Impressions of King Air 350

[On Your Six]

I just posted this on the 135 board as well. I have a friend whose boss is looking to acquire a used King Air 350 in the near future. I have never flown a King Air but I hear the 350 is a solid airplane.

Anyone on these boards have experience on the 350? What about with the Pro Line 21 version - is it much better than the original with basic EFIS? Evidently the boss is safety conscious and he would pay for the "best" equipment but, if only a standard 350 is available, he would buy that version. Flights would originate in Southern California and serve hot/high destinations in Colorado and points up North in British Columbia. Boss and friend have previous experience on a newish C90 King Air.

Look forward to hearing any positives/negatives impressions regarding the King Air 350.

Thanks

 

[say again]

Excellent aircraft, a very reliable, safe A/C. Can stay in the air for app. 5 hrs., trues out between 300-320 depending on alt, and can maintain 250 below 10. Excellent performer. Never experienced high alt performance being east coast. Can take full fuel and still carry a quite a bit. (Exacts I dont really remember- maybe a full boat?) I have over 1000 hrs in a pro line 21 version and loved it, no experience with the 5 tube EFIS version. I would highly recommend this aircraft to anyone looking. Great work horse.

 

[Hawker800]

Flew one for 10yrs. Wish we still had it. Does very well in the mountains. In and out of Aspen and Eagle during the summer with no issues. Can do 3,000 ft runways but can get tight. 3,500 is better. It can stay aloft longer than you want to. Maintenance not bad either. Used to be inspected every 200hrs. or 12 months whichever came first. Very reliable with good payload capabilities. Hope this helps.

 

[mu2cptn]

We do CRQ-ASE/EGE/TEX all the time with no problems. Great airplane. Only ran into 1 problem trying to take it to IZA (2800) ft. Strip. I'm sure it would have done it all be it close, but were not dumb enough to try it. Try and get one with wing lockers. The owners of ours are cowboys and do adventure stuff they come in handy.

 

[Diesel]

What about a 300? How is the range and short field landing distance. Not much info on them out there.

Also are there a few 300LW's floating around?

 

[b350capt]

It is a great airplane. More realistic number are 285-295 TAS in the summer and 295-305 TAS in the winter. Never seen 320 out of any of ours even in negative ISA deviations (book doesn't post numbers like that either).

Positive of a ProLine21 is RVSM inspection and compliance comes at the factory level. If you buy a standard 3 or 5 tube w/o the inspection it can be a process. The 21 is a great system, a bit of an overkill and has its limitations but still a good setup. Wing lockers and the Raisebeck strakes are a MUST on the airplane.

If you bought a brand new 350 you would not have to worry about the UltraQuiet system (good when it works, annoying when it doesn't) as they are now equipped with acoustic tuning bars in the airframe.

It's a strong runway performer for its size most days, but it is not a great short field airplane at mid to high weights. It will go in and out of 3,000' runway but you're not going to be flying very far. Given the runway it will haul everything including the kitchen sink with a full passenger load and enough fuel to exhaust most any bladder.

If you have any further questions about the a/c you can PM me.

 

[kingairyahoo]

ive got a few thousand hours in both the 300 and 350, currently flying any one of 10 depending on who im working for that day. a 350 is a great plane...no bones about it, i dont care if its efis, proline, or fully loaded proline with the charts in it.

the only thing i can disagree with is running into/out of ~3000 foot runways unless its the middle of winter and youre only flying a few hundred miles...or maybe youre certificate has the EOD exemption.

summertime out of leadville and you will be in the dreaded "grey shaded area" of the performance envelope. hell weve been grounded more than once just getting out of telluride until the temps cooled off.

since it was asked...my favorite is the 300. get one with the winglets on it and you will true out faster than the 350, plus have the option of flying below 12,5 and not be subject to the same restrictions the 350 is.

heres food for thought...a 300 and a 350 on the SAME warm day and running the SAME weight, the 350 requires almost TWICE the runway that the 300 does

 

[johnsonrod]

I got a friend flying one out of South Florida. He absolutely loves it. Fun to fly and it has a Pro Line 21 system which does a lot of your work for you. He flies it up to the NYC all the time and it fits into the TEB pattern no problem.

His owners recently suggested they might want to replace it with an Ultra or a Hawker 700 and he was crushed - he loves that 350.

 

[Bjetset2]

Awesome

Awesome plane, agree Pro Line 21 for many reasons. Agree you want more than 3500 feet runway on heavy/hot days. Cruised ours in the 30s all the time. Easy to fly, love the double club cabin. Never flown the 300 so can't comapre. You won't find many people who don't like this airplane. Enjoyed it wish we still had one.

 

[geojet707]

I just posted this on the 135 board as well. I have a friend whose boss is looking to acquire a used King Air 350 in the near future. I have never flown a King Air but I hear the 350 is a solid airplane.

Anyone on these boards have experience on the 350? What about with the Pro Line 21 version - is it much better than the original with basic EFIS? Evidently the boss is safety conscious and he would pay for the "best" equipment but, if only a standard 350 is available, he would buy that version. Flights would originate in Southern California and serve hot/high destinations in Colorado and points up North in British Columbia. Boss and friend have previous experience on a newish C90 King Air.

Look forward to hearing any positives/negatives impressions regarding the King Air 350.

Thanks

Our flight department currently operates a 350 with the Pro Line 21 system and I can say it is the perfect airplane for our current missions. Its reliability and performance are hard to beat. You can top off the wings and load it up and get into just about anywhere. Also, the Pro Line 21 system has worked very well for us. We recently upgraded added the IFIS upgrade and have been very happy with all it has to offer.

On the support side, we currently take most of our MX to Hawker Beechcraft in Tampa and they have a great bunch of guys there.

Without trying to sound too much like a Beech sales guys, I will say the 350 has been a joy to operate!