For many years, I maintained a B200 owned by a family business that had used the same pilot for ages. He was ex-airline and a decent stick, but every time he picked up the King Air after maintenance, he pulled the door shut, started the engines, and took off – he didn’t even check the…
I just wrote about the cabin door in the February 2017 issue of this magazine, but I thought of a few more points I could make on this topic. To summarize briefly where I left off: If a King Air has a cabin door squawk, nine times out of 10 it is going to be…
I have a customer that had a cabin door problem for two-and-a-half years. He kept receiving the cabin door warning light on the annunciator panel when he was in flight, but never on the ground. When the light came on, it was never at the same altitude and happened at various times throughout the flight…
Last month I was invited to meet up with the Silver Foxes, a group of people that worked for Beech Aircraft “back in the day.” Most are long retired, but have stayed in touch with colleagues from what they fondly call “the Golden Days of Beechcraft.” Their reunion this year happened to be in my…
Not long ago, I had four King Airs in a row that had flap issues. Three of them were in the hangar at same time. A contagion of flap failures? Flap Cooties? Let’s hope not. F90 – No Washers First, there was an F90 in for a pre-buy inspection, and we found that most of…
Any time an aircraft broker calls me about a pre-buy inspection and asks, “How much would an annual cost for a King Air?”, it makes me wonder if this is their first shot at selling one. A few months ago, I was invited to speak at the local Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) for their…
Just before takeoff, or at least before the first flight of the day, your checklist includes testing the overspeed governors. You know that switch on the sub-panel? When you hold it up, the test solenoid opens a port that dumps some oil back into the engine case, and this holds the prop rpm to 150…
A King Air owner was waiting for his 200 to be released from the shop after having a phase inspection. It was his first phase since purchasing the aircraft in 2002. The shop refused to release the aircraft to him because the engines did not make book power – they “temped out” before reaching max torque.…
Thirty-six years ago, this very month, every King Air 200 in existence was grounded by an emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) on wing bolts. Back then, ADs were sent through the mail. This one had a really short window for compliance; by the time it was received by owners, they had to act very fast if…
Along-time, out-of-state customer called to say his R/H generator went offline mid-flight. He’s got an F90, but this could happen to any King Air. For troubleshooting purposes, I suggested he swap the GCUs (Generator Control Unit) to see if the problem went to the other side, and it did. I had an exchange GCU drop-shipped…