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NTSB issues its final report, I pray it will present the correct, well-researched and reasonable cause that we can all accept. Meanwhile, I know this is a situation in which “big numbers” could have been used ... that the actual conditions would have permitted it with margins to spare. Were they used? Would it have helped prevent the tragedy? We don’t yet know.
Before I close, I want to emphasize that all of the King Air models up to and including the 200-series are “light twins.” Only the 300-series fall into a category in which engine failure on takeoff needs to be officially considered. Although the POMs/POHs for the non-300- series do indeed present data based upon engine failures during takeoff, none of this is FAA-required information. Consider the E90 again. Just because it uses a V1/VR of 95 KIAS and a V2 of 100, should you always use them? I emphatically answer “No!” Using the long runways – 7,000 feet or more, for example – at most major airports, I would operate the E90 the same as I’d operate an Aztec or Baron or 414. Namely, I’d allow the airplane to fly “when it’s ready,” having lightened the nose with the correct amount of elevator force. There would be no definite, firm, sudden rotation. The landing gear would be retracted when at least blueline (VYSE) airspeed has been reached. Then the pitch would be raised to about +10°, knowing that if an engine does indeed quit this attitude will eventually yield a speed close to blueline. I would
have the HSI’s heading bug set on runway heading and I’d be prepared to use my feet to “step on the heading” if I felt asymmetrical thrust. My briefing to the other pilot about engine failure would be, “If the gear has not started up, we are chopping power and stopping. If the gear has started up, we’re going.”
As I have said more than once recently in articles here, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Treat a King Air’s takeoff like a FAR Part 25 Transport Category jet? In some cases, we can. But should we? KA
King Air expert Tom Clements has been flying and instructing in King Airs for over 46 years, and is the author of “The King Air Book.” He is a Gold Seal CFI and has over 23,000 total hours with more than 15,000 in King Airs. For information on ordering his book, contact Tom direct at twcaz@msn.com. Tom is actively mentoring the instructors at King Air Academy in Phoenix.
If you have a question you’d like Tom to answer, please send it to Editor Kim Blonigen at editor@blonigen.net.
OCTOBER 2019
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 29