Page 5 - June24
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Their King Air 350
proves ideal for
family vacations
by MeLinda Schnyder
JUNE 2024
Three weeks after purchasing a 1996 Beechcraft King Air 350 in the summer of 2017, Daniel Herr was off on the first of many grand family vacations. His family of four took off from their home airport of Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, headed for a West Coast adventure. He had ideal weather for the challenging terrain at Mammoth Yosemite Airport (KMMH). After mountain biking at Mammoth and hiking at Yosemite National Park, they flew an approach to minimums at Arcata, California, to stand among the giant redwoods (and to drive their car through one). On the eastbound return, they took in a rodeo and went white water rafting in Cody, Wyoming. The final stop was to spend time with close family in Watertown, South Dakota.
Ambitious and safe family vacations are the primary reason Herr, an 8,200-hour pilot, owns an airplane. In 2006, he had purchased his first airplane, a Cessna 421, after years of “freeloading” – flying his dad’s Cessna Turbo Skylane RG and his friends’ Piper Dakota. Herr’s flying background includes flight instructing, night freight, charter and fractional.
The 421 came before he and his wife, Kay, had daughter Elizabeth and son Wilmer. It served them well until the kids got older and the vacations stretched farther afield. Herr felt that the frequency of trips
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