Page 27 - May 2019

Airfleet Captial, Inc.
at the girlfriend’s place. Fortunately, he did have a TSA crew ID card from the Maui airport hanging around his neck. He climbed into the airplane, poked his head in the cabin and said, “Everybody going to Kalaupapa?” After we all nod in the affirmative he said, “Good, let’s see if this airplane will start, and we’ll get out of here.”
He flips switches, yells “clear” and gets the turbine section of the PT6 starting to whine as he gives us the FAR Part 135 required seat belt briefing. I have flown PT6 engines often, and from my back seat, I start watching the RPM gauge, which is expressed in percentage terms. In order to avoid a hot start in a PT6, you first need to make sure there is at least 24 volts available from the battery, then before pushing up the fuel lever, let the starter turn the hot section until a good 12 percent is showing on the RPM gauge. (I actually like it turning faster than that because it provides a lot more cooling air across the turbine blades when the fire lights up). But our shorts-wearing, tattooed pilot doesn’t seem to share my engine philosophy, because I see the red fuel control knob go forward the second the RPM gauge passes 10 percent. In spite of this, however, the engine lights off without too much of an over temp, at which time our brave pilot immediately releases the brakes. As the airplane starts rolling, my wife gives me a concerned look, and I try to look back in a confi- dent and reassuring manner just as my right hand wanders about looking for an imaginary control wheel in front of me.
As we taxi into a quartering tailwind from the aircraft’s left side, my old f light instructor habits start to kick in and I check to make sure that our brave pilot is holding the controls in the correct posi- tion. Sure enough, it appears he knows what he is doing because the elevator is down, flaps at the initial setting, and the ailerons positioned with the left one down, and the wheel forward, fully to the left and firmly held. Nevertheless, I try to help him out by holding the imaginary wheel in front of me, left wing all the way down. There is not much to check on a PT6 before takeoff, and the pilot gets it all done with his free hand as we are rolling along the taxiway.
Arriving at the end of the runway, we stop on the number with a 25- to 30-knot crosswind coming from the right side
causing the airplane rocking slightly. It continues to jostle in the wind as the engine is brought up to full power and kept that way for a longer time than I deem necessary. I think maybe he is just making sure it won’t quit. Finally, the brakes are released and the Caravan surges forward. I note the wheel being held in the correct position for the gusty crosswind from our right, with the left aileron down, right up, and elevator held nose down until we reach about 90 knots at which time the wheel quickly comes aft and the airplane jumps into the tur- bulent air. Looking back, I can see we are drifting off the departure centerline to the left, but it doesn’t matter as that is the direction we are headed anyway, and there are no other aircraft in the pattern.
We level off about 1,500 feet above sea level and cross over the steep cliffs on the north side of the island. We get about a mile offshore and bounce along at about 100 knots – almost level with some of the island’s cliffs to our right. The ocean below us is at least a Beaufort 8 as there are white caps and breaking waves as far out into the Pacific that I can see. The distance from MKK to the small runway at Kalaupapa is only about 15 miles, and we soon start descending with the bumps getting worse. My wife sitting to my right, and securely fastened in with a very tight seat belt, gives me another one of those “Are we OK?” looks with her eyes, to which I smile and nod in my most reassuring manner.
After a few minutes, I can see the run- way sticking out on the peninsula that makes up Kalaupapa and off to its right an old lighthouse. At the distant end of the runway, there are breaking waves well above the 14-foot ASL threshold, with the wind driving those waves doing a good 35 knots from about 320, making it a direct crosswind landing. On final, I can see our brave pilot is holding what appears to be a good 30-degree wind cor- rection angle, and I give some thought to whether landing here is a good idea at all. My right foot starts to look for a rudder pedal.
The pilot crosses the approach thresh- old with the wind correction angle still in play, speed about 100 knots with some power, then just before touchdown, low- ers the left wing and kicks in enough right rudder to plunk us down with a screech of scraping rubber – almost dead
May 2019 / TWIN & TURBINE • 25