As the four-blade aluminum propellers of the Beechcraft King Air 350 spun to a stop at Alaska’s Ted Stevens Anchorage
International Airport’s North Terminal, freight handlers stared at the aircraft’s civil lettering and red maple leaf roundels. When the cabin door opened, three men in military flight suits stepped from C-GSYC. As they unloaded training manuals and personal overnight kits, each knew they would spend their evening reviewing aircraft systems and the peacetime complexities of international border crossings.
Unlike most visitors to the second busiest airport and cargo hub in the United States, the small group did not arrive as tourists. They serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at 8 Wing Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton, 174 miles southwest of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa. The touchdown of the King Air 350’s main landing gear moments before marked another segment of a multi-phase educational mission.
Alaska happened to be in the extreme northwest corner of the continent and most Trenton-based flight graduates had experienced little beyond southern Canada. The long-range odysseys provided opportunities to exercise crew resource management and familiarization with their defense neighbors. No longer novices, the pilots in training learned independence and developed abilities to perform minimal approaches through various weather conditions directed and monitored by air traffic controllers.
After an overnight rest, these ardent professionals flight planned a return to CFB Trenton 3,300 miles southwest of Anchorage. The base consists of 3,000 men and women and 500 civilian members dedicated to service within the heart of Canada’s air mobility forces. The pilots of C-GSYC were destined to occupy the prodigious cockpits of large lifters such as the RCAF’s Boeing CC-177 Globemaster IIIs or what aviation journalists’ term “indispensable,” the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
These massive aircraft participate with world-renowned RCAF squadrons such as the 424, 429, 436 and several others in military missions tailored to support High Arctic weather stations and rescue and humanitarian relief around the globe. Complex and costly – a Boeing CC-177 markets for $288 million with Pratt & Whitney PW2040 turbofans consuming 20,000 to 21,000 PPH (pounds per hour) of fuel. These airborne delivery ships require high time “drivers,” but no organization, civil or military, can justify unlimited training circuits. Instead, procurement planners decided to lower fuel and maintenance costs by leasing King Air 350 aircraft C-GSYC and C-GPDC.
The Training Regimen
Before Trenton’s contingent of pilots are able to train in the model 350, they undergo screening from a list of 1,200 aspirants interviewed throughout Canada. At least 150 successful candidates attend elementary flight training commencing with Phase I of a four-part program on carbon composite Grob G 120As powered by six-cylinder piston engines with 2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School (2CFFTS) in 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. After a second phase, they move into Phase III – jet, multi-engine or rotary wing. Twin-engine selectees then begin tenures flying Beechcraft C90Bs.
Newbies assessed into Phase III arrive at CFB Portage La Prairie with backgrounds in single-engine airframes with no experience as first officer/co-pilot. They quickly absorb the elemental fact that training practices include far more than the simple manipulation of aircraft controls. By the time they move into operational units with heavy transports, they understand crew resource management and meticulous teamwork.
Every candidate, regardless of their path through the strenuous training pipeline, is considered the “best of the best.” However, with little more than 150 hours of certified flying time in their new-issue logbooks, they still lack some “real world“ experience and could benefit from further training before being dropped into the labyrinths of world-ranging heavy aircraft. A filler assignment by design on the King Air 350s helps alleviate the shortage of exposure beyond the sight of airport runways and enhances and retains perishable skills assimilated during training to WINGS standards.
“Multi-Engine Utility Flight (MEUF) was established to serve a dual purpose since our pilots could find themselves in something like a CC-177 the day after graduation,” explained Major Mina Keriakos. “While waiting for operational assignments, the King Air 350 fills the requirement to bridge the gaps in proficiency.”
Until arrival at CFB Trenton, pilots have recorded little more than local air work above the flatlands near Moose Jaw and Portage La Prairie. No aircrew members stay idle for long. Instead, they become involved in a variety of relentless MEUF missions under the guidance of 8 Wing. After grueling months at basic flight training establishments, they settle into the cockpits of C-GSYC and C-GPDC. At first, the King Air 350s may seem to lack connection to the air crew’s future transports; however, they later find that the boosted controls of the larger aircraft depend on identical operational principles as the 350s.
The King Airs deploying from CFB Trenton’s 10,000-foot runway depart on tasks unlikely envisioned by designers at the OEM’s headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, before the prototype underwent its first flight in Sept. 1988. By no means does RCAF management consider them strictly as corporate carriers. Both aircraft rate as working machines averaging 1,000 hours annually, moving personnel to remote regions for specialized training one day and the next, carrying a cabin full of grease-stained emergency components for mobile repair parties striving to return disabled aircraft to service. Even tightly sealed munitions boxes or fastidious VIPs sometimes occupy the King Air. Every moment in the aircraft logbooks represents cost-savings in fuel and overhaul times – even the relatively low-priced “Hercs” gulp 4,400 PPH in cruise at FL230.
“Part of the program is targeted to get members on the road for days at a time and show them how to take care of and return an aircraft,” said Keriakos. “We keep them flying to raise their multi-engine hours and provide experience in ICAO procedures, so they understand how to operate within international rules and develop airmanship.”
Pilot conversion courses for C-GSYC and C-GPDC begin on base under supervision of officers such as Keriakos. For a refresher, the RCAF dispatches candidates to Wichita’s ground school and simulators. From CFB Trenton, the King Air 350s disperse throughout North America and the Caribbean. MUEF trainees absorb the realities of environments beyond primary flight schools. In an operational environment, crews deal with people, cargo and center support systems. Some missions have been tasked to observe forest fires during Canada’s smoke seasons.
Most MEUF members train in King Air 350s for no longer than six months and average 300 hours per posting. Departure from CFB Trenton’s fast-paced environment varies. Keriakos describes the King Air 350 as a reliable platform for the lead-in role, which enables RCAF aircrew to safely harmonize missions into the same airspace and instrument approaches as their civilian “brothers.”
The 350 “Trainers”
The King Air 350 aircraft allotted to MEUF represent stock versions under a lease agreement with established commercial air service provider Air Tindi since 2021. The selection of Air Tindi resulted from the company’s practical background operating various Wichita-produced aircraft types throughout Arctic regions and the ability to provide on-site maintenance engineers. When a crew and their aircraft are assigned to temporary bases, Air Tindi’s maintenance engineers accompany the aircraft.
Each MEUF aircraft arrived with Raisbeck aluminum four-blade Hartzell swept propellers that, explained Air Tindi Director of Maintenance Mark Doucet Marisak, allow a quieter ride, “curb appeal” and generate increased thrust. King Air 350 C-GPDC also has Raisbeck wing lockers aft of the 1,050 SHP Pratt & Whitney PT6A-60 engines.
Although MEUF’s aircraft use high flotation tires and gravel kits, one publication claimed the versatile King Air 350s can operate into 3,000 feet of non-paved surfaces. Nevertheless, mission profiles have not yet deployed to unprepared airstrips. Each aircraft carries approval for 15,000 pounds MTOW and average 377 PPH fuel consumption at FL350. Despite being range-capable, overseas flights have not been assigned and factory-installed pneumatic deicing equipment is identical to any Beechcraft product operating in frigid regions. When asked if any problems occur on CFB Trenton’s King Airs, maintenance engineer Jeremy Vlasschaert responded, “Nothing really comes up.”
On previous contractual agreements, MEUF accepted King Air 200 aircraft, which the team reports also functioned almost faultless. Keriakos pointed out one shortcoming was the ability to carry only 544 gallons of fuel – the current King Air 350s board 1,638 gallons for legs as long as 1,828 NM.
The high-caliber pilots destined for Lockheed C-130s, Boeing CC-177s, or perhaps the RCAF’s CC-150 Polaris (Airbus 310-300) add to their skills daily. Not pampered, they will eventually find themselves driving onward through forest fire smoke to evacuate isolated Indigenous villages or sense the caress of a CC-177’s 14 tires near earthquake-stricken cities. In any case, they will not forget the connection between CFB Trenton’s T-tailed King Air 350s and the behemoths they now command.