This is my last article for King Air magazine. I have been a regular contributor here since 2011 … 13 years. The magazine has provided a perfect forum for sharing my 50-plus years of King Air flying and instructing experience. I will always be grateful for the leadership and guidance of the magazine’s editor, Kim Blonigen. Her oversight and direction have been delightfully presented and she has suggested many small – and some large – improvements to my articles. It is a coincidence that she is also retiring from the magazine, though MeLinda Schnyder will be an excellent replacement. You may know that she has already written many interesting and factual articles for the magazine.
How I got started
God has blessed me with a truly amazing and satisfying life. I am sure some of us were birds in a previous life! As a child, I always gazed skyward whenever I heard an airplane passing overhead. Living almost directly on the airway between Indianapolis, Indiana, and Dayton, Ohio, gave me daily opportunities to view the lovely progress of DC-3s as they passed overhead. My great uncle, Claud Stanley, who lived next door, developed a strong flying interest later in his life and bought a Cessna 170A and, later, a 195. My first ride in a small airplane was with Emerson Western, his pilot, in the 195 on a trip to Uncle Claud’s and Aunt Deedie’s summer home in Charlevoix, Michigan. My mother’s sister and her family resided in North Carolina and we often flew in a Piedmont Airlines DC-3 to visit.
Why I remained so fascinated and interested in flying will forever remain a mystery because, first, I always got airsick on these flights! Once the barf bag had been used, though, all was well with me, and I enjoyed the flying experience. Second, due to a head cold, I once had difficulty clearing my ears during the descents at the intermediate Piedmont stops on our way to North Carolina. Dang! What’s that nail doing being pounded into my ears? This ain’t fun!
Another obstacle to any hope of becoming a pilot was that I was quite nearsighted and had a bit of astigmatism. My first and second grade teachers thought I was mentally deficient but the glasses I finally got fitted for in the third grade proved that my problem had been that I couldn’t see anything the teacher wrote on the blackboard!
My love for flying has never abated. My parents were generous enough to pay for my private pilot instruction and license between my junior and senior years of high school when I was 17. With my eyesight limitations, I knew that military and airline flying were not available to me. Flying would just be a lifelong hobby, never an income-producer. Boy, was I wrong!
I graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology – now, Carnegie-Mellon – in 1967 with a degree in mechanical engineering. My minor was in English! Little did I realize then that this unusual combination would provide the basic framework for my King Air work. The engineering knowledge allowed me to understand aircraft systems quite well and the English training allowed me to write and communicate my understanding to others.
Through a local flying club, I had flown just enough in college to meet the currency requirements. Now what? The Vietnam War was going hot and heavy at the time I graduated and, being single, I was prime draft material. To avoid the draft, I enlisted in the Navy! While at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, I was offered an instructor position in the Navy’s Nuclear Power School. I had a choice of being stationed at Bainbridge, Maryland, or Vallejo, California. I picked Vallejo and spent my entire four-year Navy commitment without ever leaving California or being on a ship! But this led to two events that God brought into my life that would play a huge part in my King Air career.
First, teaching at the Nuke School – heat transfer and thermodynamics were my teaching specialties – gave me lots and lots of classroom teaching experience. The Nuclear Power Program, then still under the tight grip of Admiral Hyman Rickover, was thorough and instructors were evaluated in the classroom at least once a month. Sloppy performance was not acceptable.
Second, being single and receiving officer’s pay, I had a bit of discretionary income that I quickly allotted to pay for more flying. At Navajo Aviation in Concord, California, I got my commercial, instrument and instructor (CFI, CFII, AGI) ratings. I landed a part-time job at nearby Sonoma Skypark. I taught my first and several other newcomers to earn their private pilot certificates. I got tailwheel qualified and even helped an owner get his commercial license in his Luscombe 8A. I also used the FBO’s old 150HP Apache to get my multiengine rating. I bought my first airplane, a 1946 Stinson 108-1. (I have owned a total of eight airplanes, the last one being a Cessna 180.)
After college, a well-known Ivy League school accepted me into an MBA program. In the back of my mind, this was my plan after my Navy commitment. But now, four years later, and maybe partly due to the “do your own thing” culture of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late ’60s and early ’70s, I decided to pursue flying instead. What a fateful decision that turned out to be!
Teaching at the Beechcraft Training Center
Who would want a 1,500-hour pilot with all the fixed-wing ratings but little worthwhile experience? I sent resumes to all airplane manufacturers, sales organizations and advanced training schools that I could find. Wonder of wonders, one of my replies was from Beech Aircraft Corporation! Whereas I thought my “best fit” with a manufacturer would be as a demonstration pilot, they wanted me to come to Wichita, Kansas, to interview for a ground and flight instructor position.
Since all of Beech’s instructors taught ground school and flight training, I am sure my four years of ground school instruction at Nuke School were a huge factor in why I was interviewed with the low flying time I had and helped me get the job.
In January 1972, I began work at Beech. As I have written in other articles, it was a wonderful time to start at Beech. I was there for five years and rose from a pilot instructor to the head of all pilot training to the head of the whole Beechcraft Training Center, which also included maintenance and sales training. What an experience! The aviation market began some fantastic growth years at that time. In the mid-1970s, Beech manufactured and sold as many King Airs in a month as Textron Aviation does now in a year!
The King Air model E90 was introduced in 1972, the 200 in 1974 and the C-12 (military version of the 200) in 1976. I had the fantastic fortune of being assigned as the lead instructor for all three King Air models. I got to communicate and work directly with engineers, test pilots and mechanics, and I learned so much.
Two additional comments about the Beechcraft Training Center: First, I am happy and proud that, with my engineering training, I created and improved many of the training materials still in use in multiple ground schools today. Second, at that time the BTC also provided ground and flight training in the Beech model 60, the Duke. I became quite knowledgeable and proficient in that lovely airplane too. (The Beech Baron 58P became a BTC subject just as I was leaving.)
I married in May 1972, my first year in Wichita. Mary was a fine woman, but our union produced no children and lasted only until 1985. In 1989, Pam became my wife and continues so today. We met while I provided recurrent B100 training for her and the other company pilot in Phoenix. Pam retired from corporate flying many years ago and returned to her first love – horses. She is all one could ever desire in a life mate!
Back to California
Mary and I had met at the Naval Officers’ Club on Mare Island, where the Nuke School was located, and she strongly desired to return to California. In late 1977, I transferred from the BTC to one of the factory-owned distributors, Beechcraft West in Hayward. I tried my hand at airplane sales and quickly found that I was not a good fit. I served as a demo pilot and filled in for many customers’ pilots during their vacation periods.
Beechcraft West had sold a King Air 200 to the government of Sabah, Malaysia. It was a highlight to ferry that airplane across the Pacific and to spend four months in Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo, training the Malaysian pilots. (Details can be found in “The King Air Book,” Volume I.)
I missed training! Upon my return to California, I filled in as the corporate pilot for Beacon Oil Company on their 1977 BE-200, hangared in Visalia. That was enjoyable with great people, but Mary did not want to leave the Bay Area, so I returned to Hayward.
An idea had been planted in my head when Beech stopped providing on-site ground and flight training at the customer’s facility. We had gotten so busy with training in Wichita that our ability to accommodate a customer’s request for on-site training went by the wayside. I formed Flight Review, Inc. in January 1979 to provide on-site training for King Air and Duke operators. Alan Roberts, another instructor at the BTC who had moved on to join the Beech distributor in Seattle, Washington, encouraged me to start the business. He was the one who came up with the name, although he was never active in the company. Thanks, Alan!
On to Arizona
God blessed my endeavor again; that part of my career continued for 21 years until 2000. In 1987, I had relocated to make Scottsdale, Arizona, my base of operations, although my life was mostly in hotel rooms. I spent 232 nights on the road one year. From 1990 to 2000, I continued to travel a lot, but I also had an office and classroom at Scottsdale Airport.
I had a minor heart attack in 2000. My medical went and came and went again more than four times. Thank God I could continue instructing recurrent training since my students were already qualified to be PIC. Similarly, in 2016 I helped Gary Banker find and purchase a C90A; I managed that airplane for him for 17 years, until his death in 2023. We always operated with a two-pilot crew, and the insurance company allowed me to occupy either cockpit seat if a qualified PIC was in the other seat. I have no longer flown since Gary’s demise, except for delivering the King Air to its new owner in Canada. The last page of my logbook shows 24,000 hours, 16,000 of which are in King Airs.
The King Air books
In addition to my many years of writing for this magazine, I also contributed articles to other publications from as early as the 1990s. They were well-received, and people kept asking, “When are you going to put those in a book?” In 2019, at our new summer home in Westcliffe, Colorado, I finally compiled the many articles into a 385-page, 8½-by-11-inch, self-published book, “The King Air Book.” (Catchy title, eh?) It sold well, and I called it my “401(b)” retirement plan, a minor modification to the popular 401(k) programs.
Ten years later, I had amassed enough additional articles to compile them into “The King Air Book, Volume II.” I am happy to report that both books continue to sell quite well. As I write this, we are in the process of making the books available in an audio format.
On the dedication page of Volume I, I wrote, “To my hundreds of students, who taught me as I taught them.” How very appropriate that is! It perhaps contributed to my gaining the positive reputation I have enjoyed as a King Air and Duke instructor.
Older versus newer King Air models
If I were to fly a new King Air 260 or 360 it would probably be the safest flight anyone could undertake. Why? Because I’d never leave the ramp! I am quite sure that I’d still be trying to tune ATIS and then obtain my IFR clearance using the latest Pro Line Fusion avionics long after my proposed ETD!
That is a significant factor in deciding to “hang it up” now and end my King Air training endeavors. I feel quite proud to think that my depth of knowledge about King Airs is second to none, yet I realize that this depth ends with about the B200GT model and the earlier 350s.
I am passing the baton on to Zach Cleaver, Pete Marx and Kevin Carson, the leaders of the King Air Academy in Phoenix where I’ve mentored the instructors since 2014. They have a great depth of King Air knowledge, including the latest and greatest models. The King Air Academy’s motto is “We will teach you to fly any aircraft as long as it is a King Air.” This specialization truly shows in the excellent training they provide. If you haven’t already done so, give them a call at 602-551-8100 and consider doing your next recurrent training session with them.
Look for their new monthly column, “From the Training Center,” in this magazine starting next month.
And so … so long!
I will turn 80 years old next February. This year has provided some medical challenges that are being treated well but have slowed me down a bit. I have never been reluctant to provide my email address (twcaz@msn.com) and phone number (602-625-9132). One of my joys in life remains to help people know and operate their King Air as best they can. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me this coming year if I may help with any questions you may have.
I’ll sign off the way I autographed many a King Air book – Best wishes for safe and happy flying.