Page 18 - Volume 13 Number 10

Artist Lorraine Bebout, Eli’s wife, designed N712GJ’s new interior including making the decorative pillows.
“It’s helped us grow because it’s got me more places and allowed us to be a bigger, stronger company,” he said. “And, it’s by far made me a better dad. I’m single and I have my little girl 50% of the time. Having the King Air has solved any problem of me not being home because I can be in Texas during the day and back home with her that night.”
The nature of the oil and gas industry could put a strain on the partnership, but the owners and pilot have communicated well and managed to avoid that.
“Eli is great. If there’s any way to make it work, he does. And the same with me. He’s had a few trips come up and I already had the plane booked. We just make it work. We figure it out. We might jump on together and split costs, or we have an agreement that if Eli’s got the plane and I need it, I pay to get it home to get me and I pay to get it back, and vice versa. Whatever we can do to help each other, it works,” he said.
The King Air
Mathews works for Fremont Airways LLC, the company the Bebouts and Lindens have to manage the King Air 200 and Cessna T210N. In addition to his pilot duties, Mathews schedules the aircraft, handles catering on
16 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
board if needed, rental vehicles at the destination and setting up hotel rooms.
Even though the Bebouts aren’t flying the King Air, Mathews said he appreciates their pilot backgrounds and respect for weather conditions. All three owners have confidence in Mathews’ ability to handle Wyoming’s snowstorms, icy runways or strong crosswinds given his experience handling the weather and terrain challenges of Alaska.
They feel like they own a new King Air 250 because they have “not glass, but good, up-to-date avionics, the Blackhawk engine upgrade, most of the Raisbeck modifications and we just redid the interior.”
By far, Eli said, the engine upgrade has made the biggest difference.
“Wow. The brand-new -52 engines took it up to 305 KTAS and it just rocks and rolls,” he said.
Mathews said he’s pleased they decided to take advantage of incentives to replace rather than rebuild the engines about four years ago.
“We were able to get the -52 engines with the higher limit on the temperature gauge for the same price as the
OCTOBER 2019