A Flight In My New King Air 350i

This is a flight (picture heavy) in Carenado's King Air 350i from Palm Springs, California to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The scenery is all ORBX. I added a purely fictitious story to go along with my pictures/flight.

(Note: click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Here's the King Air 350i that will be flown to Jackson Hole. The plane was sold to someone at Jackson Hole during an auction last month. The current owner of the King Air was going thorough financial tough times and had to file bankruptcy and sell the plane. My company was contracted to deliver the King Air to Jackson Hole Aviation. A fellow by the name of Randy at Jackson Hole Aviation is acting in behalf of the new owner. I flew to Palm Springs by commercial carrier and brought Russ (my co-pilot) and Mike (my company's chief mechanic) to help deliver the plane.

This King Air is a real beauty. I have always liked the King Air line and own several of them to support my air charter service. The plane looks to have been recently cleaned most likely to support the recent auction held.

Initial impression is the plane shows little wear. The steps up into the plane are not worn and the carpet just inside looks new.

Wow, smell that leather. This plane looks and smells to be in show room condition. Wonder what it sold for. Russ's eyes are as big as grapefruits. Mike is still outside wiggling and pushing parts here and there on the plane.

Plane has the lavatory upgrade. Lifted the seat; luckily it was very clean. Opened the cabinet and noticed the sink had a slight dust film on it. Sure doesn't look used.

Nice, the plane is equipped with AirCell phones and is equipped with the Venue CMS. This is a top-of-line 350i. The power light was on so Mike checked to see if the phone service was still active. It wasn't.

Well, the cockpit looks to be in good order. Before we do anything else we are going to get comfortable back in the cabin and review the logs closely. Randy, the acting agent for the new owner, said the plane was purchased based solely on photos, copies of the logs, and second hand information. My concern is the plane may not have been well maintained as the company filed for bankruptcy and was tight on money.

Had the plane pulled out of the hangar. The logs showed the plane was purchased new but did a lot of hangar sitting (not much use - what a pity). We will spend the rest of the day checking the plane. Mike will give the airframe and engines an inspection. Russ and I will do independent pre-flight checks and compare notes. If all looks good we will fire up the engines and do some touch-and-goes before its gets dark.

The batteries were weak and needed to be charged but the King Air checked out Ok yesterday. The touch-and-goes revealed the propeller governors are sluggish and the main brakes squeak a lot. All probably due to sitting around for so long with no use. Mike worked his magic on a number of things and said everything is satisfactory. Randy was telephoned and given a status on the plane so he could inform the new owner. He was happy to hear our findings as he expressed a similar concern when he hired me (that's why I brought Mike with me). Plane is being fueled as we are ready to get this plane airborne and headed to Jackson Hole.

Flight plan entered into the FMC and displayed on the MDF. Flight time should be about 2 1/2 hours. Mike pulled the chocks and cleared the outside area. Exit door closed.

Engines started and running smoothly. Electrics being checked. Battery voltage is low but the batteries are charging properly.

Turned on the AC to keep everyone cool. Mike has been complaining about how hot Palm Springs is.

Part II in the reply.

Part II - The flight to Jackson Hole continues.

(Note: Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Ready to depart on runway 31L. Flaps set one notch. This plane will gently lift it self off the runway.

Gear going up. Good bye Palm Springs. Should have came down a day or two earlier to play some golf.

AP engaged and capturing flight path to our first way point. Those engines sound healthy.

At cruise altitude and coming up on way point one. Nice colors in the desert below. You can almost feel that heat down there.

Our flight path will roughly parallel Highway 15 going to Las Vegas.

There's Las Vegas in the background. McCarran Intl is hard to see with the hazy/heat waves. We are going to deviate from our flight path a little to see Boulder Dam.

Boulder Dam directly below. That dam is a major engineering accomplishment. Wow, it looks impressive.

Russ wanted to watch the Collins built-in HSI as we got back on our flight path.

There's a whole lot of nothing out here. Glad I am in this nice AC plane and out of the heat. Interesting patch of green on that mountain off to the left.

Well we have been in the air for about an hour and the aux fuel tanks are at about 25%. Rough estimate puts that at roughly 400 lbs/hr/engine. These engines can be thirsty at lower cruise altitudes but 400 lbs/hr is not bad. Normally I would have flown at 27,500 ft but heck you couldn't see much of the scenery from that altitude.

Mike is back in the cabin watching a movie (Predator), drinking a soda, and snacking. He looks very comfortable and never seems to stop eating.

Russ and I are doing our "thing" keeping this King Air headed to Jackson Hole.

Final part in the next reply.

Part III - Landing at Jackson Hole.

(Note: Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Approaching Salt Lake. Note the flight times on the MDF were automatically adjusted to reflect the new time zone.

Salt Lake City is below us with the Great Salt Lake off to the left.

You have to look hard but the Teton Mountain Range near Jackson Hole is now visible directly ahead. We are about 85 nautical miles away. Thought I would check the FMC and see some stats on the flight. The flight time is expected to be 2 hrs 13 min with an average ground speed of 291 knots. We are burning about 410 pounds of fuel per engine per hour.

Checked the performance table obtained with the aircraft and it looks like we did better with fuel performance than the table estimates (440 was estimated).

We are close to our destination. Time to get this plane on the ground. Checklist pulled up on the MDF.

Coming out of the Salt Lake City area Jackson Hole reported that runway 19 was in use. The winds must have changed as ATC indicated runway 01 is now in use. Saved us some time by not having to come in from the other direction as was expected.

Yikes, caught some surface turbulence coming over the threshold and got tossed over to the left some.

Jackson Hole Aviation dead ahead.

Parked and engines shut down. That must be Randy coming out to greet us. Total flight time was 2 hours and 18 minutes. I am ready for lunch and Randy said he would buy. Wait till he see the appetite Mike has.

Hope you enjoyed the flight. Jim

Nice aircraft.

But the most important question of all....does the ITT rise with altitude?

Nice aircraft.

 

But the most important question of all....does the ITT rise with altitude?

JSMR your comment about ITT confuses me some. ITT is impacted by a number of factors but my experience would indicate it varies primarily with how hard you "drive" the engines (torque/throttle) at any altitude. At any rate here are some number I collected during one of my earlier flights. This is probably arguable but I use 785 deg C as the max ITT for the 350i.

Engine start: 758 deg C peak

Low Idle: 587 deg C

High Idle: 606 deg C

Take off and climb: 788 deg C

Climb at 95% power and 2,000 ft/min: 724 deg C

Cruise at 20,000 ft (prop rpm 1500, torq 91%): 610 dec C

Cruise at 35,000 ft (prop rpm 1590, torq 100%): 561 deg C

You can draw your own conclusions. I do not plan on reviewing the accuracy of Carenado's model.

Jim

JSMR your comment about ITT confuses me some. ITT is impacted by a number of factors but my experience would indicate it varies primarily with how hard you "drive" the engines (torque/throttle) at any altitude. At any rate here are some number I collected during one of my earlier flights. This is probably arguable but I use 785 deg C as the max ITT for the 350i.

 

Engine start: 758 deg C peak

Low Idle: 587 deg C

High Idle: 606 deg C

Take off and climb: 788 deg C

Climb at 95% power and 2,000 ft/min: 724 deg C

Cruise at 20,000 ft (prop rpm 1500, torq 91%): 610 dec C

Cruise at 35,000 ft (prop rpm 1590, torq 100%): 561 deg C

 

You can draw your own conclusions. I do not plan on reviewing the accuracy of Carenado's model.

 

 

Jim

Thanks. Not accurate. Not surprising from Carenado. I'll pass.

Aeroworx were about the only ones to correctly model ITT. Thankfully.

Beautiful shots of your shiny new KA 350, Jim!! :) Carenado and Alabeo planes are still my favorite and always have been from day one, have fun! :)

Adam, thanks for the comments. My shiny new King Air did take some work to iron out some of Carenado's "rough spots". I have a couple Carenado planes (their King Airs of course) and one Alabeo plane (the StaggerWing). They are all fun to fly. BTW: no animals were harmed in my flight to Jackson Hole. Jim

Thanks. Not accurate. Not surprising from Carenado. I'll pass.

 

Aeroworx were about the only ones to correctly model ITT. Thankfully.

JSMR, I took the exact same flight in my Aeroworx B200 before using this route for the B350i. Both were very enjoyable flights. However, the B200 took longer. Jim

JSMR, I took the exact same flight in my Aeroworx B200 before using this route for the B350i. Both were very enjoyable flights. However, the B200 took longer. Jim

No doubt the 350i with its bigger engines 'won'. :p

Just that it's been my bugbear with 'C' for sometime not bothering to correctly model the ITT correctly. Or not at all. I compare it to not putting an RPM gauge in a piston. As bad as that.

I much enjoyed the information and effort you put into this post, great shots of the King Air and everything else:cool::cool:

Gonzalo