Page 12 - Volume 15 Number 9

Hall, who is also an A&P, does most of the maintenance on the E90 leaving the heavy jobs to a trusted few service centers. There are some differences with a skydiving aircraft in their maintenance needs, for instance Skydive KC’s King Air goes through three to four pairs of tires each season and it has heavy gear use of up to 20 cycles per day.
mission and only lasted three months. Hall noted that the twin “was a good plane, just not for [skydiving operations].”
The two men were not deterred by their initial aircraft selection and were determined to find the right aircraft and that’s when the King Air was suggested. As it had with the previous twin, the aircraft would be a leaseback and be a low-level risk experiment for Hall as a business owner.
Through extensive research, they determined the “ideal” characteristics of a King Air jump plane candidate:
= A 90 model of some variant
= A corporate aircraft in its previous life (i.e., not
currently modified for jump operations)
= Relatively modern instrument panel
= Mid-time with no damage history
= An aircraft meeting most of these needs was located and quickly introduced to the drop zone’s run schedule in September 2001. Hall immediately became a tenant in the right seat of the chosen 1976 C90 (serial LJ-701).
The aircraft worked great for the drop zone and enabled them to advertise some of the region’s highest jumps (14,000 feet MSL). In 2016, his partner had the chance to lease the King Air to another business for year-round use. Since Hall had collected five years of experience with the aircraft model, he wanted to find another one. This time he added additional criteria to his search for the perfect airplane:
= An E90 model (with roughly only 350 made, the overall pool size is slim). Hall likes this model due to its PT6A-28 engines and the King Air 200’s gravity fed fuel system, among other reasons.
= Incorporation of modifications, such as a four- blade Hartzell prop, Frakes exhaust or various Raisbeck modifications, or the ability to do so financially.
The following year, N83FE (serial LW-219) was acquired. A byproduct of years of hard work and planning, the aircraft is Hall’s personal pride and joy. As such, all flying and maintenance is held to the highest standards. “I am the sole pilot of the aircraft until the right guy comes along,” he said. “All it takes is one bad start or gear up landing to ruin my career, something that runs through my mind on each flight.”
10 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2021