Page 7 - Volume 12 Number 4

King Airs join the eet
In 1992, Air Inuit purchased its rst King Air, a model 200C, from an operator in Australia. The company’s then chief pilot, assistant and maintenance director brought the aircraft to Montreal, stopping in Papua, New Guinea; Micronesia; Wake Island; Midway Island; Adak Aleutians and Fairbanks, Alaska; then Edmonton and Winnipeg, Canada. It operated as a northern-based medical passenger transport aircraft between the northern village of Puvirnituq and Montreal and ew south about three times a week. In 1995, Air Inuit increased this service between north and south and replaced the King Air with a De Havilland Dash 8-100.
Several years later, Air Inuit was looking for an aircraft to operate emergency medical transport and executive charters. They acquired their rst King Air A100 in 2000. Within three years, two additional A100s were added to the eet.
“One major factor in deciding which aircraft to get was the engines,” Lukca said. “The A100 has PT6A-28 engines and the Twin Otter has PT6A-27 engines. Air Inuit operates seven DHC6-300 Twin Otters. Besides several accessory and governor differences, these engines are identical, thus interchangeable between both these aircraft types. It’s
an excellent operating solution for Air Inuit compared to a King Air with a -30, -40 or -60 series engines.”
Those aircraft are still part of the company’s eet today. Two of the A100 aircraft are based in Kuujjuaq and mainly y scheduled, charter and medevac ights. Another is based in Schefferville and ies two daily scheduled ights to Sept-Iles on the northern shore of the St-Lawrence River, connecting north and south.
“... when speed is a requirement, the King Air is the way to go. The King Air also allows us to fly above the weather and turbulence. And with a pressurized cabin, medical transport is generally more comfortable in the King Air.”
– Captain John Lukca
C-FAIO is a 1972 model with about 27,000 hours, C-FAIP was built in 1974 and has 28,536 hours and C-GAIK is a 1971 model with 29,475 hours. All three underwent a massive avionics upgrade in 2012, going from a factory cockpit to a eet-wide standard Garmin panel. The A100s are equipped with two Garmin G600 Flight Displays, two Garmin GNS430 WAAS GPS units and an STEC-65 Autopilot.
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APRIL 2018 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5