Date: Saturday, May 12, 2001, 10:17:40 AM Subject: .3 hrs in a King Air F90 Today I got to fly right seat in a King Air C90B!! Yesterday, on my return flight from a business trip, flying a rented PA28-180 from SQL (San Carlos) to SBA, I had to land at IZA (Santa Ynez) since SBA was IFR at 300 overcast (with tops at 2000). It looks like Santa Barbara's summer "fog festival" has already started! When we departed SQL, the weather at SBA was VFR with spotted clouds at 1200. This is typical for summer weather: huge marine layer hanging off the coast until late afternoon or evening, and then mist and lowering ceilings. Well, we arrived about 30 minutes too late, and had to land at IZA, which is almost always clear. There is a 4000 ft. mountain between SBA and IZA, and this keeps the weather at one from being the same at the other. And, what's also nice about IZA, is that it is only 20 minutes by car from Santa Barbara. The people at IZA are very friendly, and there is a guy there named Bert who enjoys helping people find airplanes at rock-bottom prices. There are also a large number of experimental planes at IZA, as well as some glider planes. BTW, some of you may wonder why San Carlos is called "SQL" -- well, here's a clue: the CEO of the the largest company in San Carlos--in fact, the 2nd largest software company in the world--keeps his plane there. Clue #2: the company is called Oracle. Give up? Oracle uses a database language that is called SQL. For extra credit, who can say what "SQL" stands for? Blanche, you don't get to answer, since you teach computer science, don't you? :^) So, I pick up Joel, my CFII (with 17000 hours!) with whom am I learning to fly IFR, and we drive over to IZA to fly the rental plane back to SBA. On the way, we do some IFR practice. I fly the ILS into SBA and get the plane back to the FBO before the FBO owner can charge me being "late". Our plan was to then drive over to the avionics shop and finish up the IFR testing on the new panel of my Cherokee 6-300. But, unfortunately, it was still having some small-but important-details being fixed on the new panel, like the GPSS linkage between the S-Tec S55 and the Garmins, so we couldn't go do some IFR training until later in the afternoon. Joel's next appointment, at noon, was a "work" flight in a King Air C90B, taking the owner's son to Visalia, CA. Instead of sitting in the hangar reading the new Sandel manual, I was lucky enough to be invited to ride right seat in the King Air. Far out!! (Or, as they say these days, "Way cool!"). It wasn't my first time in a multi (my uncle used to own a Duke), but it was my first time flying one! I watched Joel do the preflight, which, in only an approximate order, included the following: * having the FBO service get the tow truck to pull the plane out of the T-hangar. Wow! I never realized how tall that T-tail is on the King Airs. There were only inches to spare in the hangar, which had always (until now) seemed overly tall. I don't know exactly how high the tail goes, but I'd guess about 15 ft. * getting the step ladder, and white cotton gloves out of the hangar utility cabinet and place the ladder between each engine and the fuselage to climb up and check the oil on each engine, turn around and then wash off the windows. * do a walk around, which included spinning the 4-bladed props and checking both sides for nicks. I guess the reverse feathering can cause nicks on both sides, especially for this plane since the owner has some ranches in central CA, where the landing strip is gravel. The props get pretty close to the ground (6-8 inches). Joel also did a kind of "push & pull" on the prop to check the torque pressure gauges. * getting the coffee pot and ice box ready for the passenger. This King Air had a little coffee pot heater, and ice chest, and the "jump seat" in the back was actually a potty cover. Just like a regular little airliner. After the passenger arrived, and Joel introduces me as his "co-pilot", we get in. It's a little tight for my 6'2" frame, especially with my bad knees (from a volleyball injury - can't bend them past 95 degrees), but I manage. The seat has two-axis adjustments: forward & back, and up & down, which I adjust to keep my legs out of the path of the yoke. The seat belt includes two, over-the-shoulder straps, so I feel pretty snug. The headsets are Bose -- nothing's too good for this owner, I guess. Joel starts up the right engine first, and waits for the amp-load to reduce before turning on the avionics. At this point, the pre-flight sequences become kind of a blur to me because there are so many new things for me to observe, and I end up being fascinated by various gauges and switches but which aren't actually part of Joel's sequence. He did explain the ITT, torque, prop RPM, and pressure gauges, but I don't actually remember the details. The right seat is fully instrumented, but the AI is a "flat" one, while the pilot's is an actual ball, with a flight director. The GPS is a King KLN90. There is a Sperry display (which kind of pleases me, since I used to work for Sperry a long time ago, in a far away place--College Park, MD--programming on Univac computers), but which is actually never used (I think it was for BFG Stormscope). There is a radar "absolute" altimeter, which is kind of cool. I "help" by dialing in the transponder code, the departure frequency and the #2 VOR radials for our first way point, but Joel's routine is so fixed (from flying solo) that he checks them in his sequence anyway. But, maybe I made a good impression on the passenger. :^) Today's trip is to Visalia, where the temperature is already about 95 degrees. After getting the clearance for IFR-to-VFR on top, direct to Visalia, we switch to ground and get permission to scoot over to the run-up. The King Air is a very smooth ride on the ground -- it's as nice as a car. I guess it's those big tires, and the fact that they're balanced for the high-speed take-offs and landings. The run-up is interesting: Joel runs up both engines, and then does something to either engine, which I think measures the torque changes, and checks compression. I didn't follow his sequence very well because I became fascinated with a little spinning dial that I later learned was the prop synchronization indicator: if it's spinning, the props are not synchronized. Anyway, after the run-up sequence, we switch to tower, and taxi and hold onto 15L, which has a bit of cross-wind, but the King Air doesn't really care very much. Throttles forward.. and .. wow!! This thing climbs up very quickly, as much as 3500 ft/min. I learn later. With the passenger on board, Joel keeps the climb rate to about 2000 ft./min. We pop up above the clouds, cancel IFR, convince departure not to vector us out to the Channel Islands (for some reason, they like sending people out to headings of 200 and 250, and then occasionally "forget" them), and then we're direct to Visalia, via the GPS. Joel sets the heading alert to 11500, and lets the autopilot drive. I'm still reading over each and every gauge, which includes the cabin pressure dial. Joel dials in 1000 ft. cabin pressure, since we're going up to 11500. He said that up to 11000 or so, the King Air's pressurization system can maintain sea-level pressure in the cabin, but above that he sets the interior pressure up a bit. I don't know if the King Air's system can't do it, or if it just takes too much power. Anyway, after about 30 minutes, in what would have been a 3+ hour car drive from Santa Barbara to Visalia, we descend in for a left-base turn in for final. Joel gets the plane's speed down to about 106 for final, and it seems like we touch down at about 95 or so. Once the wheels are on the ground, the ride is smooth, and the plane slows down rather well with the blades reversed. We taxi up near the self-service station, drop off the passenger and then head for lunch. Boy, is it hot! For the return flight, we're going to drop me off at IZA (Santa Ynez), since I had to leave my car there in the early morning (for that PA28-180 ferry back to SBA, remember?). After lunch, we get back into the plane and immediately begin sweating! It's really hot inside. Joel starts up the right engine, and again waits for the amp load to decrease, before turning on the avionics. His preflight sequence is much faster this time, and pretty soon, we've got air blowing in our faces from the air-conditioner. However, the air is not actually cold because the freon needs recharging. There is no ground, tower, or ATC to deal with at Visalia, so in very short order we are off the ground. At this point, Joel hands me the controls and says to take her up to 12500. He also says to pitch up and see what max climb is like, which is somewhere around 3500 ft./min. The ears even pop a bit as the cabin pressurization system lags a bit. Joel says that even fully loaded, the King Air can maintain that kind of climb. We stabilize our climb at about 180 kts. When we're level, (that altitude alert sure is handy), he has me do some turns and other maneuvers to show how nimble this plane is. Of course, my Piper feels like a truck (which it is, kind of) in comparison to this fast, high-powered Mercedes-class airplane. But, each airplane has its mission and corresponding cost factor. Joel says "keep her right-side up", and heads back to the ice cooler for some cold water. I feel an immense sense of responsibility and pride in the trust he has placed in me by letting me fly her solo, even if it was only for a bit. My first training flight on a multi-engine! I can't wait to finish my IFR, because the multi is next!! Pretty soon, we need to start descending for IZA, so I pitch down, and we're doing about 240 kts with a 2000 ft./min descent. When we get down to about 5000 ft., Joel takes over to enter the pattern for rny 26 IZA on the cross-wind; there are two other planes in the pattern, one ahead, and one behind. The one ahead cuts short his pattern and makes short final. I guess he didn't want this speedy King Air riding up his tail -- even though Joel slowed the plane down considerably, landing at 100 kts is still about as fast as some of these little planes cruise! The runway at IZA is about 2800 ft., so Joel has to hit the numbers, and be a little on the slow side, and feather the blades quickly. He does a great job, and we are able to turn off the active at the 2/3's taxiway, without even using the brakes (which Joel says are actually rather puny for a plane of this size). It feels pretty cool to have flown the King Air to this little airport (the King Air is the largest plane at IZA), taxi up in front of its little terminal building, and pop out, while Joel keeps the engines running. There are about 15 or more people standing or sitting about. This seems like a lot for IZA, but then I remember that SBA is IFR-only, so there must be a bunch of folks that are stranded here at IZA waiting for the weather to open up at SBA. Anyway, it was a fantastic day of flying. I'll let Joel know that the next time he needs a "co-pilot", that I'm his man! Well, in case you are wondering why I'm spending so much time on this, I'm writing this from SFO where I'm killing a 3.5 hour layover waiting for my connecting flight to Korea, where I'm off to another week of business. This is hard on me, my wife, and my family, so hopefully, this is the last business trip until September. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to flying my family to the Watsonville airshow (www.watsonvilleflyin.org), and to Oshkosh (www.airventure.org). Maybe I'll see some of you there! I'll bring my Piper@ hat and T-shirt. Hope you all are well. -- Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA