Question about King Air cruise speeds

[A Squared]

This came up in a cockpit discussion the other day. None of us had ever actually flown a King Air, so it was all speculation. For you guys out there that actually do/did fly King Airs, what is a typical realistic cruise speed, I mean the speed that you'd use to actually flight plan, not the one in the advertising brochures. For the C90? for the 200? 300? I know that this is sort of a "how big is a rock question" but I'd be interested in feedback from folks who have flown the planes. thanks

 

[flywithruss]

I fly a straight 200 ... we flight plan 265 and it is pretty accurate. True airspeeds in the flight levels are usually between 260-270. Indicated airspeeds range from 160ish around 270 in cruise, increasing to about 200 in the teens. At low altitude in busier areas, we can (and do) run about 210 to the marker, but ordinarily 180 is comfortable. I usually shoot approaches at 130, but can go faster if traffic requires it. Vref is 93-104 dependent on weight.

Hope this helps.

R

 

[falconpileit]

speeds

according to many factors such as 3 blade or 4 blade props.....other mods........but in general the C-90 will flt plan at 220-230 the 200 at 260-270 and the 300 at 290-300 kts.

 

[KingAirer]

I agree with the others numbers. C90B 230kts. b200 270.

 

[Flying Illini]

Flt plan the 200 at 270, fly approaches at 130. In the low 20's you see around 180 indicated.

 

[jergar999]

You might get 230 out of a C90B, but a standard C90 you can flight plan for 210. 230 for a 100 or A100, 250 for an F90, 260 for a 200, 280 for a newer B200. The others I haven't flown, but I have also heard a B100 (with Garretts) you can flight plan at 290 and make it most of the time.

 

[SDdriver]

Vref is 93-104 dependent on weight.

When did the B200 fall into the transport catagory?

B200's still have a blue line from my days of flying them. Approach speed never changed with weight, at least our 200's didn't have any toll cards or weight cards. Just curious as to why you are having ref speeds in a non-transport aircraft?

Not trying to start anything negative, just making an observation.

SD

 

[Kingairrick]

New C90B: 240, New B200: 278 consistently (off the ADC). Old 300 (they all are): 290.

SDdriver:

All my King Air checklists have a VREF page that varies depending on weight. Even the C90B. I have never thought much about it. Is it rare for a part 23 aircraft to have sliding vref speeds?

 

[flywithruss]

SD --

Ma Beech publishes speeds for the 200 and we use them ... V speeds and distances for takeoff, and ref speeds for landing, dependent on weight.

Blue line is indeed on the airspeed indicator ... at 121 KIAS in our case. If I were to treat blue line as a ref speed, I'd want a lot of runway, because the airplane will float forever at that speed. In fact, on shorter runways, I usually cross the threshold at Vref-5 and find this reduces float ... this is attributable in part to my airplane having three-bladed props instead of the four-bladed ones that create more drag at flight-idle.

No need to worry about starting a holy war ... a fair question deserves a fair answer. Fly safe!

R

 

[A Squared]

Hey, thanks for all the replies folks