I thought you might enjoy reading about some memories I have of a couple of events in my life … tied to King Airs, of course!
I think it was 1974; I was in my third year as a ground and flight instructor at the Beechcraft Training Center in Wichita and the center’s manager, Don Cary, received an unusual telephone call. It was an inquiry from Sam Baker, the aircraft sales manager for Stevens Beechcraft out of Greenville-Spartenburg, South Carolina, asking if we could provide “immediate” King Air initial ground and flight training for 15 pilots. As Don explored further, additional information came to light, helping to explain this unusual request.
It was found that IBM International, headquartered in Poughkeepsie, New York (yes, THE IBM!) had grounded their fleet of Rockwell Sabreliners. There had been a couple of unexplained fatal crashes involving Sabres and, until the cause was found and corrected, IBM was taking the conservative approach of not flying their Sabreliner fleet. The company had started making urgent inquiries about how and from whom they could get five replacement airplanes and get them into service without delay. Most of their inquiries resulted in dead ends, since few aircraft sales organizations had such an inventory in stock.
Ah, but good old Stevens Aviation was about to be their savior. Stevens, founded in 1947 by Ralph and Gaynelle Curthbertson, had become one of Beech’s most successful distributorships. The Cutherbertson’s had assembled a team of top-notch people who covered the entire FBO spectrum of line service, maintenance, flight training, charter and sales. I, personally, had come to know many of their experienced pilots as they came to Wichita to pick up their latest King Air … some already sold and others to be used as demonstrators until a buyer was found. Both of Ralph and Gaynelle’s sons – Ralph Jr. and Herb – were also highly involved in the business and were experienced pilots in their own right.
When Sam Baker had received the call from IBM, he sensed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sell a bunch of King Airs in one fell swoop! Between some aircraft currently in their charter operation and others coming on line as unsold demonstrators, Sam believed they could provide the five requested airplanes. But now the possible stumbling block was the immediate training of all of their pilots. They contacted Beech for a possible solution.
Back then, all ground training at Beech was done in the classroom with an instructor, a chalk board and an overhead projector. All flight training was done in the airplane … usually a new one that was leaving the factory on its maiden delivery, either to a distributorship or to the end user/customer. In those years it was also not uncommon to send a ground and flight instructor (at Beech, all of the instructors were qualified in both the ground and flight environments) to perform on-site training at the location of a customer that had a rather large flight department. By doing so, the customer paid for only one person’s travel expenses instead of the expenses incurred when perhaps 10 or more of their pilots had to travel to Wichita. Personally, I had spent time in Detroit, Michigan, and Findlay, Ohio, providing Beech-factory, on-site training for General Motors and Marathon Oil, respectively.
Sam explained to Don that he was in the process of finalizing the deal on the fifth King Air and that they (Stevens) could provide at least two of the flight instructors needed, but that they needed the factory’s Training Center to travel on-site for the ground school. When can they get here? How about yesterday?
So it came to pass that yours truly was assigned to pack up the training material and proceed via airline to Poughkeepsie to begin the training the following week. “Wow, won’t this be an adventure?” I thought.
IBM had provided a large conference/training room to use that was actually a loft in their corporate hangar. It was spacious and comfortable with a large projection screen and chalkboard – better than the ones we used in Wichita! The “fleet” ended up consisting of three King Air A100 models, one E90 and one C90. (Keep in mind that at this time the A100 was the “King of the Fleet.” The much superior 200 model was just starting to be manufactured.)
My 15 students were all quite experienced pilots and they all had been flying the Sabres. Only one or two had previous King Air experience so the class was definitely geared for initial training, aimed at pilots who knew nothing about King Airs. Some good questions were asked and the class went rather well the first morning. However, I sensed an aura of unhappiness and frustration in the students. Then the reason dawned on me, and I was angry with myself that it took me so long to realize what I was facing. Usually, our new King Air students were transitioning into their first turbine, pressurized, airplane … and they were very excited to be doing so, as you would expect. But at IBM, these pilots were already experienced in the ways of corporate aviation in general and pure jet equipment specifically. For them to step down from the Sabre to a “mere” King Air was a blow to their egos.
One of my most enjoyable memories from those days in Poughkeepsie was the dinner a bunch of us enjoyed at the CIA (not the spy organization, but the Culinary Institute of America). As you may know, the CIA is a premier school for high-end, chefs-to-be. In addition to the training the students receive, there is a dining room that is open to the public where they can hone their craft. Wow, is the food and service all 100% first class!
Although the memory is hazy, I think there were maybe eight of us who dined: Three of the Stevens instructor pilots and salesmen, four from the IBM flight department and me. Excellent food and drinks were enjoyed by all with lots of great flying stories shared around the table. Fun time!
After five full days of ground school, Monday through Friday, the flight training commenced. The three instructors were from Stevens and I was the fourth. All of the students did quite well and we were finished in another five days, if I recall correctly.
Now for “the rest of the story,” using Paul Harvey’s famous phrase. During lunch on the first or second day of ground school, after I had recognized the general discontent in the students due to their stepping down into the King Airs, I made a feeble attempt at making them feel that I understood their malaise. “Yes, I bet your trips will consume a lot more time in a 230-knot King Air versus the 450-knot Sabres. That’s too bad!”
“Well, the trips won’t really be that different in time,” was the reply. “Our legs are typically only 300 miles or less.”
“What?!” I inquired. “I thought you went coast-to-coast and even to foreign destinations quite often!”
“Oh, those trips are for the Gulfstreams. The Sabres are for the shorter trips.” I was getting a glimpse of how the other half lives.
To finish this story, the IBM flight department found that the King Airs actually worked very well for their use: reliable, comfortable, not a whole lot of additional time en route, and 50% or less fuel consumption. What was not to like?! But, after a couple of months and with the Sabreliners being found to not have a universal problem, the King Airs went back to Stevens and the Sabres were again the airplane of choice for their “shorter” legs. Oh well …
A different, but related story.
Stevens’ chief pilot at the time was Tim Heflin, a World War II airman and a very experienced and capable pilot and leader. Tim had been one of the flight instructors for the IBM training.
All of the early King Airs, as you probably know, had their engine gauges arranged in two horizontal rows above the avionics panel and below the glareshield/annunciator panel. The “straight” model 100 King Air – the first stretched cabin King Air that came out in 1969, not to be confused with the A100 that appeared in 1971 – was the first King Air to put the engine instruments in a vertical stack of two columns between the avionics panel and the pilot’s flight instruments. This seemed to be a much better arrangement, making it more intuitive to differentiate left engine from right engine and putting more of the gauges closer to the left seat occupant’s line of sight.
However, for quite some time, the 100s and A100s ordered by Stevens for resale were specially built at Stevens’ insistence to retain the horizontal rows of engine instruments. You see, Mr. Heflin was used to flying in a two-pilot crew – as most of Stevens’ customers did in those days – and he felt that the advantage of the horizontal arrangement was that it put the oil pressure and temperature gauges close to the co-pilot’s line of sight. Hence, that pilot would be much more likely to notice an abnormality when it occurred. Maybe some of you readers are now saying, “So that’s why my panel doesn’t look like the one shown in the POH!”
The excellence and variety of the pilots I have had the pleasure of knowing through my association with Beechcraft is a blessing in my life. Thank you to all who taught me so much!