I’ve lost two old friends in the last few months. Gary Banker, the wonderful gentleman for whom I have flown and managed his King Air since May 2006 passed on in February and now my other “old friend,” Gary’s 1988 King Air C90A that I managed and flew. Gary’s family – daughter-in-law and grandsons – had no desire or need for the airplane so I was put in charge of selling it. I started by listing the airplane in the “For Sale – Aircraft” section of the BeechTalk forum.
Getting zero response from that post – although with a lot of very kind and complementary comments from other Arizona pilots who had flown the airplane with me – I placed an advertisement in The Controller and immediately started getting some inquiries.
I was surprised that many of the inquiries came from South America and Canada and relatively few from the United States. The price we were asking was $975,000. The airplane had less than 7,000 hours total time, had 700+ hours remaining before the second engine overhaul recommendation on its original PT6A-21 engines, had the Raisbeck modifications that gave it a 10,500 pound maximum takeoff weight, had dated but perfect avionics, had 120V outlets in the cabin for phone or iPad charging, and a new C90B-style interior installed in 2007 – the one with the cupholders over the tables and no longer in swing-down holders on the sidewalls. She has been managed/overseen by yours truly and kept in a hangar in the dry Phoenix area for all 17 years. To add even more icing on the cake, she was maintained by “Dr. Dean” Benedict for the years he had his shop at Boulder, Nevada, and then the last few years at Dante Marinelle’s excellent Northstar Aviation maintenance facility on the Lake Havasu airport in Arizona.
Plus, she’s the star of multiple videos available on the King Air Academy channel of YouTube. I’ll wager she’s been seen/viewed by more pilots than almost any other King Air. Allow me to reminisce on some of the enjoyable flights this fine airplane, her owner, passengers and I have taken over the years.
Five trips were to/from Alaska. The King Air is the perfect airplane for this trip. Why? First, because we can easily overfly Canada on the leg from Oregon or Washington to Ketchikan and avoid any delays or snags in complying with Canadian customs procedures. Second, the King Air is excellent for operation on the few shorter/less-improved runways that we sometimes used.
The first of these trips – with Gary’s brother and some business associates on board – concentrated on fishing. I’m not an avid fisherman but it is impossible not to find Alaska fishing to be totally enjoyable and satisfying. Not only are the fish seemingly anxious to sacrifice themselves on our hooks but also the setting, the scenery and the wildlife we experienced was splendid. Returning in the fishing boat one day to our launching point near Kenai, our guide called out to “his” Eagle friend perched in a tall tree near the harbor, whistled the signal, and we all were stunned by the magnificent bird swooping down and catching the thrown fish remains in his talons as he made his low pass. Wow!
On another trip to Alaska, Gary and his brother Cal had their spouses on board – and my wife, Pam, as the other pilot – we made the fine Captain Cook hotel in downtown Anchorage our base and took various day-trips to different locations around the state. During this trip and one other, Gary contracted with Mark Madura who charters his beautifully restored DeHavilland Beaver on sightseeing excursions to remote lakes on the west side of the Cook inlet. One time we landed on Twin Lakes near Dick Proenneke’s hand-built cabin, had a yummy shore lunch there and got to experience firsthand this remarkable hand-built abode … that is now a piece of the National Park Service. (Proenneke’s book “One Man’s Wilderness” is a fascinating story of his solitary adventure and there are some great videos – made from his own 16mm movie camera, often on a tripod filming his work – that can be found searching YouTube.)
As an example of the “small world of aviation,” Mark had been a recurrent training customer of mine back in the 1980s when he operated a Beechcraft B60 Duke in Southern California. Mr. Madura is an excellent pilot both on land and sea, a fine companion and guide, as well as a darn good lunch cook/provider!
The highest mountain in North America – Denali is its name now, after years of being Mount McKinley – is of course a major attraction of our 50th state. Too often, sadly, visitors never get to see it because it’s engulfed in clouds. We have been fortunate however in that out of our five Alaska trips we have had two in which Denali was in the clear with hundreds of miles of unlimited visibility.
The first time this happened we had taken off from Yakutat heading to Anchorage, on an IFR flight plan. Looking to the northwest I didn’t see any clouds so I asked Anchorage Center if they were in contact with any airplane near the mountain. If so, what do they say is the cloud/visibility situation. “Clear as a bell” was the response. “Then how about amending our flight plan to include Denali before we head to Anchorage?” I asked. “Sure, N3190S is cleared to Anchorage via direct MOUTN, direct, maintain Flight Level 220.”
We found that MOUTN intersection is basically right above Denali’s peak, hence the name. As we closed in on the intersection, with Denali’s magnificence having its huge impact on all our eyes, we were asked by Center if we could climb to FL240, the lowest IFR altitude over the mountain. “No problem” was our reply and we were cleared to 240. Just about when I was preparing to request a delay over the mountain, Center, without being prompted, said “90S you’re cleared to delay near MOUNTN as long as desired. Just tell me when you want to head to Anchorage.” And so we did. Wow, what spectacular views we enjoyed!
Another year and another trip was to the Pacific Northwest. This included a landing at Paine Field and a tour of the Boeing “big airplane” assembly plant. One thing we observed from a factory balcony overlooking the assembly line of the 777 model was that the airplane closest to the exit door from the assembly line out to the ramp looked rather complete – we could see that even the interior was installed – yet no engines were yet hung on the wings. We asked our guide about this and her response was an eye-opener: Since each engine costs about $90 million, Boeing doesn’t want to “buy” them until the last feasible moment.
On that same trip we spent a couple of days in Sandpoint, Idaho, visiting with our friends Loel and Olson Fenwick. Through them, we also met, lunched with and toured Dr. Forrest Bird’s aviation and invention museum on his private airport, home, laboratory and assembly plant, a short drive from Sandpoint. I strongly suggest you search Dr. Bird’s name on your computer and learn about this one-of-a-kind pilot/inventor. His “60-Minutes” interview – “Idaho’s Bird Man” – on YouTube, is especially enlightening. It may not be a stretch to say that his invention – the portable medical respirator or breathing machine – has perhaps saved more lives than any other single device.
Loel Fenwick is also amazing. He invented the “birthing bed” and the birthing room system that has changed the American way of childbirth. He and his wife, Olson, are marvelous individuals and both are pilots. Their stunning home is on the shore of Priest Lake, and they have a hangar that stores their amphibs … including a Grumman Mallard and a Lake Buccaneer. Each year they host a summer “Splash In” that attracts float planes from far and wide. It, too, can be found on YouTube.
Gary’s most common trips in the C90A were from Phoenix to Catalina Island and back to host his friends for lunch, three at a time, in the town of Avalon. For many years Gary was a member of the Executive Association of Greater Phoenix or EAGP, which when pronounced sounds like the African country. His goal was to treat all its members to this marvelous day of enjoyment and camaraderie. We made 59 trips! The July 2022 issue of this magazine has an article about our operation into and out of “The Airport in the Sky.” Only once in those 59 trips did we need to land at our alternate – Long Beach, California, (KLGB) – because of IFR conditions at Avalon. But guess what? We were never in clouds!
How could that be?! The VOR/DME or GPS-B approach has a procedure turn altitude of 3,400 feet, a Final Approach Fix (FAF) minimum of 2,300 feet and an MDA of 2,220 feet … a mere 80-foot step-down from the FAF! Airport elevation is 1,602 feet. That day the cloud tops were at about 2,000 feet. We were in bright blue sky at MDA but with a solid layer of dense cloud between us and the runway! Weird!
When Gary purchased the airplane back in 2006 he planned to use it mostly to transport himself and other management personnel of his insulation company to their far-flung operating locations. We had many flights to Carlsbad, California; Tacoma, Washington; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Initially, very few personal flights were made; almost all were for business. But then the economic “crash” of 2008 occurred and Gary’s business needed to contract into a much smaller entity and the outlying facilities were mostly closed. After that took place, Gary bought the airplane from his company and registered it as his personal aircraft. That’s when the “fun” flying started!
In 2006 I was 61 years old and now I am 78. How fortunate I have been to fly a great airplane for a great man as my flying activity slowly comes to its end! My associations with King Airs and with Mr. Gary Banker have been true blessings that I will always appreciate!