Page 22 - Volume 15 Number 3

ASK THE EXPERT
An Important Consideration for King Air 200 200 and B200 Pilots
If you you you are not not currently flying a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a member of the the the the 200-series family up to serial number BB-1459 then this article is is not for you You won’t hurt my feelings if you immediately jump to the next article in in this magazine But since this quite
important topic applies to to well over 1 000 airplanes I I think it it merits my addressing the topic in in in this article by Tom Clements
power during instrument meteoro- logical conditions ” We will never know the exact set of conditions that brought this BE- 200 to its doom yet I have an idea of the circumstances involved Based on what you are about to read here I I hope that I I can make a a a a convincing argument for you to select the No 2 inverter for your flights in in darkness Before continuing let me be clear that what I am about to describe is very unlikely – a a possibility that would be rare to experience even once in in a lifetime of flying Yet the Beech engineers recognized that this possibility does indeed exist and based on on that recognition safety devices – in this case circuit breakers (CBs) – were included in in the design Specifically we are talking about a a a a “ground fault” on one of the dual fed buses Many of you may recall the horrific crash of a a King Air 200 that happened January 27 2001 The airplane was departing Denver’s Jefferson County airport (KBJC now known as Rocky Mountain Metro) at night on an IFR flight to Stillwater Oklahoma (KSWO) with eight seats filled with players coaches and broadcasters of the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Cowboys basketball team Two pilots were in front but the right seater was quite
new to the 200 and was primarily
20 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
going along to gain experience The left seater was an experienced pilot who had flown this exact airplane often The airplane crashed at high speed into a a field about 40 miles from the airport The NTSB report states that the probable cause was “the pilot’s spa- tial disorientation resulting from his failure to maintain positive manu- al control of the the airplane with the the available flight instrumentation Contributing to the the cause of the the accident was the loss of AC electrical ›
MARCH 2021