King Air Ground Course

After the IR course, it's time for the King Air Type Rating course. A professional pilot training always includes a multi-engine training phase near the end of the program. The point of this training is to teach the student how to handle an operate a multi-engined aircraft under both VFR and IFR rules.

My desk on Day 1 of the type rating course

Especially the aim is to learn how a multi-engined aircraft reacts when flying it with the other engine inoperative, since this naturally causes an unbalanced situation and leads to many challenging aerodynamic effects that a pilot must learn to overcome. This is why we are going to fly a lot with the other engine either shut down (we are going to try an airborne restart once for real) or more often, just purposely put to idle thirst for practice purposes.

Checking the undersides of the main landing gear system

Usually a multi-engine rating is done with a multi-engine piston airplane such as a Seneca, the Baron or a Diamond DA42, but in SL Flight Training, the training is conducted with a Beechcraft King Air C90, which is an 8 to 10 seat multi-engined turboprop aircraft used usually in smaller business, cargo and ambulance operations worldwide. Our airplanes belong to the parent company of our flight school, that operates the previously mentioned type of flights with three of these King Airs. Thus, it is a great privilege to be able to do the training in this kind of aircraft, that is both a turbine and much more powerful and larger than any of the usual multi-engine pistons.

This leads to the fact that we won't, in fact, get a MEP-rating at all but rather a BE90/99/100/200 Type Rating.

Nice!

The ground training for the King Air is now finished. It included classroom studies about the performance, mass & balance and technical specifications of the airplane as well as practical exercises and training in the real aircraft, such as walk around-training. We also got to look at the engines, the cockpit and all other details up close in the hangar. This all was very interesting and I guess many of us, myself included, were very much looking forward to flying this  'Final Boss' aircraft that seems so large compared to anything previous :)

The PT6 engine

Inside the hangar rehearsing some flow patterns and checklist items with a course mate