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N30FE is the factory-original King Air 300. We fly it about 120 hours per year for owners who use the air- plane for business, family trips and travel to their vacation home. Most trips are under two hours in length, and it performs for us with an over 99 percent mission readiness rate. Our payload is “normal” – usually five to seven persons on board, each bring- ing a couple bags. I can’t remember the last time I worried about weight and balance. It is a true “load up the people and bags and have the line guy top it off” sort of airplane. And there is plenty of excess payload to tanker additional fuel if we plan to land at an airport with egregious fuel prices.
Our climb rate at an average weight and density altitude is 2,000 fpm af- ter lifting off the runway, whittling down to about 1,000 fpm as it levels off at FL280. N30FE is not an RVSM airplane, and we don’t yet see the need to go into RVSM airspace for our mission needs. As most trips are less than two hours, the cost/value ratio translates to us not needing the flight levels starting with a “3.”
We routinely flight plan for 290 KTAS. I keep accurate, leg-specific cruise data in all of our managed air- craft, and 290 KTAS is the average of all flights in the last five years. We’ve seen a few flights where we reached 305 KTAS but only when the tem- perature and altitude were optimal. We could push the power more, but we decided a long time ago to cruise at a lower power setting to minimize unscheduled maintenance from an engine run too hard. The power is set at a slightly low 775 degrees ITT regardless of the altitude selected. This provides an average fuel flow of 335 pounds per hour for each engine. So, a stock King Air 300 is no slouch and will flat-out perform.
N777XP (the Blackhawk version) is like N30FE in terms of bolt-on items. It has a Garmin panel (Dual 750s) and no wing lockers, but it does not have cabin noise canceling. The owners of N777XP have a few shorter flights, but their primary missions are lon- ger, usually more than three hours of flight time. This is where the extra horses really help.
We flight plan for 330 KTAS in N777XP and are never disappointed. In fact, our first 250 hours of flight time in this airplane (with meticulous recordkeeping) shows an average TAS of 333 KTAS at FL280. It burns 404 pounds per hour on average each side to produce that performance, which is not top-end. Again, we could push the power lever forward more, but we choose a lesser setting to keep main- tenance costs lower. And the cruise
performance is only the beginning. The best part about the extra horses is the climb.
With full-fuel, six passengers plus bags, and standard air density, we rou- tinely see climbs greater than 3,500 fpm at 160 KIAS. We usually climb at 170+ IAS to keep the pitch angle from going over 10 degrees, which passengers think is more comfortable. So, a climb to the flight levels is super quick, even jet-like. We rotate off the
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June 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 15