Page 8 - January 2015 Volume 9, Number1

N350KA (serial number FL-924) is one of Beechcraft’s two King Air 350ER special mission demonstrators that tour the world showcasing the model’s multi-mission versatility and reliability. (PHOTO CREDIT: MIKE FIZER)
In September, two longtime Beechcraft company pilots completed flights to verify the promised performance was not just a marketing claim. The results should be helpful for future sales of a model that has more than 120 serving a variety of military and civilian roles across the globe.
“This is the first time a King Air class airplane has made the California to Hawaii leg without additional ferry fuel tanks,” said Dan Keady, vice president, Special Missions for Textron Aviation. “We’ve been touting the King Air 350ER’s endurance, range, payload and mission flexibility and now we’ve demonstrated the airplane’s unique deployment capabilities.”
Here’s a look at the planning and execution of the flights.
The Preparation
In August, sales demonstration pilots John Guidry and Mark Mohler were selected by Textron Aviation’s chief pilot of turboprops to begin working with one of the company’s contracted flight planning agencies to look at routing, altitude and weather options for the mission. They settled on a route starting at California’s Napa County Airport (KAPC) to Hawaii’s Honolulu International Airport (PHNL).
6 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
“Our team worked closely with our flight planning agency to see what type of forecast winds aloft would be present for the September timeframe targeted for the mission,” Mohler said. “We also looked at a variety of altitudes to fly the mission. One of the selling points of the King Air models is the ability to fly missions at different altitudes economically. We were interested in flying the trip in the mid 20,000-foot range, as well as the lower 30,000-foot range to show the ability to burn roughly the same amount of fuel with the altitude variances. We proved this by flying to Honolulu at FL280, and returning at FL310 then FL330 and burning the same amount of fuel (with the average wind component being the same).”
The Pilots
As demonstration pilots, Guidry’s and Mohler’s days are spent working with a global sales force to demonstrate aircraft capabilities and providing transportation for Textron Aviation personnel. They were both thrilled with the proving flight challenge and they split pilot- in-command duties, Guidry taking the flight to Hawaii and Mohler taking the return flight to California.
This wasn’t the longest flight in a King Air for Mohler, who previously flew a 350ER 10 hours and
JANUARY 2015