Page 17 - Dec 2022

and there they were – melted heat ducts. The deice line was also melted flat. I checked the duct temperature sensor and it ohm’d out correctly. I needed to troubleshoot this further, but this guy was in a huge hurry. He was hell bent on leaving that same day until I told him that a collapsed deice line was a no-go item. It had to be replaced. I got it ordered for the next day and he left the F90 in my shop overnight. The next morning, I received and installed the new deice line, put the ducts back in and off he went.
That wasn’t how I liked to do things, but he had Phase Inspections coming due very soon, and he scheduled to bring the F90 back to me in a couple of weeks. I knew I could replace the ducts at that time and become more familiar with this King Air. I looked forward to unraveling the mystery of those melted ducts. Unfortunately, I never got the chance. A week later the pilot called to tell me the gear collapsed on landing.
Allow me to digress briefly, because this is a perfect example of what happens when you skimp on a pre- buy inspection. That F90 was recently purchased. The pilot and owner had worked together for a while, both of them new to King Airs. The owner deferred to the pilot in all things aviation-related, and the pilot was
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“ ... the tail deice supply line ... was melted flat which would point to no air getting to the boots on the tail. That’s a problem.”
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DECEMBER 2022
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 15