Page 15 - May21T

them in action, I was blown away. On the takeoff roll, the pilot simply configures the system with the touch of a few buttons and then pushes the go-around button. With the throttle frictions OFF (yes, that a bit weird for a King Air pilot to do on takeoff!) and the go-around button pushed, the power levers advance smoothly to a power setting that is determined by the internal parameters within the system.
There are no computations required by the pilot. The pilot simply pushes the go-around button, releases the brakes, steers the airplane with the pedals, places appropriate aile- ron into any existing wind, and rotates at Vr. Gone are the days of shifting focus from inside to outside while trying to apply enough torque to take off while not over-torquing the engines. The power lever advancement is smooth and incredibly precise.
(Before I go any further, a pet peeve of mine is for turbine pilots to call the power levers “throttles.” Throttles are on piston airplanes and turbine airplanes have power levers. So, the King Air 360 really has “Auto Power Levers,” not “Autothrottles.” But, autothrottle seems to roll off the tongue more easily, and I think the term is here to stay, even in turbines. Now, I feel better...thanks for the nice diversion!)
While the autothrottles make the takeoff easier on the pilot, the real advantage is while in flight. If an engine were to fail, the autothrottle feature would apply the correct amount of power for that particular situation. And, if the airplane were to slow near Vmc, threatening a Vmc roll, the autothrottles would decrease the power on the good engine to ensure that the deadly Vmc roll over does not occur. To me, this is a huge safety improvement.
Additionally, once in flight, the autothrottles are inte- grated into the autopilot system, allowing for incredibly precise aviating. For example, the pilot can select an air- speed, and the autothrottles will adjust the power levers to the exact power setting needed for that regime of flight. I flew an ILS approach to minimums and the autothrottles managed the power levers to keep the speed exactly where I wanted it. It was a truly “hands-off approach” all the way to decision height.
The autothrottle system in the 360 was smooth, integrated, and a fabulous improvement over the King Air 350. This one feature improvement was enough to have me hooked, but there’s more.
I was particularly impressed with the multi-scan radar. Basically, the multi-scan radar takes all of the pilot adjust- ment of the radar out of the pilot’s hands. It is simply turned on and the system will adjust the tilt, gain, distance, and a whole host of other parameters to give the pilot visibility of convection ahead. I love this feature because I see lots of confusion in the owner-flown and single-pilot world concerning the use of the radar. Simply put, most pilots (my assessment) don’t know how to properly set up and use the radar to ensure an accurate real-time view of the weather. If you are to “go tactical” around thunderstorms (use onboard radar to navigate around storms), you need a good radar system and also know how to use it. The use of radar is more an art than a science, and the skill required
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May 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 13