Page 6 - Volume 17 Number 11

The King Air’s large red The explanation is evident on the fixed, and besides it is dinging cold“MASTER Caution” lightflashes on, and I just get the first two letters of the word “ABORT” out when I see that Jim’s right hand is already reducing power. By the time I can say the last of the customary three ABORT’s, the PT6’s are at idle, the props are starting into reverse and we have slowed down to less than 80 knots. It is mid-winter and the runway is icy, so we take it easy on the King Air’s brakes and make exit Charlie off runway 22 at Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The MASTER Caution warning light is still blinking at us as we clear the runway; I punch it off and switch to ground control. Jim and I met just yesterday, but as we both say “what the heck happened there?” it seems as if we have been flying together for years.I call ground control, dig out the expanded checklist and we work our way through the cause of the MASTER Caution light.4 • TWIN & TURBINEannunciator panel, which shows an illuminated autopilot malfunction light. The checklist recommends we recycle the autopilot, which we do, and that seems to resolve the problem. Taxiing back to the departure end of the runway, we grumble that if it happens again, the middle of Wisconsin is probably not the best place to get the autopilotout here, and not somewhere we planned to spend the night when we left the Bahamas earlier in the day.It’s already been a long week for me, as a contract corporate pilot, and I am headed home. We left Seattle eight days ago in a Citation Bravo, with a 100-knot tailwind at FL 430, and flew across the country on a fast, single-leg trip all the way to Columbus, Georgia. Then, over a period of days, we went to Orlando, Teterboro, back to Florida, and finally to the Bahamas. The company wants the Citation to stay in the Bahamas, while the King Air returns to Bellingham, Washington (KBLI) for some much- needed maintenance. Hence, I find myself with another pilot and a different and slower airplane than I was in when outbound earlier in the week.Fellow contract pilot Jim met us in Fort Lauderdale, on our way south toNOVEMBER 2013Fast TripSlowO