KING AIR 360 FLIGHT REVIEW

trip abroad with an experienced pilot who brings to the flight deck knowledge of the route. “Having an experienced pilot with you is key,” explained Brian Moore, senior vice president of operations for rebecca@twinandturbine.com FlightSafety International, “because when ATC gives you route changes you did not expect, while possibly speaking rapidly in broken English, is no time for the pilot flying to learn the idiosyncrasies between domestic and international flying. On my first international flight, I was left seat, and the guy in the right seat had flown the route before, so he knew what to expect. If we were just a couple of greenhorns, we’d have been so far behind the airplane.” Consider Ground Operations Once pilots have landed safely at an overseas destination, they need to be prepared for how the FBO will handle the airplane. “I found the FBOs overseas to be very busy, so you need to plan a lot more time than you might expect for tasks to be completed because things take a while, particularly at a lot of the European locations,” said Moore. “You need to be ready for anything. On my first international flight, the ground crews would not handle anti-ice fluid because it is hazmat, and we were not able to buy fuel that already had fluid in there. So we needed to carry those additives ourselves and figure out the hazmat impact of that.” Other international service considerations include ground transportation availability, aircraft security, catering services and off-duty crew security, even when using an international trip planning service. Seek Advice from Experienced Pilots One of the best ways for new international operators to obtain reliable information on overseas operations is to network with those in the industry who know the intimate details of worldwide destinations, said Scott Harrold, president of Sky Aviation International, an aviation consulting firm. Getting advice can be as simple as posting a question on NBAA Airmail or attending the NBAA International Operators Conference. “Even when an operator is using a trip planning service, there are details that other operators know from first-hand experience, from actually making the trips and being there on the ground.” “I recommend that anyone with questions about international operations reach out to NBAA, which has specialists that can either directly answer questions about flying or managing aircraft or can direct that operator or pilot to other resources,” added Harrold. “Especially in the age of COVID-19, operators should contact NBAA staff, as they stay on top of everything that is changing rapidly.” May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 3 Raisbeck Rachel W is sending to me. 4 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 Position Report by Dianne White Last February, while watching the Super Bowl in my socially distanced, virus-free “pod,” a Doritos commercial aired featuring Matthew McConaughey and the classic Queen song, “I Want to Break Free.” That song, being the earworm that it is, became my personal anthem of sorts to figure out as soon as humanly possible when we could safely and legally start traveling in earnest. Last year, we missed out on our annual flying adventure to the Bahamas, something we’ve been doing for nearly 20 years. With the vaccine roll-out going quickly and more and more states and countries easing restrictions, I was ready to break free. With this beautiful new panel with all its capabilities installed, I was ready to break free of the Midwest cold and head south to the Caribbean sun. Four friends who happen to be experienced Bahamas island hoppers decided to join in the fun flying a Piper Meridian. We settled on Exuma as our destination and began planning in earnest. In light of the pandemic, flying to the Bahamas requires a few extra steps. Before entering the country, you must apply for a Bahamas Travel Health Visa. In addition, you must obtain and upload with your visa application a negative COVID-19 RT- PCR test taken no more than five days before the date of arrival. That 5-day requirement sets up your window for obtaining approval to enter the Bahamas. Even if you’re vaccinated, you are still required to complete the test and visa application. It took two days to get our negative test results back, putting us three days before arrival. With results in hand, we immediately applied for the travel visa. Then we waited. And waited. Numerous calls to the number listed on the website went unanswered. On the day before we arrived, one of our friends who was traveling with us sat on hold for four hours before reaching someone in the Bahamas Travel Compliance Unit. She gave the official all of our visa application numbers, and within minutes, we had approval. At that point, we were 14 hours before our planned arrival. (Thanks, Susie!) How serious are Bahamian customs about the 5-day requirement and health visa approval? Very serious. Asked what would happen if we had arrived without it, the customs official in Georgetown, Exuma, looked at us very sternly and said, “We send you back to the United States.” And he meant it. Earlier in the day, the FBO personnel told us of a planeful of vacationers who arrived and were summarily send back to Florida. Just because you applied doesn’t mean you can show up and hope they will sort it out once you are there. Here’s another thing we weren’t expecting. An approved Travel Health Visa arrives as an email with instructions to download the visa, which includes a QR code. Before departure, I called Odyssey Aviation at Exuma International (MYEF) to assure parking for our two-ship. The helpful representative told us we must arrive with a literal print- out of our health visas – the electronic version would not The ramp at Georgetown International (MYEF) was full of general aviation aircraft. Last year, like a lot of aircraft owners, the pandemic made it a perfect time to undertake a major avionics upgrade, including a new autopilot. There is rarely a time when putting our aircraft out of service for a month is workable, but it seemed ideal with no trips on the books. The KFC 150 pitch trim servo had been threatening to fail for a few months, and replacing it was surprisingly costly. What started as an autopilot upgrade grew to a much bigger overhaul. In the end, we installed a Garmin G500TXi, Gi275 standby, GFC500, and a GTX345 transponder with ADS-B in and out. Our friends at Columbia Avionics in Columbia, MO, did an outstanding job on the install and we left the shop virtually glitch-free. If you don’t know them, they have done some innovative STC’s over the years. Most recently, they certified a complete retrofit package for the Citation 525 that includes the G600TXi, GFC600 autopilot, GTN Xi and GWX75 radar. To say they know their way around a panel upgrade is an understatement. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 5 Dianne White is the executive director of MMOPA and editor of MMOPA Magazine. For a total of 14 years, she was editor of Twin & Turbine and has worked in the business aviation industry for nearly 30 years. She also serves on the board of directors for Angel Flight Central. An active multi-engine, instrument-rated pilot, Dianne lives in the Kansas City area and can be reached at editor@diannewhite.com. be accepted. The Bahamas is famous for its bureaucracy, but this seemed ludicrous. Back to the FBO in Florida to print out our visas, and good thing we did. Customs was not amused when one individual in our party didn’t bring a hard copy, but Odyssey was kind enough to print it out and run it back to customs. Once you’re through the customs, you’re free to enjoy the islands as long as you follow a few rules: wear a mask in public places and abide by the 10 p.m. curfew. Each day you must complete a short online survey attesting that you are symptom-free and agree to continue to abide by the rules. On day five, you must take a rapid antigen test, which is easy to do at the local medical clinic. We prefer the quietness of the Out Islands and this trip we visited Exuma with its gorgeous beaches and various small cays you can visit with a boat rental. This trip, our senses were heightened – it had been nearly two years since our last visit, and the sparkling turquoise waters, sugar-white sand, and stark rock outcroppings were more beautiful than I remember. Most all restaurants were open, and the local market had plentiful supplies. The Bahamians we talked to were respectful of the restrictions. With limited health care and no hospital on the island, they are rightfully concerned about the virus. However, their economy is dependent on tourism and we were told over and over, “Thank you for coming back!” The weather was stellar, and after a week of complete tropical bliss, it was time to plan the trip home. Outbound, Bahamas customs confirmed we had completed the day five rapid test, collected their fees, and we were free to leave. Upon arrival at a U.S. airport of entry, in our case, Ft. Pierce, U.S. customs stamped our passports, ran our bags through a scanner, and let us go on our way. No questions about testing or symptoms. Are you ready to break free? Although obtaining the Bahamas Travel Health Visa and taking the day 5 test was a pain, the rest of the requirements were no big deal. To us, the beauty of the Out Islands and the pure relaxation you can’t help but soak up is well worth it. And there’s nothing like flying over the Exuma chain at 500 feet on a perfect CAVU day. A final word of advice when flying to the Bahamas: when in doubt, print it out (in triplicate, just to be safe.) P.S. Don’t forget to file your eAPIS outbound and inbound. That rule is definitely not one from which you can break free. Yingling 6 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 Using Tech Without Losing Your Mind Idiscovered aviation at 19 when I won a free hour in a United Airlines DC- 10 simulator. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life. The realistic bumps and vibrations were enough to make me nervous about crashing. I immediately fell in love with the idea of an office filled with gauges, yokes and throttles. I had dis- covered not only a pursuit but also a profession. September 11 happened shortly af- ter I graduated college. I was quickly introduced to the cyclical volatility of the aviation sector. It was a hor- rible time to start flying, but I began anyway. I enrolled in a few classes at Metro State College of Denver, largely to gain access to their fleet of Frasca training devices. The first entry in my logbook was a block for the entire semester, logged on May 7, 2001. The Frasca is a basic device with a six-pack used as the primary means to establish aircraft orientation. Gyroscopic precession requires reset- ting the heading indicator against the compass every 15 minutes. There is no flight director or autopilot. It is a touch more sophisticated than what Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic. I joined the Metro State Precision Flight team before I had logged any time in an actual aircraft. We ran competitions in the Frasca that utilized altitude, heading, and standard rate turns. If you were off altitude or heading, you accumulated points. Climbs and de- scents had to occur at exactly 500 fpm or you got more points. Like golf, the lowest score won. It was a fun way to develop instrument flying skills. I walked into the Centennial Airport for my “intro to flight” in June of that year. I marched up to the counter of the local flight club and told the owner that I was “looking to learn to fly.” She gave me a direct response, “I have an instructor who can teach you… as long as you don’t mind learning by Stan Dunn from a woman.” Barbara endorsed my first flight and went on to endorse the next few pages as well. I would eventu- ally go through a handful of different instructors (Barbara left for a job at Jeppesen), and I eventually finished my flight training in Los Angeles. My first flight was in N737XE, a 1977 Cessna 172N. The flight school at the FBO had a dozen 172s – nearly all of them 1970s variants. Six-packs pro- vided basic flight information. Fixed cards and VORs provided for navi- gation. The radios were analog. The only way you knew when the battery was on was the hum of the gyro spin- ning up. A good portion of my initial cross-country flights were via pilotage. The VORs were used sparingly and only to verify that I was not transgress- ing controlled airspace around Denver. Hills, antennas, railroad tracks, and the occasional private airport were used to establish position. Dead reck- oning with heading, airspeed, and a May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 7 clock did the rest. I got pretty good on an E6B. It was old-fashioned in the new millennium, yet a testimony to the possibility of life without digital intervention. My flight training was on and off for many years. Aviation job opportuni- ties were lousy for the first decade of the millennium. In 2007 – a couple of months after I got my commer- cial certificate – I landed a job flying Cessna Caravans out of Albuquerque. It had a mechanical flight director, a dual-stack Garmin, an autopilot and a turbine engine. I was in paradise. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back The Caravan is a great aircraft, but the DC-10 had put big iron in my blood. You need multi-engine time to land one of those jobs. The pilot market was finally beginning to open up. It wound up being a slim window of op- portunity. The Great Recession was on the horizon as the aftereffects of 9/11 flowed into the financial crisis. The retirement age for airline pilots was extended from 60 to 65, right as the stock market was crashing. Nobody could afford to retire. 2008 saw only a dozen pilots hired for the airlines in the U.S. I managed to be one of them, flying the Beech 1900D around the slopes of Colorado. It was back to no autopilot, sometimes no flight director and a six-pack. Add snow, mountains, ice, and a maintenance department under the thumb of the accountants, and you have a nice start to an ASAP report. The vast majority of my peril- ous stories come from my time with that little airline. The first generation iPhone came out at the very beginning of my fledgling career. Buzzing around the Rocky Mountains in the twin Beech, it was clear that the phone in my pocket was the most sophisticated piece of electronic equipment onboard. Regula- tions required GPWS, so a GPS antenna had been installed in the fleet. It was the only bit of high tech on the other- wise stock Beech Airliner. The failure rate on checkrides was pretty high. There were a couple of classes where 80 percent were sent packing. My class did pretty well in comparison – a 20 percent washout rate. NDB holds are ridiculous little maneuvers. Doing it while hand-flying a powerful twin takes quite a bit of concentration – and, to be frank, a little good luck. Even Chuck Yeager lost a dogfight every once in a while. NextGen The aircraft I currently fly has enough computers that it’s pointless to count. We have an autopilot, auto- throttles, vertical navigation, EGPWS, TCAS, FMS – a never-ending cortege of processing power. The flight con- trols are fly-by-wire. Higher-level logic prevents aerodynamic stalls and will trim the elevator to compensate for the thrust vector of the wing-mounted engines. FADECs keep the engines from exceeding limitations and will abort a start automatically. Oddly, the flight director cannot capture a VOR. If you really need to track one, you have to twist the heading. The message is clear: Why bother with VORs when you have a dual GPS? Use the flight man- agement computer instead. Ground- based NAVAIDs are a dying breed. Automation ensures compliance with speed limits below 10,000 feet (an altitude that can be adjusted when flying outside of America). The com- puters are capable of automatically adjusting speed as flaps are extended. It will yell at you if the gear is not down on short final. It will yell at you if you are about to hit terrain. It will yell at you if you are about to hit another air- craft. There are over 100 different an- nunciations and verbal alerts to draw the pilots’ attention to a risk that needs to be managed. There is an old saw that the cockpit of the future will be occupied by a pilot and a dog: the pilot to satisfy regula- tory requirements; the dog to bite the pilot if they touch anything. The first American in space was a four-year-old chimpanzee named Ham (Ham the Astrochimp if you believe it). He was trained to press a lever when a blue light flashed. If he failed to respond in 5 seconds, he got an electric shock. A correct response was rewarded with a banana pellet. I feel a kinship with Ham. The Upside of Automation The accident record clearly demonstrates the positive impact that automation has had on safety. Controlled f light into terrain – historically the bane of the broad pilot community – has all but been eliminated as a cause of crashes following the advent of GPWS. Likewise, the probability of aerial collision has decreased in line with the proliferation of TCAS. Automated lighting systems at large airports are helping to eliminate runway incursions as we speak. Fly-by-wire logic is reducing loss-of-control A useful resource or a source of distraction? Technology can be both. 8 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 accidents. The rollout of auto-descent for general aviation fleets is bound to save some lives as well. Navigation systems greatly reduce pilot workload, with departures, arrivals and approaches selectable via simple keystrokes. No more twisting the course, configuring and descending, all while correlating aircraft position with lines on a piece of paper. Moving maps mean that position is never a guessing game. The increasing danger is that auto- mation dependence will be ingrained into the pilots of tomorrow. The ac- cident record is already testifying to the atrophy of basic flying skills. The company I work for promotes an op- erational paradox: On one hand, they encourage the use of automation as a means to reduce task saturation. On the other, they encourage pilots to rou- tinely disconnect automation in order to maintain basic flying skills. Over- reliance on automation can greatly increase response times as pilots get stuck trying to manage computers instead of taking direct control of the aircraft. Yet, the failure to utilize automation can produce mental over- load leading to mistakes in task-satu- rated environments. A month after I began flying the Caravan, the autopilot failed on a short hop between Hobbs and Carls- bad, New Mexico. I felt an initial pang of panic – there were a few seconds of “what do I do?!” Nearly all of my time prior to the Caravan had been in aircraft without autopilots. It took 40 hours with an autopilot to make me scared of flying without one. The blip of panic only lasted a few mo- ments, but it remains a flight that I vividly remember. Similarly, I did not fly my first autothrottle-equipped aircraft until I had 5,000 hours. Three months later, I decided to fly an approach manu- ally. I felt a pronounced stab of uncer- tainty. Five thousand hours of paying attention to thrust and airspeed had 1st Source Automation is very good at managing certain aspects of flight, but it is lousy at abstracting solutions to unusual events. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 9 atrophied after only three months of relegating the responsibility to au- tomation. I made the decision to fly at least one manual approach every month. If the thing fails in icing con- ditions over Mexico, I want it to be no big deal. Automation and Pilot Error Automation is very good at manag- ing certain aspects of flight, but it is lousy at abstracting solutions to un- usual events. Programmers can ac- count for the obvious stuff, but cod- ing automation for one-in-a-million circumstances is infeasible. Humans are still the better solution – particu- larly when lives are on the line. As a result, complex problems are often relegated to the pilots. System fail- ures in automation are not routine, but with hundreds of millions of flight hours logged every year, they are a reality. Nearly all of them end with a successful landing, such as my benign autopilot failure. Some of them result Stan Dunn is an airline captain and check airman. He has 7,000 hours in turbine powered aircraft, with type ratings in the BE-1900, EMB-120, EMB- 145, ERJ-170, and ERJ-190. Stan has been a professional pilot for 14 years, and has been flying for two decades. You can contact Stan at Stan@fly- ingformoney.com. in harrowing flight crew heroics, but nobody pays attention unless the air- plane ends up in the Hudson. The 737 Max ordeal is an example of the peril of handing over basic flying duties to computers (particularly when pilots are kept in the dark). “What is it doing now?” becomes the new danger. Technology only reduces workload when pilots are competent at interfac- ing with the devices. A healthy bit of skepticism can be an asset: Discon- necting automation and hand-flying is almost always the best solution when the computers do something unexpected. The ability to disengage automation is quickly becoming an im- portant skill for pilots to master. This sounds simple, but it can be confusing on sophisticated aircraft. My current aircraft has over a dozen different switches dedicated to disengaging the various automated systems and alerts. Technology is in the midst of a 30-year revolution. The way we com- municate, consume news, complain about politics, and purchase goods has rapidly evolved. Aviation has been no outlier to this trend. Charles Lindbergh has morphed into Star Trek. Automa- tion allows us (at times) to get away with distractions. It is not an excuse to become lazy. The safety of aviation continues to depend on the compe- tence of operators. The importance of a well-trained pilot continues to be vital. When used properly, automation increases safety. When everything is falling apart, the last line of defense re- mains the human at the controls. Ocean Reef 10 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 PHOTOS COURTESY OF TEXTRON AVIATION May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 11 So, how do you improve an airplane that is clearly the most successful in its class? Own- ers and pilots alike have nothing but praise and appreciation for what is truly the “King of the Air” in the turboprop market. Ask anyone who operates a King Air 350 and they’ll give high marks in just about every category. So, how can it be im- proved upon? Enter from stage left the King Air 360. The King Air 360 emanated from the King Air 350, the flagship of the Beechcraft brand for more than two decades. Hence, they’ve had a long time to make the King Air 300 series perfect. Did they suc- ceed? Well, there’s no such thing as perfect, but I can relate that the King Air 360 is an all-encompassing, truly fantastic airplane with a lot of improvements. As soon as the email from Textron Aviation hit my inbox with news that a flight opportunity awaited, I jumped at the chance and flew to Wichita within the week. by Joe Casey KING AIR 360THE KING AIR COMES FULL CIRCLE 12 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 First Impressions T &T Editor Rebecca and I arrived at the fabu- lous Flight Operations building on Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower Airport (KICT) and were greeted warmly by a host of Textron Aviation teammates. We were then escorted to an immaculate white hangar with a brand new gorgeous King Air 360. This particular 360 was all white, awaiting the paint scheme and colors of its future owner. Even in its plain white colors, the 360 looked impressive. Luke Scott was the Textron Aviation demo pilot assigned to put the King Air 360 through its paces with me. Luke has extensive flight time in many airplanes, but his specialty is the King Air 360. The type rating required to fly any of the King Air 300-series airplanes is the BE-300 type rating, and I’m a DPE with authorization to administer that rating. So, I get to fly in a lot of King Air 300 series aircraft with a lot of King Air 300 series pilots, and I can tell you that Luke was particularly impressive as a pilot and instructor – one of the best I’ve seen. His knowledge of the airplane was Mariana Trench deep, and we instantly bonded from a professional standpoint. One of the worries I have when a company makes “im- provements” to an already fabulous product is that changes are made to the structure that are really not improvements at all. The iPhone 8 was not better than the iPhone 6S; classic Coke is way better than new Coke; and watermelon Oreos were just terrible. Improvements should really be improvements, not refinements that change the guts of a product. This is good news for the 360 as Beechcraft didn’t change the general structure or engine of the 350. In fact, if a 350 and 360 were parked next to each other, only a true aficionado could tell the difference. That aficionado probably would have to read the data tag to be completely confident. This is also good news because the classic square/oval shape of the King Air fuselage is probably one of the truly perfect aspects of every King Air. The engines are also the rugged and powerful Pratt and Whitney PT6-60’s that pilots worldwide have grown to trust and appreciate. The performance of the King Air 360 is identical to the 350 because the drag experienced and thrust provided are identical. But, that performance is spectacular. I can’t think of another airplane that can take off from a 3,500-foot land- ing strip with 10-plus people, a cargo area (including wing lockers) full of bags and toys, the fuel tanks all topped off, and go 1,500 nm while burning 300 pounds of fuel on each side while cruising at FL300 at 300 KTAS. That’s a lot of numbers for one sentence, but suffice it to say the King Air 350/360 will carry a ton, fly a long way fast, and be efficient with fuel. Performance and capability improvements were not the driving force behind the new 360. Where Are the Differences? Two areas of consideration received serious upgrades in the King Air 360: safety improvements and a refined interior. To improve upon safety, Beechcraft started by adding autothrottles. I’ll advise that I was a bit skeptical at first that the autothrottles would work well, but once I saw Innovative Solutions & Support, guided by Chairman and CEO, Geoffrey SM Hedrick, purchased a Pilatus PC-12 in early 2000 and decided to develop an autothrottle system for the aircraft. For the next several years, IS&S worked on it until they came up with a very simple, retrofittable ac- tuator that is truly failsafe. The patented ThrustSense full-regime autothrottle pro- vides automatic power management from takeoff to touch- down, including go-arounds. In addition to total speed envelop protection, the system also protects the engine against operator-induced exceedances such as engine over-torque and over-temp. With the success of the Thrust- Sense system for the single-engine PC-12, the company turned its attention on using the technology to aid multi- engine pilots. The ThrustSense autothrottle with LifeGuard has been created to solve the ongoing problem of catastrophic upset that can occur when there is a loss of an engine on a multi-engine turboprop also known as the VMCa problem – when a multi-engine aircraft suffers the failure of one engine. As the pilot tries to maintain altitude and pulls back on the yoke, airspeed reduces to VMCa resulting in loss of directional control. IS&S bought a King Air in 2018 to use as a testbed for the patented LifeGuard technology. It provides critical VMCa upset protection by dynamically maintaining the maximum safe thrust produced by the “good” engine. As part of the rigorous certification activities, this real-time analysis of control loss due to asymmetric thrust in a sudden loss of airspeed as much as 5 kts/sec, was demonstrated by controlling to the maximum safe thrust of the remaining engine. The pilots maintained directional stability by press- ing the rudder on the side of the failed engine and the airplane stayed controllable all the way down to the stall warning. With loss of an engine, even the best pilots can get into this situation and this innovative technology pro- vides better control and safer operations. “Textron Aviation has shown great initiative and trust by certifying as a standard feature our ThrustSense auto- throttle with LifeGuard protection on the new-generation King Air 360 and 260,” said Hedrick. “We’re also offering the system as a retrofit solution to other legacy King Air models through their service centers. It integrates with the existing throttle quadrant, so installation and operations are very simple.” Like with the ThrustSense autothrottle for the PC-12, the twin-engine version provides a host of features including FADEC-like engine protection, over-torque and under-torque protection, under- and over-speed protection, and more. About the ThrustSense Autothrottle by IS&S May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 13 them in action, I was blown away. On the takeoff roll, the pilot simply configures the system with the touch of a few buttons and then pushes the go-around button. With the throttle frictions OFF (yes, that a bit weird for a King Air pilot to do on takeoff!) and the go-around button pushed, the power levers advance smoothly to a power setting that is determined by the internal parameters within the system. There are no computations required by the pilot. The pilot simply pushes the go-around button, releases the brakes, steers the airplane with the pedals, places appropriate aile- ron into any existing wind, and rotates at Vr. Gone are the days of shifting focus from inside to outside while trying to apply enough torque to take off while not over-torquing the engines. The power lever advancement is smooth and incredibly precise. (Before I go any further, a pet peeve of mine is for turbine pilots to call the power levers “throttles.” Throttles are on piston airplanes and turbine airplanes have power levers. So, the King Air 360 really has “Auto Power Levers,” not “Autothrottles.” But, autothrottle seems to roll off the tongue more easily, and I think the term is here to stay, even in turbines. Now, I feel better…thanks for the nice diversion!) While the autothrottles make the takeoff easier on the pilot, the real advantage is while in flight. If an engine were to fail, the autothrottle feature would apply the correct amount of power for that particular situation. And, if the airplane were to slow near Vmc, threatening a Vmc roll, the autothrottles would decrease the power on the good engine to ensure that the deadly Vmc roll over does not occur. To me, this is a huge safety improvement. Additionally, once in flight, the autothrottles are inte- grated into the autopilot system, allowing for incredibly precise aviating. For example, the pilot can select an air- speed, and the autothrottles will adjust the power levers to the exact power setting needed for that regime of flight. I flew an ILS approach to minimums and the autothrottles managed the power levers to keep the speed exactly where I wanted it. It was a truly “hands-off approach” all the way to decision height. The autothrottle system in the 360 was smooth, integrated, and a fabulous improvement over the King Air 350. This one feature improvement was enough to have me hooked, but there’s more. I was particularly impressed with the multi-scan radar. Basically, the multi-scan radar takes all of the pilot adjust- ment of the radar out of the pilot’s hands. It is simply turned on and the system will adjust the tilt, gain, distance, and a whole host of other parameters to give the pilot visibility of convection ahead. I love this feature because I see lots of confusion in the owner-flown and single-pilot world concerning the use of the radar. Simply put, most pilots (my assessment) don’t know how to properly set up and use the radar to ensure an accurate real-time view of the weather. If you are to “go tactical” around thunderstorms (use onboard radar to navigate around storms), you need a good radar system and also know how to use it. The use of radar is more an art than a science, and the skill required Teledyne Select 14 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 to operate radar is best learned in a multi-crew cockpit over countless hours of watching a master tinker with the radar. But now, with the multi-scan radar on the King Air 360, the pilot has a resource that is far easier to use accurately. I still never advise that a pilot go tactical around thunderstorms, but the multi-scan radar on the 360 is the best radar I’ve ever seen on a general aviation airplane, and I’ve seen and used lots of onboard radars in my 30-plus years of flying. Avionics & Interior Ergonomically, the cockpit is King Air-esque, meaning that any pilot familiar with any other King Air will instantly become comfortable with the layout of the switches and position of various functions. This is excellent news because the King Air cockpit layout is ergonomically pleasing and super functional. I have to admit, though, that I’ve got lots more flight time in steam-gauge airplanes and Garmin- equipped airplanes, and I’ve got a love-hate relationship with the earlier Proline 21 avionics found in many of the earlier King Airs. But, the Proline Fusion is absolutely stellar, easy to use, and incredibly functional. Three giant screens literally fill the entire panel from the left sidewall to the right sidewall with flight instrumentation. Touch- screen panels include everything from gorgeous synthetic vision, flight charts, graphical flight planning, and all of it is integrated throughout the cockpit. Yes, I’m a huge fan of the Proline Fusion. Author Joe Casey and Textron Aviation Demo Pilot Luke Scott. One of my favorite upgrades in the King Air 360 is an increase in pressure differential to 6.8 psi from the 6.5 psi differential found in the 350. While 0.3 psi does not sound like a big deal, it is a big deal. It means that a King Air 360 can be operated at FL350 and have a cabin altitude that is under 9,700 feet. In a King Air 350, FL350 was attainable, but the cabin altitude was over 10,300 feet, making FL350 an uncomfortable altitude for passengers and crew alike. It also means that the cabin altitude will be less when the King Air 360 is operated at lower altitudes. To me, FL300 is a great altitude to fly in the King Air 360 because the cabin altitude is low, the true airspeed is high, and the fuel burn is low. With the increase in cabin differential pressure, the flight levels starting with a “3” are now “home” for the King Air. All of this is well and good for the pilot, and the safety improvements are great. But, the people who write the checks for operating a King Air are usually sitting in the aft right seat in the cabin. What does that person want in an airplane? They want it comfortable and nice. Beechcraft has grown to be VERY good at creating a cabin that is exquisite. The new refinements of the King Air 360 cabin are everywhere. The seats will literally move in any direction desired – they’ll move away from the sidewall, rotate inward, and are probably the most comfortable seats I’ve ever enjoyed. The seats were designed using digital pressure mapping so that all body types of passengers have a comfortable seat. Along with the comfortable seating are pleated shades (gone are the rotating polarizers that wear out so quickly), lots of well-crafted interior lighting details, and “King Air” inspired design motifs throughout the cabin. The interior is designed for luxury, mirroring the comfort, precision and tastes found in the most appointed and expensive luxury cars. For a portion of our flight, I gave up my pilot seat so that Rebecca could move up to the front seat and see the cockpit at FL300. I went to the back and enjoyed the spa- cious experience. More interior refinements were noted that were impressive. For starters, the noise level was far less than other King Air aircraft. The 360 has “passive noise canceling,” which has sound deadeners placed throughout the airplane to deaden the noise. And, when the fore and aft doors are closed, the sound dropped significantly again. Before I leave this point about noise reduction, I must admit that one of my favorite features in a King Air is “active noise canceling,” which is found in one of the four King Air aircraft we manage and fly from my home airport. I love the active noise canceling in that particular King Air and even inquired the Beechcraft staff about why they’d not include that system in every new King Air. But they reminded me that system has a reputation in the marketplace for being a maintenance hog. In my personal experience, the system in our airplane has been flawless in use, but others have complained. The impressive part of the King Air 360 is that the noise level in the passive noise-canceled 360 is certainly less than the earlier-model King Air 300 I regularly fly with active noise canceling. At first I was skeptical, but the pas- sive noise canceling is really impressive. Maintenance Savings Another noteworthy change with the King Air 360 versus the other King Air models is the new and improved main- tenance program. Earlier King Air airplanes have a Phase 1/2 in one year and a Phase 3/4 in the next year. So, all four phase inspections occur within two years. In the King Air 360, the same inspections occur within a four-year period. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 15 So, the amount of maintenance that is required is less. There are still hourly maintenance items, and I’m sure the maintenance requirements will be different for different owners who operate their airplanes more or fewer hours in a given year. But, overall maintenance should be less for an owner in a 360 compared to any other type King Air, and that is significant. I think Beechcraft did a great job of upgrading to the 360. There’s no radical departure from what anyone would expect in a King Air, but there are obvious refinements and improvements. Autothrottles, a higher differential pressure, upgraded avionics, and a better experience for the back- seaters make the King Air 360 a worthy investment for the owner who wants the latest and greatest safety improve- ments and passenger comfort. I love the King Air line-up of airplanes, and the 360 is the best King Air ever to roll off the factory floor in Wichita. If you are looking for the best King Air, take a 360-degree view of the market, and you’ll end up with the King Air 360. Joe Casey is an FAA-DPE and an ATP, CFI, CFII (A/H), MEI, CFIG, CFIH, as well as a retired U.S. Army UH60 stan- dardization instruc-tor/examiner. An active instructor in the PA46 and King Air markets, he has accumulated 14,300-plus hours of flight time, with more than 5,200 dual-given as a flight instructor. Contact Joe at joe@flycasey.com or 903.721.9549. Preferred 16 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 JETS – 17,806 CHIEF PILOTS & OWNERS COUNT AIRCRAFT 36 AIRBUS ACJ319 30 ASTRA 1125 32 ASTRA 1125SP 57 ASTRA 1125SPX 29 BEECHJET 400 266 BEECHJET 400A 195 BOEING BBJ 503 CHALLENGER 300 40 CHALLENGER 600 26 CHALLENGER 601-1A 121 CHALLENGER 601-3A 54 CHALLENGER 601-3R 325 CHALLENGER 604 7 CHALLENGER 800 148 CITATION 500 340 CITATION 525 318 CITATION BRAVO 187 CITATION CJ1 96 CITATION CJ1+ 240 CITATION CJ2 225 CITATION CJ2+ 476 CITATION CJ3 174 CITATION CJ3+ 368 CITATION CJ4 189 CITATION ENCORE 74 CITATION ENCORE+ 392 CITATION EXCEL 14 CITATION I 280 CITATION I/SP 445 CITATION II 54 CITATION II/SP 155 CITATION III 124 CITATION LATITUDE 247 CITATION M2 467 CITATION MUSTANG 130 CITATION S/II 323 CITATION SOVEREIGN 105 CITATION SOVEREIGN+ 310 CITATION ULTRA 285 CITATION V 31 CITATION VI 122 CITATION VII 329 CITATION X 38 CITATION X+ 253 CITATION XLS 301 CITATION XLS+ 1 DIAMOND I 32 DIAMOND IA 16 DORNIER ENVOY 3 304 ECLIPSE EA500 75 EMBRAER LEGACY 500 100 EMBRAER LEGACY 600 53 EMBRAER LEGACY 650 247 EMBRAER PHENOM 100 328 EMBRAER PHENOM 300 80 FALCON 10 22 FALCON 100 16 FALCON 200 242 FALCON 2000 27 FALCON 2000EX 34 FALCON 20C 15 FALCON 20C-5 17 FALCON 20D 1 FALCON 20D-5 10 FALCON 20E 49 FALCON 20F 75 FALCON 20F-5 197 FALCON 50 8 FALCON 50-40 118 FALCON 50EX 178 FALCON 900 24 FALCON 900C 116 FALCON 900EX 156 GLOBAL 5000 123 GLOBAL EXPRESS 25 GULFSTREAM G-100 239 GULFSTREAM G-200 14 GULFSTREAM G-300 24 GULFSTREAM G-400 313 GULFSTREAM G-450 11 GULFSTREAM G-500 602 GULFSTREAM G-550 27 GULFSTREAM G-II 12 GULFSTREAM G-IIB 111 GULFSTREAM G-III 175 GULFSTREAM G-IV 338 GULFSTREAM G-IVSP 204 GULFSTREAM G-V 38 HAWKER 1000A 2 HAWKER 125-1A 2 HAWKER 125-1AS 12 HAWKER 125-400AS 2 HAWKER 125-600A 1 HAWKER 125-600AS 61 HAWKER 125-700A 72 HAWKER 4000 223 HAWKER 400XP 44 HAWKER 750 153 HAWKER 800A 14 HAWKER 800B 398 HAWKER 800XP 42 HAWKER 800XPI 88 HAWKER 850XP 187 HAWKER 900XP 2 JET COMMANDER 1121 2 JET COMMANDER 1121B 2 JETSTAR 731 4 LEARJET 23 12 LEARJET 24 2 LEARJET 24A 7 LEARJET 24B 20 LEARJET 24D 8 LEARJET 24E 6 LEARJET 24F 4 LEARJET 25 19 LEARJET 25B 4 LEARJET 25C 45 LEARJET 25D 4 LEARJET 28 32 LEARJET 31 182 LEARJET 31A 26 LEARJET 35 398 LEARJET 35A 21 LEARJET 36 33 LEARJET 36A 32 LEARJET 40 243 LEARJET 45 225 LEARJET 45XR 92 LEARJET 55 6 LEARJET 55B 8 LEARJET 55C 307 LEARJET 60 623 PILATUS PC-12/45 149 PREMIER I 1 SABRELINER 40 7 SABRELINER 40A 2 SABRELINER 40EL 2 SABRELINER 40R 4 SABRELINER 60 5 SABRELINER 60ELXM 68 SABRELINER 65 7 SABRELINER 80 1 SABRELINER 80SC 67 WESTWIND 1 1 WESTWIND 1123 14 WESTWIND 1124 50 WESTWIND 2 TURBOPROPS – 12,801 CHIEF PILOTS & OWNERS COUNT AIRCRAFT 403 CARAVAN 208 1,523 CARAVAN 208B 155 CHEYENNE I 16 CHEYENNE IA 206 CHEYENNE II 56 CHEYENNE III 38 CHEYENNE IIIA 57 CHEYENNE IIXL 35 CHEYENNE IV 235 CONQUEST I 291 CONQUEST II 38 JETSTREAM 31 63 JETSTREAM 32 52 JETSTREAM 41 37 KING AIR 100 450 KING AIR 200 17 KING AIR 200C The Worldwide General Aviation owner/operators and chief pilots of these airc PHOTO BY JESSICA AMBATS TOTAL MARKET COVERAGE May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 17 Do you want your marketing message to reach these key decision makers? 16 KING AIR 200T 229 KING AIR 250 182 KING AIR 300 14 KING AIR 300LW 617 KING AIR 350 62 KING AIR 350C 8 KING AIR 350ER 387 KING AIR 350I 4 KING AIR 350IER 8 KING AIR 90 6 KING AIR A/B90 76 KING AIR A100 184 KING AIR A200 34 KING AIR A90 197 KING AIR A90-1 105 KING AIR B100 1,038 KING AIR B200 107 KING AIR B200C 99 KING AIR B200GT 5 KING AIR B200SE 8 KING AIR B200T 47 KING AIR B90 302 KING AIR C90 38 KING AIR C90-1 186 KING AIR C90A 378 KING AIR C90B 76 KING AIR C90GT 88 KING AIR C90GTI 150 KING AIR C90GTX 13 KING AIR C90SE 258 KING AIR E90 173 KING AIR F90 28 KING AIR F90-1 5 MERLIN 300 13 MERLIN IIB 8 MERLIN III 22 MERLIN IIIA 44 MERLIN IIIB 14 MERLIN IIIC 3 MERLIN IV 11 MERLIN IV-A 101 MITSUBISHI MARQUISE 18 MITSUBISHI MU-2F 1 MITSUBISHI MU-2G 15 MITSUBISHI MU-2J 37 MITSUBISHI MU-2K 12 MITSUBISHI MU-2L 25 MITSUBISHI MU-2M 24 MITSUBISHI MU-2N 29 MITSUBISHI MU-2P 47 MITSUBISHI SOLITAIRE 796 PILATUS PC-12 NG 197 PILATUS PC-12/47 296 PIPER JETPROP 74 PIPER M500 92 PIPER M600 602 PIPER MERIDIAN 198 QUEST KODIAK 100 2 ROCKWELL 680T TURBO 5 ROCKWELL 680V TURBO II 4 ROCKWELL 680W TURBO II 4 ROCKWELL 681 HAWK 85 SOCATA TBM-700A 90 SOCATA TBM-700B 381 SOCATA TBM-850 121 SOCATA TBM-900 38 SOCATA TBM910 136 SOCATA TBM930 6 STARSHIP 2000A 50 TURBO COMMANDER 1000 22 TURBO COMMANDER 690 131 TURBO COMMANDER 690A 135 TURBO COMMANDER 690B 73 TURBO COMMANDER 840 20 TURBO COMMANDER 900 19 TURBO COMMANDER 980 TWIN PISTON – 6,872 OWNERS COUNT AIRCRAFT 35 BARON 56 TC 1,566 BARON 58 446 BARON 58P 118 BARON 58TC 3 BARON A56TC 335 BARON G58 158 BEECH DUKE B60 150 CESSNA 340 480 CESSNA 340A 49 CESSNA 402B BUSINESS LINER 110 CESSNA 402C 20 CESSNA 404 TITAN 312 CESSNA 414 430 CESSNA 414A CHANCELLOR 36 CESSNA 421 30 CESSNA 421A 335 CESSNA 421B 713 CESSNA 421C 38 CESSNA T303 100 DIAMOND D42 65 PIPER 600 AEROSTAR 3 PIPER 600A AEROSTAR 44 PIPER 601 AEROSTAR 4 PIPER 601B AEROSTAR 182 PIPER 601P AEROSTAR 21 PIPER 602P AEROSTAR 509 PIPER CHIEFTAIN 20 PIPER MOJAVE 280 PIPER NAVAJO 196 PIPER SENECA 13 ROCKWELL 520 COMMANDER 3 ROCKWELL 560 COMMANDER 11 ROCKWELL 560A COMMANDER 7 ROCKWELL 560E COMMANDER 6 ROCKWELL 560F COMMANDER 12 ROCKWELL 680 SUPER 3 ROCKWELL 680E 14 ROCKWELL 680F COMMANDER 11 ROCKWELL 680FL GRAND COMMANDER 4 ROCKWELL 680FLP GRAND LINER HIGH PERFORMANCE MOVE-UP SINGLES – 5,726 OWNERS COUNT AIRCRAFT 200 BEECH BONANZA 435 CESSNA 182 52 CESSNA 206 373 CESSNA P210N 21 CESSNA P210R 54 CESSNA T182 790 CIRRUS SR20 2,875 CIRRUS SR22 26 MOONEY ACCLAIM ULTRA 11 MOONEY OVATION ULTRA 271 PIPER MALIBU 93 PIPER MATRIX 525 PIPER MIRAGE Jenna Reid, Advertising 316.409.7033 • Jenna.Reid@vpdcs.com www.twinandturbine.com n & Business Aviation Markets raft ALL RECEIVE Twin & Turbine every month ADVERTISE IN TWIN & TURBINE 18 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 Propellers come in all shapes and sizes. There is the fixed- pitch wood variety that make great office decorations. There are high-tech six-blade composite de- signs like those that power the C-130 Hercules. And let’s not forget the first effective aircraft propellers carved out of spruce, designed and engineered by the Wright Brothers. Wilbur and Orville were the first to realize that the propellers were airfoils, too, and they fabricated and shaped the Wright Flyer’s two 8-foot diameter blades after extensive research and experimentation with shapes in their self-built wind tunnels. The Wrights tested them in their Dayton bicycle shop using a two-horse- power motor. They added a twist along the blade’s length to create a more consistent angle of attack for the blade, ensuring that it pulled a consistent amount of air toward the plane with each rotation. A recent historical sum- mary produced by Hartzell Propellers reported that the Wrights’ design pro- duced a maximum efficiency of about 70 percent. Today’s propellers are around 90 percent efficient. Like the airplanes that utilize them, propellers have evolved considerably over time. When you consider all the variants produced and all the atten- tion paid to creating more efficient, durable technology, it’s obvious that the Wright Brothers were not just bi- cycle mechanics. Not only did they design and build a craft capable of sus- tained flight, they created a platform for an impressive array of interwoven technologies that they meticulously researched, developed, fabricated and modified into an incredible collection by Dave Franson The Value of Prop-er Care The importance of propellers and the people who keep them turning. of products that spawned multiple in- dustries. It’s no wonder the Wrights spent a significant amount of time af- ter 1909 in court, defending and trying to protect the systems they designed. Needless to say, propellers were among the most important. Their innovative design moved aircraft propulsion from an idea to a reality. Orville Wright actually inspired Robert Hartzell to start manufactur- ing hand-carved propellers from his walnut wood factory in 1917. Since then, the sharing of insights, develop- ments and technological innovations has evolved into the rule rather than the exception – and the basis for the regulatory environment in which im- provements have flourished. Rebecca Williams is director of parts and propellers at Yingling Aviation, a full-service maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) and fixed base op- erator at Wichita, Kansas’ Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. She says communication and cooperation, even among competitors, are key to contin- ued advancement in propeller design, efficiency and safety. “In truth, we all work together,” Williams said. “Many of the propeller shops are either recommended, OEM factory-trained and certified, or OEM authorized service providers. The col- laboration among propeller service providers worldwide has helped us expand the scope and quality of our overhaul, repair and final assembly of propellers. In some instances, we (propeller shops) are the customer, and in others, we are competitors – but we are really a family.” Williams also credits the Worldwide Aircraft Propeller Association (WAPA), which meets annually, creating a fo- rum to address concerns being raised in the field. “We know each other and May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19 share bulletins and information and ask each other ‘what are you doing about this issue,’ and ‘what should we do to improve our industry standards for customer support?” Randy Lammon is a 25-year Air- frame and Powerplant mechanic who has been at Yingling since 2004. He currently serves as the company’s lead propeller specialist. “From a technical perspective, we don’t want there to be any accidents,” Lammon stated. “The manufacturers put out required inspection guidelines for well-established reasons. Propel- lers are technically a shelf-life item. There are certain things we do to protect the integrity and durability of the products, but the hardest part of maintaining propellers may be to get the customers to pay attention to them. A neglected prop can degrade the performance of the aircraft – and pose a real safety problem if left un- addressed.” Lammon promotes some basic guidelines a shop technician consid- ers foundational: • Read and follow the own- er’s manual • Keep your propeller logbook up to date • Maintain and properly grease your propeller (and be careful not to ‘over grease’ it or you could throw off the balance) • Don’t ignore recommended maintenance intervals or ser- vice bulletins • Midlife inspections and reseals are a good idea • Refresh paint to protect from corrosion • Stay up to date on FAA adviso- ry circulars • Make a visit to your local propel- ler shop occasionally Of course, there are a lot of owners that do maintain and care for their propellers as prescribed by the OEM, and others who get just as excited about new propeller develop- ments as they do about engine or avionics upgrades. They want the latest technology and improve- ments, including things like better take-off performance, alloy leading edges for erosion protection, more ground clearance, and less cabin noise. Established propeller shops are where they go to make sure the upgrades are done right. Yingling has been a leader in pro- peller service for more than 50 years. Like Randy Lammon, Jeff Sawyer, an A&P mechanic, authorized in- spector (IA) and licensed pilot, Rosen actually began working in Yingling’s Service Department in 2000 and moved into the prop shop full time in 2010. He, too, is a protégé of Leroy “Red” Phillips. Phillips launched the firm’s propeller service in the 1950s and spent a half-century working on them until his death in 2006. “Red knew just about everything and everyone there was in our busi- ness, and he did his best to help us 20 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 – and them – adapt as the industry and the technology changed,” Sawyer pointed out. “There are still guys like Red out there in the propeller world. They’ve created new techniques and technology to improve our processes in the repair stations – things like a report for service bulletins similar to CAMP – but specific to propellers and automated blade measuring systems using laser sensor technology, MRP tracking software, and, of course, spe- cialized tooling,” he said. Sawyer shares a pilot’s perspec- tive in advising customers to “always inspect your propeller before flight. Look for surface irregularities, dents, delamination, scratches, corrosion. Know what repairs can be made in the field. When in doubt, let your local prop shop check it out!” “Don’t forget the same applies to your spinner and hub. Check for surface damage such as cracks, twin over the same consistent flight pattern, it’s a good idea to occasionally rotate your propellers. Finally, I per- sonally would not use reverse except in short-field landings or emergencies. You can control your speed by taxiing in beta without producing thrust and it will reduce potential blade damage.” Another savvy industry veteran is Bob Finke of International Propeller in Lincoln, Nebraska. He fits the mold of Red Phillips and touts the collabora- tion and cooperation of the “propeller community,” too. He spent 25 years at Duncan Aviation before he and anoth- er former Duncan colleague, Scott Lau, started International Propeller five years ago. Bob is on the board of WAPA and says, “It’s awesome – we communicate with other members virtually every day to find overhauled or used parts, compare techniques and do what we can to keep our clients’ costs down. I have email addresses for virtually every prop shop in the world,” he added. Finke also has a vast worldwide cli- entele. International Propellers was named the Exporter of the Year for the Midwest Region three years ago by the Small Business Administra- tion (SBA). “We deal primarily with turbine operators but we have lots of owner-pilot customers, too. My current inventory includes everything from metal single-engine aircraft props to five-bladed composite models for the King Air 350 – and if I don’t have what a customer needs, I have the means to find it quickly,” he said. At the home of Raisbeck Engineering in Seattle, Washington, Director of Sales Rob Richardson has been helping owners maintain and upgrade their propeller-driven aircraft for decades... and he has seen lots of changes over the years. Raisbeck has been devel- oping performance and aerodynami- cally designed enhancements for OEM production aircraft since 1982 and received its first STC for propel- lers in 1985. “Back in the 1980s, we were work- ing on corporate-owned, crew- flown turboprops, both Part 91 and Part 135 operators. Now, a lot of those same airplanes are privately owned ensure the spinner and attaching parts are “normally” tight, and take a glance at the back of the hub and ensure the hub’s surface is not damaged. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, avoid high static RPM on dirt, gravel or rocky runways. Even glancing around the ground or ramp and removing any debris can go a very long way in pro- tecting your propeller,” he advised. He also recommended wiping the propeller with a lightly oiled rag after each flight, especially if flying in a corrosive environment. When it comes to the propeller’s finish, he cautioned against a “spray can” over- haul – just putting a quick coat of paint over problems. Know the correct pro- cedures for your paint. It is important to maintain good paint coverage, one for safety and another for longevity. Better yet…call your local propeller shop to ensure it’s done right. “Some things just don’t occur to operators, I guess, such as avoiding pushing or pulling the aircraft by the propeller blades or spinner,” he added. “I also suggest that, if you are flying a Rebecca Williams and Randy Lammon of Yingling Aviation. “Propellers are technically a shelf-life item. There are certain things we do to protect the integrity and durability of the products, but the hardest part of maintaining propellers may be to get the customers to pay attention to them.” May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 21 and flown. Those operators all want to go fast and have the best perfor- mance available. They’re willing to spend the money to upgrade the prop just like they do with the airframe and electronics.” “We see cooperation between propel- ler service providers and even MROs because we’re all trying to deliver qual- ity support and enrich our customers’ flight experience. The number of FAA propeller repair stations in the U.S. is probably around 50, so we all know each other,” Richardson commented. “It used to be that the propellers and cowlings were the last things to be addressed during mandated inspections – right before the air- plane went back to the operator. That perfunctory check allowed a lot of them to go back into the air without proper lubrication or with corrosion issues, and that could produce a dan- gerous situation.” “We have seen a lot of aircraft with high-time props. The operators think they’re saving money by stretching them to the limit. But, when they finally get around to inspecting them, the blades all need to be re- placed. At $7,000 per blade on a pair of four-bladed props, the cost to repair the old props gets pretty close to the expense of buying all-new, zero-time replacements.” The network of propeller manufac- turers, maintainers and prop shop op- erators really is, in Rebecca Williams’s words, “a large but small group.” They aren’t vast in number, but their role in keeping the flying public safe is sig- nificant, even if it’s often overlooked. But that’s okay with them. They ac- tually prefer to be like the products they service: quiet, efficient and in- dispensable! Dave Franson is a veteran commu- nications executive with more than 45 years of experience with NBAA, Allied- Signal Aerospace, Learjet and Cessna in Wichita, Kansas. He is currently the president of the Wichita Aero Club. You can contact Dave at davefranson@ mac.com. Aerox Covington 22 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 by Kevin R. Dingman From the Flight Deck Raising a Pilot The moms of pilots are alike because we pilots are alike. Dear Mom, You always encouraged our inter- ests, skills and sometimes our whims. Thanks for the typewriter. I used it to write tales about Boy Scouts, my first solo and becoming a private pi- lot. It’s in the hangar office now with the Duke, and I write for an airplane magazine. I even wrote an article us- ing that old typewriter. It was a slow and deliberate process, but the sound of keys striking the paper, levering the carriage return and changing sheets of paper made me feel like a real writer. Topics for my articles seldom wander from the sky and I get lots of nice mail from readers. I write about flying and about airplanes – except this month. This month, for Mother’s Day, I’m writing about you. Pilot Psyche: A Mother understands what a child does not say – even a grownup child. Our readers are experienced pilots and by nature investigative, skeptical and clinical – it’s part of how we pilots stay safe in the air. But it’s you and other moms that provided the means by which we enjoy and savor the fruits of our clinical behavior. For the mo- ment, let me indulge the analytical facet of our pilot-reader’s psyche. After childbirth, the way a woman acts is caused by what’s happening in her prefrontal cortex, midbrain and parietal lobes. Activity increases in regions that control empathy, anxi- ety and social interaction. Feelings of love, protectiveness and worry all begin with electrochemical reactions in the brain. An enhanced amygdala makes her extra sensitive to her ba- by’s needs, while hormones create a positive feedback loop. Mommy, Mum, Mother. Motherhood, Mothering and to Mother. The first words of an infant often sound like ma or mama. This strong association with mother has persisted in nearly every language and every society on earth. Mom is the female of the species that traditionally held the primary responsibility for the rearing of off- spring. Changing diapers, cleaning up Cheerios and SpaghettiOs, provid- ing physical and mental comfort and managing the very first time we did, A mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take. – Cardinal Mermillod May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 23 well, just about everything. Temper- ing the exciting, adventurous, and sometimes dangerous inf luences of the world, including dad’s hare- brained ideas, are included in your resume. Mothers are more likely than fathers to encourage assimilative and communion augmenting patterns in their children. Mothers are more likely than fathers to acknowledge their children’s participation in con- versation. The way mothers speak (“motherese”) is better suited to sup- port children in their efforts to un- derstand speech. With these admis- sions, my analytical readers should now be more receptive to this, my less clinically focused, Mother’s Day thank you note. Mothers hold children’s hands for a short while – but their hearts forever. You and dad raised three boys. The ones known throughout the neigh- borhood, the school, and the airport as skinny, long-haired and raucous. We never got into any real trouble, but through multiple encounters with each of us, our small-town sheriff rec- ognized us as the “Dingman boys.” We were the ones that made babysitters cry, grandma shiver, and you worry. But you persevered and gave us the confidence to succeed. We’ve grown up to become a machinist, a chemist and a pilot. And we know that: We made you cry You wanted that last piece of pecan pie It did hurt You were afraid You watched us sleep You carried us a lot longer than nine months It broke your heart every time we cried You put us first You miss those days…well, most of them Caught It on Fire You didn’t like me riding motor- cycles or flying little airplanes, and you told me so but didn’t stop me. And you like to tell people how, on my first solo, I had a close encounter of the third kind. Well, it was a UFO until it became an IFO (it turns out it was a red party balloon in the traf- fic pattern). I probably didn’t need to worry you by reporting it on tower frequency. Except for the military airplanes you have flown with me in all of them. You and dad even went to Oshkosh, Mackinac Island and golfing a few times in the Duke. Remember the time we crossed Lake Michigan in a Warrior at night in the weather and icing? And don’t forget the time dad and I over-primed the 150 on that bitter cold morning and briefly caught it on fire. Now that I’m older with lots of experience, I tell people that whether caused by the pilot, a situ- ation, the weather or by living the experiences of others vicariously, it’s CIES Dan Moore Hillaero 24 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 the memory of being properly scared that helps develop judgment. And its judgment that keeps pilots alive – and I certainly scared myself a few times. TP (Tee Pee) Thanks, mom, for running inter- ference. You protected us but didn’t shelter us. I’m sure there are times you saved us from others, from situ- ations and from ourselves. Perhaps even from school officials and our sheriff during one particular high school football game. There was just one student in our small town known for flying little airplanes, and every- one knew that it was the older, long- haired Dingman boy. And I probably didn’t get away with the football game caper like I thought. It was a night- time bombing mission of our high school. We dropped 30-some rolls of TP (toilet paper) on, but mostly around, the school’s football field. We knew that, like tail-end Charlie, if we attempted two passes, we would catch flack. So, we made up a feeder slide for the little window of the Chero- kee 140 in order to drop the load in just one pass; and we flew high – too high. Bombing accuracy is all about winds aloft and TOF (time of fall). But I wouldn’t learn such things until years later in the F-16. Because of this lack of understanding, it was not so much as around the football field and school that the TP landed, as it was the proximate area of the surrounding Michigan countryside. If you lived in Southwest Michigan in the early 70s and one morning found some T.P. on your farm animals, oak trees or TV antenna, sorry about that; it must have been some hooligan. Training is like fighting a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired. I sold that little, two-seat airplane that I bought when I worked at the paper mill. It was too difficult to move from base to base after I joined the Air Force. And for a long time, I didn’t fly anything but military jets. You were glad when I joined the Air Force – you figured it was better than fac- tory work, especially since I lost part of a finger and some of my hearing while working in factories. You were proud that I advanced from enlisted to an Air Force officer. Until that is, you learned I was going to pilot training and then on to the F-16. Once again, you worried about me and airplanes. This time, a stronger and faster air- plane – one with a gun, missiles and bombs, but only one engine. It did have an ejection seat, but I don’t think that gave you much comfort. You came out to the airport with dozens of friends and family when I flew one into the Air National Guard base in Battle Creek. You bragged and took pictures; your son was a fighter pi- lot. I fought the training gorilla, and yes, mom, it was dangerous, but I was careful and did a really good job. When the Air Force asked me to man a command post in Germany, I left the military in order to keep flying airplanes. My buddies were leaving too. We all went to the airlines. You must have been accustomed to the worry because you seemed to take it in stride. Maybe you thought that I’d be flying something less risky – until 9/11, that is. I’m sorry to worry you The “Dingman boys” with me on the left. “Except for the military airplanes you have flown with me in all of them.” May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 25 Kevin Dingman has been flying for more than 40 years. He’s an ATP typed in the B737 and DC9 with 28,000 hours in his logbook. A retired Air Force major, he flew the F-16 and later performed as an USAF Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer. He flies volun- teer missions for the Christian orga- niz tion Wings of Mercy, is employed by a major airline, and owns and operates a Beechcraft Duke.Contact Kevin at dinger10d@gmail.com. again, mom, but we are still fight- ing battles of one sort or another all over the world – now it’s COVID. And even though an airline pilot’s life is extremely structured and repetitive, I have had more mechanical and pas- senger situations at the airlines than I had in military and private flying combined. I’ve had engine failures, a handful of generator and hydraulic failures and unruly or non-compliant passengers that I’ve had arrested. Thankfully, the judgment you helped me to develop guided me through it all. But don’t worry, I’ll be retiring very soon. No More Pilots I raised a family of my own, like ours. Except that I had to learn about little girls – turns out they’re amazing. I understand that now, even without the neurochemical reactions. None of them had any interest in flying, though, so the flying gene will end with me – no more Dingman pilots. You’re probably glad to hear that. The moms of pilots are probably a lot like each other because we pilots are a lot alike. Somewhere in the lives of us pilots, there is someone like you that felt apprehensive about us flying and about little airplanes. But they saw us through the learning process, the cross-countries and the check rides. Some, like you, worry about us still. But the Duke is a very nice, bigger, little airplane. I love it, and I’m care- ful. So, try to relax, mom. You did a really good job. Thank you for laugh- ing with us in the best of times and sticking with us through the worst of times. Happy Mother’s Day. Send Solutions (Airtext) Short N Numbers 26 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 by Grant Boyd Family and Fleet O w ner ’s Cor ner Since its founding, real-estate company Edward Rose & Sons has completed more than 80,000 housing units across 15 states. General aviation has been an integral part and key competitive advantage of the Rose family and their namesake business most of its 100 years. The family’s flying lineage first began with Edward Rose. His beginnings were not in the sky, the construction industry, or even in the United States. Born in Czarist Russia in the late 1800s, Edward immigrated to America as a teenager searching for a new life. With sights originally set on working for the high-paying Ford Motor Company ($5 per day for assembly line workers), fortune would find that he did not find work at the automobile manufacturer and instead became a carpenter. He then quickly moved into building and selling new homes, which ultimately was the foundation of the company that now bears his name a century later. Business at the time was hard, especially after the stock market crashed and the Great Depression loomed. Even so, Edward persevered. One of his greatest achievements, he later said, would be selling a home in the early 1930s. Other achievements of his life were his marriage to his wife Lillian and raising their four sons, all of whom would work in the building business. Catching favorable winds from soldier homecomings after World War II, the company built an increasing number of quality homes for working- class families. In the subsequent decade or so following this economic boom, Edward’s son Sheldon transitioned from single- family domicile construction to what would be one of the next real estate booms – multi-family, garden-style apartment communities. Using his own plane, Sheldon would scout out potential land acquisitions and check in on projects under construction. Flying was a natural decision for Sheldon as he had his pilot’s license since the late 1940s when he was serving in the Coast Guard. At the outset, he trained in a Piper Cub but later transitioned to a Cessna 190 and then a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle for business purposes. His appreciation and love for aviation extended past its Edward Rose & Sons, a family-owned real estate development and management business, celebrates its 100th anniversary. Warren Rose and Chris Lentini, 2007. Ted Jacobson, Warren Rose, Chris Lentini, 1997. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 27 Corporate Angel CORPORATE ANGEL NETWORK Cancer Patients Filling Empty Seats With Hope Corporate Angel Network arranges free travel on corporate aircraft for cancer patients traveling to and from treatment. Business jet travel makes it possible for patients, especially those in locations with minimal airline access, to travel to specialized medical centers. Contact us today to learn more about patient travel services or to donate space on your aircraft. It's wonderful that organizations like the Corporate Angel Network are able to help connect those most in need of flights to those who are flying. -Henry Maier, President and CEO, FedEx Ground corpangelnetwork.org I Westchester County Airport - White Plains, NY I (866) 328-1313 undeniable benefits to his business. He also often flew for pleasure and covered the contiguous United States, even dipping down in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico City and Cuba. His welcomed copilot was son Warren, who often accompanied his father on land acquisition trips. The flying bug rubbed off on him, and he began flight training at 16, receiving his private license shortly after in 1978. In the subsequent decades, Warren worked his way up from Cessna 150s to Citation jets. Today, Warren still utilizes aviation for business and leisure purposes, whether visiting one of the company’s 130-plus apartment communities or taking his family on vacation. Warren holds the following type ratings: CE510, CE525 and CE550. He also owns a Marchetti 260 that he flies for fun and utilizes for upset and recovery training. Recently following in the family tradition is another eager pilot – Warren’s daughter, Frances. Frances has been in and around a cockpit (starting with a Cessna 420) since she was four months old, and her positive attitude towards aviation has remained since. At age 19, she began flight training in a Diamond DA40 and later moved to the venerable Cessna 150. In 2017, she completed her undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and joined the family business as a land acquisitions analyst. Frances continues to work toward her PPL in a Cirrus SR20, with the goal of completing this initial training this summer. She then plans to jump right into instrument training with multi- engine and Citation type rating work following soon after. What is unique about her job now, compared to Sheldon’s acquisition work years ago, is technology’s game-changing effect on the industry. Frances says, “I look for land on which to build apartments as my grandfather did 50 years ago, only I use Google instead of a plane.” Nonetheless, aviation remains an important asset. Throughout Edward Rose & Sons’ history, they have operated the following aircraft models: Cessna 421C, Cessna 425 Conquest, Beechcraft King Air 250GT, Cirrus SR20, Cirrus SR22T, Citation Bravo, Citation 510 Mustang, CitationJet, CJ2+, and CJ3+. These aircraft have been based out of Oakland County International Airport (KPTK) near Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company also enlists the help of paid contract pilots for various flying missions. “Some of the division heads [in Sheldon’s time] had their own aircraft,” Warren said. “While the company does not employ any pilots at the present time, the pilots that operate our aircraft are independent contractors. We currently have about six pilots under contract with Lentini Aviation for their services.” The contracted pilots fly the company’s current fleet of three Citation CJ3+’s, one King Air 200, and one Citation Mustang to construction projects (some projects taking up to 10 years) and managed properties across the United States. They each maintain currency in more than one of these aircraft and full-time pilots log anywhere from 500 to 800 hours of flight time a year. 28 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 Sheldon Rose during a gliding trip in the late 1970s. Left: The company’s King Air 200. Above: Grandaughter and aspiring pilot Frances Rose in 2008 following the delivery of a CJ2+. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 29 Kevin Altenburg has flown with the company for 12 years, starting left seat in Citation Bravo’s and flying a dozen different aircraft for Edward Rose & Sons in the years since. Chris Lentini, who owns Lentini Aviation, has flown with Rose family members since the 1970s when he would fly with Sheldon to maintain the builder’s instrument proficiency and the occasional company trip. He explains that they moved into jets in the late 1990s, which today make up most of their fleet. “The people [is what I enjoy most],” said Chris. “Warren and I developed a strong bond early in our flying and have maintained that to this day. The quality of the people I fly has always been more important to me than the type of airplane I fly.” Kevin agrees “the people” are what make his job enjoyable. “Whether it is a member of the family or flying a load of folks to a construction project, the people in the back make the job in my opinion. All of the people at Edward Rose treat us like valued team members and part of the family.” Another tenured company pilot is Scott Armstrong, who has been flying company aircraft since 2011. Something which excited him about the opportunity to f ly trips for Edward Rose & Sons is the ability to fly alongside CEO Warren. “As a pilot himself, safety is paramount to Warren. On occasion, we fly together, and it’s always a pleasure to share the cockpit with a fellow airman like him. His dedication to safety coupled with his ability to communicate as a crew, his airmanship skills and his servant’s heart make him an asset in any cockpit.” Grant Boyd is a private pilot with seven years of expe- rience in general aviation business from marketing to customer service. He has written more than 85 articles for aviation publications and enjoys learning about air- craft/pilots with unique missions. Grant can be reached at grantboyd2015@gmail.com. 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You can contact David at davidmiller1@sbcglobal.net. In the March issue, I mentioned my takeoff abort at Dallas Love (KDAL) and how important it is to document repairs to systems that impact the safety of flight. In my case, the hydraulic reservoir was not serviced after maintenance on the system. I aborted the takeoff after noticing an amber “HYD FLUID LOW” annunciator. The maintenance facility corrected the issue and bid me farewell. “Not so fast,” I argued. “I need a maintenance release for the logbook.” “Oh sure,” came the reply. “I’ll be back in a minute with that.” My years of vast flying experience told me that a paper trail was important. Or maybe, it was a story related to me from another pilot. Okay, that’s what it was. Perhaps his story and mine will save you some grief someday. My friend departed in his single-pilot jet from a busy Northeast airport on a sunny fall day. As usual, right after liftoff, he reached for the gear control to raise the wheels. Nothing happened. After a quick check of circuit breakers, nothing was amiss. But the gear was still down and locked. “Tower, we’d like to return back to the airport,” he told the controller. “Do you need to declare an emergency?” they asked.” “No, we just have a gear retract problem.” After returning to the FBO, the pilot called the mobile service unit who told him it would be the next day before they could get to him. My friend knew that there was a fac- tory service center just 30 minutes away. He called them. “What if I just fly over with the gear down and you can take a look,” he asked. “Sure, no problem,” they said. He did just that and was on his way home after a simple repair. Three days later, he received a call and a “nasty gram” from the departure FSDO. “We noticed that you departed shortly after a gear issue, and we need to see the mainte- nance release for the work done.” Oops. It took numerous months to resolve the issue. I was thinking about this exact scenario as I departed the runway after my abort. Over four months later, I received a certified letter from my FSDO. “On November 7, 2020, the Dallas, TX (KDAL) Air Traffic Control Tower reported an occurrence at the aforementioned airport for aircraft N396DM at 13:40 Z hours, 08:40 CDT. The pilot aborted a takeoff due to a hydraulic issue and returned to the ramp. The Federal Aviation Administration, North Texas Flight Standards District Office is required to investigate such occurrence.” Details in hand, I called the inspector. He was cordial and polite. I explained the incident and ended with, “and I asked for and received a copy of the maintenance release.” “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” said the inspector. “Just send me a copy and we are good to go.” I asked what might happen if I didn’t have the maintenance release. The answer was not pretty, especially if an accident had been involved. I learned a valuable lesson from another pilot. Hope- fully, you will, too. Fly safe. May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 3 SMR Technologies, Inc. ISS 4 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2021 Stevens