Page 9 - Volume 11 Number 5

“She is the grandma of our fleet with 26,000 hours on her clock,” McQuie said. “She has had a lovely dual Garmin 650 avionics upgrade a few years ago, which made her attractive to us as it gives us the redundancy we required to be able to go to remote locations not serviced by any other instrument approaches.”
Last month, GAS took delivery of their first King Air C90 (LJ-1464) to replace the fleet’s aging Cessna 402s and migrate all operations to turbine aircraft. The 1997 King Air is mostly in its original configuration and has 3,000 hours.
“The C90 still allows our customers a smaller aircraft that is cost-comparative to the 402s,” McQuie said. “One of our most common routes is from Kalgoorlie up to Warburton, which is located in the central desert. It’s a leg of 390 miles so its 4.5 hours round trip. With the cost of avgas in the region being quite high for a payload of up to 400 kg (880 pounds), it works out 5 percent better in the C90 because we can carry return fuel. The round trip takes 3 hours 25 minutes in the C90. For larger loads, the B200 knocks an extra 20 minutes off the trip.”
‘Backbone of our operation’
McQuie calls the King Air platform the “backbone of our operation” and is excited about the next chapter for Goldfields Air Services. The company flies about 2,000
Last month, Goldfields Air Services took delivery of this 1997 King Air C90 to replace the fleet’s aging Cessna 402s and migrate all operations to turbine aircraft.
hours per year: 1,000 with the King Air 200s and 1,000 with the 402s, with that work shifting over to the C90 this year. The hours are evenly split three ways between mining company work, government missions, and general private charter and flight training.
GAS operates with eight to 10 pilots depending on the volume of contractual work and seasonal conditions, and also operates a flight school with five of the pilots covering both roles.
MAY 2017
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 7