Question about BE-350

[TX_Pilot]

Hey folks! I've got a few questions for anyone who's got some time in the 350. One of the groups I fly for is wanting to get rid of the -200 and uprade to a 350. They asked my opinion on the subject. There aren't too many 350 operators on the field, so I thought I'd try here. How is it compared to a 200? Since it's a little heavier, are there any major differences in handling? How's the performance compare? Is it any more demanding to fly single pilot than the 200? Where's a good place to get the type? Just a few off the top of my head. Any other advice is welcome! Ya'll take care!
-TX

 

[joelo88]

Hey TX Pilot
I've got about 150 hours in the 350 (I'm not typed)and none in the 200 so take this for what it's worth. The 350 is a very nice handling plane. For one thing, it's very easy to land, just chop the power and glide on in like a 172 (not like that Cheyenne that I see you've flown). It's got loads of power and can be flown full seats/full tanks. Excellent short-field airplane. You can drive it around all day by hand as it's very stable and predictable. The avionics are a little outdated in our aircraft (FL-44) and I'd trade our FMS and MFD for a Garmin 530 any day but the EFIS is very nice to work with. I've heard that the single-pilot type is a bear at FS. I think our guys go to Atlanta and I believe they (FS) have a brand new 350 sim.

 

[satpak77]

never flown the B200 but

I have 1500 hrs in the B350 and I really like it. We fly it 90% of the time as a 2 pilot airplane, it IS busy with TAWS, TCAS, the FMS, ATC yabbering at you, and oh yeah, you are looking outside and flying the airplane. So that co-pilot is really nice.

It is my understanding that most insurance companies want two pilot crew in the 350 anyway.

It "likes" FL 250 to 280 the best, altho it will do FL 350. Plan on about 550 mas/menos lbs total fuel flow at cruise flight, and flight plan for 260 knots. Raytheon brochures and the local Top Gun will claim 280, however, real world, 260 works all the time.

Plan on 4.5 between fuel stops for conservative and safe practice. Yes, yes, we all know it will do more, with the winds in your favor and the stars lined up just right and the power levers set perfect, but 4.5 hours will land you with 400 a side (1 hr+) and keep your blood pressure down.

Vref is 105 at max gross

it will carry 8 pax plus full fuel (3600 pounds) from most strips in most conditions most of the time. Something to be said for that.

I personally have taken them into and out of La Paz, Bolivia, Bogota, Colombia, Toluca, Mexico, and Juliaca, Peru. These are obviously amongst the highest airports in the world.

the ones WITH strakes and wing lockers are a little slower in cruise and a little doggier in climb than the "clean" airplanes

alot of the "new guys" in the 350 coming up from Navajo or 421 type airplanes forget to pull power after takeoff and when ATC gives them a "maintain 3000 for now". Freakin airplane will punch thru 250 knots before you know it.

easy rule for "Class B-D" areas is 40% torque/props 1500 and this will always give you 170 knots, which is good for mixing in with airliners and not completely running over the Mooneys out there

single pilot type is indeed a MOTHER F**CKER but you can do it, get your mind right, its just a big Seneca with EFIS and PT-6s and pressurization (!!)

good solid airplane

good luck

 

[jasonwb]

the 350 is a great airplane. we have a 350 and a 300 and i fly the 300 95% of the time.

we take this airplane (the 300) all over the country. we do the houston to dallas run quite a bit also and we go up to FL220 for the trip and we do it in roughly an hr. it will do 2000fpm all the way to the mid 20's. the climb performance and TAS is by far where the 300 shines.
on our longer trips, which are the bulk of our flying we do southern california,philly,florida,d.c.,chicago,vegas,salt lake,etc.....you get the picture. we take this king air on jet missions, but it does it very efficiently. on these trips we never file below FL310 and we get 305 kts TAS out of it and we do them all non-stop from houston, even in the winter.
we occasionally take her to FL350 on these longer trips because our fuel flow comes down to about 250 lbs/hr per engine from FL330 and up. at FL350 we see TAS drop off to about 290 depending on the temp.
i havent flown the 200 but the rule of thumb i have heard between the 200 and 300/350 is that whatever altitude you fly in a 200, if you go up 2000 more feet in the 300/350 the fuel flows are even and you are 50 kts. faster.

the only downfall you have when going from a 200 to the 300 series are your training costs. they require type ratings because of their weights. 300/14,100 350/15,100 .
we use simuflite @ dfw and we are very pleased with them.
the initial type is 2 weeks and your recurrent training is usually 4 days.

all in all the 300/350 series king airs are wonderful airplanes if you want to stay in the king air family.

hope this helps!

 

[aroundtheblock]

I've been flying the KA-300 for a year now and find it to be what the 200 was supposed to be. I have about 1000 hours in the 200 and 500 in the 300. I think Satpak's numbers are a little conservative. I would flight plan the 200 at 250 knots and the 300 at 300 knots. Fuel consuption in the 300 is approximately the same as the 200 flown 2,000 feet higher... a 300 at FL280 burns close to what a 200 burns at FL260. We go on long trips all the time and it can easily fly for 5 hours with IFR reserves. The 300 is the same body as the 200 with 500 extra horsepower (1050 hp a side). We have 4700lbs of usefull load (BOW is 9400lbs and max ramp wt is 14,100lbs). The type ride isn't that bad either. I'm pushing 11,000 hours (furloughed US Air) but my copilot was a 1400/200 multi and had no trouble with the single pilot type. The single pilot part takes only an extra 30 minutes to do, of course they make you stay 1 more day to do it. We went to Simuflite in DFW. Excellent program and sim. Good luck, if you switch to 1 either the 300 or the 350 you'll love it.

 

[satpak77]

and the 300 at 300 knots

dang boy what kinda wax you waxing that plane with

let me know

 

[aroundtheblock]

We fly it at 800 ITT. I know of someone who flies a 350 and he flight plans it at 290. I tease him all the time about his slow plane.

 

[Kingairrick]

I went from a B200 to a 300 around 1 year ago. If you are flying the 200 single pilot, you will have no trouble with the type rating. Only real difference is having to consider balanced field length and the other transport catagory stuff. It was a pretty easy transition.

It is definately a travellin' airplane. Went from Florida to Ontario and back yesterday. Goin' from florida to Costa Rica and Cayman today. Set power by the tables and TAS is 290 in the Summer and 300 in the winter.

As stated above, what you are getting is the ability to go seats full, tanks full as opposed to the 200. My B200 was a '99 with -42s and TAS was usually around 278. So the speed increase isn't great. Climb is much better though, and yes it is easy to break the 250 below 10K rule.

 

[TX_Pilot]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Insurance co. says they prefer a co-pilot, but with over 2500hrs in the King Air family they are not that stringent. We'll see what they say when we get the quote back. Right now, it's mostly in the "talk" stage anyway. After talking to a few of the guys on the field that fly them, I'm getting the itch pretty badly! Nice airplane, good performance in and out of the "hot and high" places they'll be wanting to take it. That'll be a nice change from the 200. Keep the comments coming! Thanks again!

 

[THE Flying Ace]

I have got about 1000 hours in a 300 and we would always see above 300 kts in the cruise. During the winter we would see 315 - 320 kts. This is around fl250 and setting max cruise power. Coporations don't buy an airplane to pull the power back and go slow.