King Air 200 Questions

[TDK90]

1. Do you need a type rating to fly a King Air 200 with a MCTOW of 12500 LBS? It's not a large ac as defined by 14 CFR1, because it's not more than 12500 LBS.

2. Is it classified as a single pilot airplane and do many people fly it single pilot?

3. Is it easier and less complicated to fly than a 421 or similiar?

Thanks

 

[Dep676]

As far as flying I think it's easier than a 421. I would say the biggest thing is not worrying about schock cooling. I know those geared engines are fussy. As far as leaving the props at cruise for landing. I am not sure who does that. We don't and that wasn't taught at Flight Safety either. The landing, I use the electric trim for that. It helps to ease the back pressure on the yoke. Let the trim do the work instead of man handling it. Hope this makes sense and helps.

 

[Headwind]

Some say the 200 is easier to fly than a 421. I flew both about 1,000 hours each. The 200 is less likely to suffer engine failure, but when it does it's not as big a problem because it has more power available and it has auto feather and rudder boost. The 421 is a nice ride, but it's underpowered when loaded to gross. The 200 handles good at 12,500. The military version (C-12 ) has a gross of around 14,000. I think the 12,500 gross on the 200 was done by mrketing ( no type rating required) and makes them sell better.Going to school on both theres more to learn on the 200,but you will love the aircraft.

Headwind

 

[cocknbull]

Fly Chicaga was right on about parts 1 and 2. As for part 3, I can't tell you about the 421, but it is easier to fly then the Navajo. It is NOT less complicated to fly then the NAvajo or the 421. More complex more complicated. I will say that operating the B200 single pilot could be a hands full when things go wrong. Flying any complex plane single pilot without an autopilot is dangerous.

We land the B200 (which is different then the 200) at about 1900 Rpms because that is what they are set at during climb. After landing the props can stay there. As for the condition levers they will stay in low idle if you are just going into beta to slow the plane down. If you are going into a short field that requires full reverse the condition levers go full forward for landing. Some people have a problem with leaving the power in at the flare. Most of the time I will still have a little power in on touchdown. The flare is easy; just set a normal landing pitch attitude at the the right altitude and airspeed and she'll "stiffly" impact the runway. Not as stiff as a J41 but pretty stiff. Taxiing the B200 is fun. When you don't need to run the AC you can leave the power at idle and the condition levers in low idle, and taxi along with no problem just put the throttles in beta when you need to slow down. If you have to taxi with the condition levers in high idle because your running alot of crap then the king air will taxi somewhere around 50kts at idle if you let it!!! Be carefull.

The only reason I say the Navajo is harder to fly then the B200 is because of the Navajo's turbochargers. In the winter slowing down the chieftan can get pretty tricky. If ATC doesn't let you descend on a good profile you can almost forget about slowing her down without cooling the heads to much and the turbocharger for that matter. Navajos built after 76 have higher flap and gear speed so they are not as bad, but it is still tricky. I assume the 421 is turbocharged, but I don't know the gear and flap speeds. Another reason the Navajo is harder to fly is because it is very underpowered. It will haul alot with two good engines, however it has very poor single engine performance.

If you have the opportunity to fly a B200 with a good captain. I would recommend picking his brain about it. Also ask him if he can give you some trainning on SIC duties before the flight. There are some calls you can make and some duties you can perform that will teach you alot. Some captains will want you to sit on your hands and take up space. Others will teach you alot about flying and make your experience worth while.

 

[HMR]

Here's $.02 worth from a new guy in the 200 and B200 (about 120hrs. PIC). I trained for a Pt.135 job in a 414 (which flies great) and found the King Air easier to manage. I fly single pilot throughout the western U.S. and I'm amazed at how versatile the King Air is. It works great going into LAX or little strips in the Sierras. It hand flies like a dream (if I can shoot a decent ILS in it, anyone can). Even though the later 421's had trailing link gear I think the 200 lands just as smoothe. I've landed both the twin Cessna and the 200 on ice covered runways and the reversers make life alot easier. I barely use the brakes in the KA on landing.
Do you have a chance to fly one? If so take it. Get some good training and have fun!

PS-The EFIS and FMS in our new B200 are alot cooler at night than the Loran and flashlight I was using in the 414

 

[TDK90]

Guys

Thanks for the information. I'm currently a CFI,II,MEI with about 1100 hrs and 150 multi. I may have an opportunity to fly a 200 or 100 on Pt 91 for a former student's company. I'm a little apprehensive, and would require that I get some good training. They seem to think insurance won't be a problem, which surprises me. It's obviously a great opportunity, but I was just wondering how difficult it would be to transition from a PA44 to a King Air.

 

[banned username 2]

2. Is it classified as a single pilot airplane and do many people fly it single pilot?

3. Is it easier and less complicated to fly than a 421 or similiar?

Thanks

I was trained on a Seminole also, instructed in a Duchess... Flew C-414 and C-421's and flew King Air's (BE-100 and A-100) single pilot...

They are all progressively more complex... but not necessarily harder to fly...

Like FlyChicaga said, make sure you learn AND understand the systems thoroughly... Get the proper amount of training and don't be afraid to ask questions...

Good luck and fly safe...

 

[msw]

A couple of yeas ago, the outfit I fly for got rid of our Cessna 414 and got a King Air B200. They did send me to FlightSafety, and after the FlightSafety Initial Training Course (5 days), and a couple of flights with a King Air pilot with a lot of time, I was comfortable flying it single pilot PIC. My biggest challenge was learning the new autoplilot/FD and EFIS (intimidating at first, but after a couple of flights, it became intuitive - and easier to fly than the "old stuff") and the Universal FMS that was in the plane.

Bottom line: I think the King Airs are a little bit easier to "fly" than the 400 series Cessnas, but like the others said, a bit more complex (and different) systems; maybe some avionics to learn too. If you are only going to fly SIC, I wouldn't sweat it too much, it's a really nice and easy ship to fly, no bad handling characteristics at all that I can think of. But try to get ahold of a FlightSafety or Simuflite Training Manual from someone who has been through one of those courses before, and READ IT THOROUGHLY.

 

[H25BCPTN]

Most pilots that I have flow with during transition to a larger more complex AC like the KA 200 has problems with weather. High alt. weather is different than low alt. weather. Managing color radar properly and how to maneuver around areas of weather is the biggest problem pilots that I have flow with seem to have.

The second biggest problem is flying a good ILS approach. Pilot of slower AC needs to make larger changes in heading to compensate for the Loc. Flying at faster speeds require less since you are moving faster relative to the ground and relative to the winds aloft. A 35-knot wind will affect someone traveling at 80 knots great than someone traveling at 120 knots. The end result is that they have a tendency to chance the needle.

The KA 200 is a great single pilot AC but with only 1000 TT it might be wise to fly with someone with experience for at least 50 hours.

Fly safe and good luck.

 

[Be200pilot]

no type required; however, the military operates them at a higher weight so they must be type rated. There are few of them out there but they sure are glad to show a current KA pilot their "200 type" , big deal.

200 is easy to fly single pilot but in IMC (doing full approaches) it can get pretty busy. Most 135 operations are flying them two- pilot because of insurance. Most 91 ops I see are running them single pilot.

200 is comparable to fly with the 421. If you can fly either, it will obviously take adjusting to switch but wont be too difficult.
As far as shock cooling goes, the 200 cant be "shock cooled" like the 421 but turbine engines dont agree with extremely fast cool downs. That goes for all pretty much all metals. We changed some things because of what P+W said when they tore down our engines.