Thinking back on the King Air Gathering this past March in Phoenix, it was great to have a portion of the event in a hangar on the airport with a King Air on display and available to everyone. I was there with Travis Lamance of Haven Aero to give a maintenance technician’s perspective on certain…
Last week I was at a shop doing a clinic on engine rigging with the maintenance technicians. Conveniently, there was a King Air in the shop with engine rigging issues, and everyone benefited from the hands-on experience. We also looked at the other King Airs in the shop. We discussed squawks that had been found…
A customer called to say his R/H generator went offline mid-flight. He happened to have an F90, but this squawk could happen with any King Air. For troubleshooting purposes, I suggested he swap the generator control units to see if the problem went to the other side, and it did. I had an exchange GCU…
Years ago, a King Air 200 was in a shop for phase inspections and the owner was waiting for it to be released. It was the first phase inspection since he had purchased the aircraft. Unfortunately, the shop found both engines would not make book power – they temped out before reaching max torque –…
Let’s talk about your preflight routine. Did you know there are some simple tasks you can add to your preflight checklist that could ultimately save you thousands of dollars in maintenance costs? Your flaps are one example—do you check your flaps regularly? Remember the old adage: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of…
Recently, hot weather has been a top news story all over the United States. Areas that don’t normally see triple-digit temperatures have been getting a taste of what we deal with every summer in the desert Southwest. This got me thinking about an engine problem that can crop up when the OAT is scorching hot.…
Take a look at the wheel bearing in Figure 1 (below) – it’s dry as a bone – there’s not a speck of grease or lubrication to be found. It looks like it sat in a solvent tank for a month, then tossed on a junk pile. The crazy thing is this wheel bearing came…
Imagine you are pre-flighting your King Air, checking the oil and on one engine the oil is off the stick! What do you do? For many, the first instinct is to dump a couple quarts in that side and check the stick again. Just make sure you have plenty of rags in the aircraft because…
I’ve been corresponding with a King Air owner about an oil temp problem he has wrestled with for awhile. On one engine, the oil temp is not warming up to where it should be. Initially he worried about icing in the oil-to-fuel heater, but we have since ruled that out. This started my thinking about…
A director of maintenance from Alaska with several King Air B100s called me not long ago. The most recent addition to his fleet had a pressurization problem that would not resolve. The system tested fine on the ground, but there was no pressurization in the air. He had researched the part number of the flow…