Page 10 - January 2015 Volume 9, Number1

A standard production configuration King Air 350ER is a King Air 350i with several minor airframe modifications, aft-engine mounted fuel tanks and heftier landing gear to handle the increase in weight. (PHOTO CREDIT: MIKE FIZER)
The Aircraft
For the proving flights, Beechcraft used a standard production configuration King Air 350ER, which is based on the King Air 350i with several minor airframe modifications, aft-engine mounted fuel tanks and heftier landing gear to handle the increase in weight. The company advertises that the 350ER could take off at gross weight with full fuel and full payload, fly out 100 nautical miles, perform a low altitude surveillance mission for seven hours and 20 minutes, fly back 100 nautical miles and still land with more than 45 minutes of fuel on board.
About three of every four King Air 350ER aircraft delivered (80 of 120-plus) have gone to Department of Defense-type customers around the globe. There have been a handful delivered to private operators for executive transport and commercial ventures like Sundt Air in Norway who use the 350ER to contract with various agencies for oil pollution patrol, fishery inspection flights, border patrol and search and rescue missions. Aside from surveillance, the most popular uses of the 350ER are air ambulance, aerial survey, transporting people or freight, flight inspection/airway calibration and radar/navigation training.
One of the more visible operators of the 350ER is the United States Air Force, which uses a fleet of 350 and
six minutes on an endurance mission from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Yakima, Washington. After graduating from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Mohler was a flight instructor then advanced from first officer to captain at a regional airline. He missed instructing so he moved to Wichita, Kansas, for a job at FlightSafety International’s Beechcraft Learning Center. In 1997, Raytheon Aircraft hired Mohler for what he calls the best flying job in aviation.
“It is diverse and never has a dull moment,” said Mohler, who enters his 18th year flying for the company with just over 13,000 hours. “I get to fly brand new airplanes all over the world. As we like to say, ‘I’m ‘living the dream.’”
Guidry has been a pilot at Beechcraft for more than 25 years, joining the company in 1989 after stints giving flying lessons, flying freight, then flying for a regional airline. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and has 13,600 total flight hours since he started flying at age 24.
“Being with Beechcraft for 25-plus years now, I’ve seen the King Air mature into the best turboprop in the world,” Guidry said. “In my opinion, the King Air 350 and 350ER are the best. The multi-role mission of this airplane is incredible. I’m very proud to have proved that by flying the first King Air from California to Hawaii nonstop without having to put in internal fuel tanks.”
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JANUARY 2015