While most civilians are unaware of a small group of guardsmen flying in a West Virginia training schoolhouse, the Fixed Wing Army National Guard Aviation Training Site – or FWAATS – is well-known and well respected among United States Army aviators. “What’s great about FWAATS is that you’re actually flying an airplane,” Chief Warrant Officer…
In a sign of these pandemic times, Textron Aviation last month launched the new flagship of the Beechcraft King Air family with online fanfare only. On Aug. 4, the company posted a 10-minute recorded video on its social media channels followed by distributing a press release with details of the King Air 360 and 360ER,…
While the experience piqued his interest in aircraft and planted the seed for learning to fly later in life, he never imagined that he’d one day operate an air charter business out of “The White Building” at Cardiff Airport, a facility that back then was the head office of the airline that was eventually absorbed…
Mark Baker, head of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), reached the point in his flying and professional career in 2019 when he could choose any airplane he wanted. He chose a Beechcraft King Air F90. “If I were to go eeny, meeny, miny, moe on the ramp, I would have always wanted to…
Starting with the first Beechcraft King Air 350i that Wheels Up took delivery of in 2013, all but four of the 72 King Airs to join the fleet of the private aviation company have the same stylish blue and white paint scheme featuring the word “UP” on the tail. Those exceptions are the aircraft that…
Like any relationship, co-ownership of an airplane can be a great partnership when there’s good communication and a healthy amount of respect between all parties. Two Wyoming families have formed what they describe as a near-perfect relationship through a 1981 Beechcraft King Air 200 thanks to a pilot who brought them together four years ago…
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, it shut down communication and transportation in much of southern Louisiana. The owners of Rouses Markets had no way of knowing what was happening at their 17 supermarkets or with their employees and their communities. There was no cellphone service and flooding caused many road closures. “We…
If you’re reading this article, you likely know of Tom Clements, a regular columnist for this magazine who is admired for his expertise developed over 46 years of flying and instructing in King Airs. So, a few eyes widened when last summer he wrote: “Thus far, this truly is the greatest King Air that I…
Lonnie Steverson feels like he’s living out his father’s dream: he’s working and growing the company his parents Joey and Jill Steverson started in the 1980s, he built a house just down the road from the business in Prentiss, Mississippi, where he recently added a 3,000-foot grass runway on his 20-acre property and he regularly…
At first take, it might sound like Chris Miller is still in the honeymoon phase when he says of the Beechcraft King Air F90 that he acquired in 2017, “It’s currently our only airplane and it’s going to be our only airplane. We absolutely love it.” It is, after all, his first King Air. But…