 100 with the TP III 31 inch of it in all other cases our primary power instrument is torque for setting takeoff and cruise power I t's the secondary gauge so I'm looking at the outside air temperature gauge and seeing it reads about minus 6 and at 16,000 feet temperature setting is so close to standard we can use that without a correction looks like we're looking at around the way we set power in this C 90 with about a 10% reduction off a book around 840 foot pounds the airplane is finished accelerating turning off processing losing the friction control and bringing the props back to crews 1900 the gauge you're seeing here is called the prop sync scope and I'm not sure if it's showing up in our video area if it's not fine but that's an aid and keeping the propeller synchronized if I can keep that from rotating I know that not only my hair falling before Quebec or to Quebec UK we're hitting it Fletcher not really for to go back before to go back tonight hitting the rope that my drill keep in my sector so 7:04 to Quebec okay clearing out to the right starting to turn that way so one of the thing is we can help keep the pop synchronize when we change one rpm to another it's okay to leave prop sink on while you're doing that and an airplane you're very familiar with and you know what the relationship of left and right propeller lever position is to keep them on the the governor's with in sync that's fine the new airplane I suggest you turn it off and on so now having pulled the pops back the truck went up a bit now it's time to set that value of 840 which the chart told us to set make a small attempt to get it there pause a moment finish the turn and then make a better attempt to fine-tune it doing engine condition trend monitoring ect em as pret what he calls it it's very important that after you've made one or two attempts to set the torque properly record of the chart that you then not readjust it for at least five minutes preferably 15 or 20 before you take your set of engine readings and even if that means that due to slight errors of torque gauge or due to our sloppiness and setting it when it comes time to take the reading that it changes made 40 that's okay go ahead and record at that time what you see exactly to get the best accuracy for the trends so now I'm looking over and trying to get these pretty close I think they're good enough for government work as we say and that also gave us the fuel flow of about 200 pounds an hour and the temperature I always like to see in these models somewhat below 680 I find it in the cooler days by setting book power we tend to be in the 666 70 area and the hot summer time were for up at the 680 ballpark the actual crews limit for this model is 705 but I feel not quite as tough we're running it for a long time there as I do back at that 680 figure so torque is your primary prior setting instrument the ITT is supported as a side light you'll also find that the end ones you end up having when you do that almost always within about a percentage point at what you see each other time you do this whether you're at 8,000 feet or 28,000 feet see nineties rarely climb high enough where with their high rate of descent and the emergency figuration that really the need for auction would be great but certainly depending on altitude the first consideration if we had lost pressurization causing the emergency descent would be to Don oxygen mass on the other hand I think an equally valid reason for an emergency descent might perhaps be a medical emergency involving a passenger having a seizure or heart attack and we need to get him to that major airport coming out at 4:00 4:00 to go back on tech mancell approach 1 to 4.2 and I keep my move I fulfill thanks a lot see up 24 - so maybe more realistic is to get down to that Airport right below you and get name let's see yeah we goes oh here we go emergency descent all the pots coming off the power lever is coming all the way back to idle rapidly the propeller levers are smooth and they advanced full forward I'm slowing to 156 for the gear speed I get in the flaps first at 174 below 156 the years coming down I've verified the flaps have extended approach 3 green no red the gears down I'm now dropping the nose looking 456 knots as they go into the clouds I'll stop these turnings I was doing a bit of turning there to check for traffic and seeing what pitch attitude we'll go ahead and give me this descent rate I'm desiring now looking at around 11 degrees pitch down 149 knots Mansfield approach King here nine four four ticket back got a one five thousand four ninety five and a four point two Quebec mr. Burrage good buddy up over there two Niner Niner zero nine nine zero I think we'll be breaking out of the clouds and probably cancel how far doing some air working area before we come in for landing for ticket back to go back Roger and did you want to continue your descent fixed valve yeah we could have maybe a block seven to nine initial you

Channel: King Air Academy

Views: 147,503

Rating: 4.8610892 out of 5

Keywords: King Air, Tom Clements, King Air Academy, The King Air Book, King Air Initial Training, King Air Recurrent Training, King Air Guru, King Air Tips, King Air Techniques, Beech King Air, Beechcraft King Air, King Air Training

Id: 1lsL4ajAyGU

Length: 36min 4sec (2164 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 24 2016