The King (Air) and I

I took my first flying lesson in 1962–63 years ago, and I soloed on my 16th birthday-May 1, 1963. We lived 9 miles from the Albert Lea Airport, and though I had a student pilot's license, I wasn't old enough to obtain a driver's license. I knew that I wanted an aviation career, and my uncle (a private pilot Cessna owner) and I considered buying a Champ to build time. My dad didn't fly, but he was proud that I had learned, so he sometimes drove me to the airport. One day, we overheard a young local farmer telling another pilot "I'm going to have to sell my Cessna 120. I'm getting married, and she wants furniture, not an airplane." My dad asked "which airplane is he talking about, can you show me?" We went out to the hangar, and he inspected the highly polished airplane. He asked "Is this a good trainer?" I replied that I had never flown a tailwheel airplane, but "it must be a good trainer, it had served as a trainer for years, before being replaced with a new Cessna 150. He asked "Do you suppose that I could learn to fly in that?" I allowed as how he could, though both Dad and I were over 6 feet tall, it would be cramped. He asked if I could arrange a demo flight in the airplane and the following day, I saw it flying through the huge glass windows of our old high school. Two days later, he asked "Do you have $900?" I had been working weekends, laying drainage tile in the local wetland, so I replied that I did. He replied "Then you own half of the Cessna 120." I asked who owned the other half, and he replied "I do," the first time he had indicated an interest in learning to fly. "Don't tell Ma," he admonished, "I have to buy her that new clothes dryer she wants." We went on to learn to fly the taildragger together, and I passed my private license flight test several months later, at age 17.

The Cessna 120 had worked out well, we both passed our private licenses several months later, and I was building time quickly towards my new goal, Commercial Pilot. We both enjoyed flying, but due to the cramped quarters for the two of us in the 120, we bought a Cessna 182, and had to sell the 120. (Spoiler alert-I bought the airplane back several years later-and still own it!) I added a commercial rating at age 18, and a flight instructor rating a few months later, the day before I had to report for induction into the Army, Nov. 21, 1968. When the Army found out that I had a flight instructor rating, I was assigned as the flight instructor at the Army flying club at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. I built hours fast, as the Army had allowed military aviators to qualify for their flight pay in Army flying clubs, as their aircraft had been shipped to Vietnam. I added additional instructor ratings quickly. When I was discharged, I took a series of flight instructor jobs, and added an Airline Transport Rating.

While instructing at Flying Dutchman at Austin, Minnesota, I had the opportunity to serve as a copilot on the King Air 90 owned by Hormel, an introduction to corporate flying. I loved flying the King Air-fast, high altitude, turbine engine reliability, good short field performance, and good training in flying weather right down to instrument minimums. It also taught crew coordination. I was also able to utilize the hours of experience to fly as Pilot in Command for Winnebago Industries on their King Air. When Wenger Corp. in Owatonna bought a King Air, the Hormel pilots recommended me to them to crew it and I ended up not only flying the King Air, but building the FBO there. Other companies in town wanted access to the King Air, and we bought and sold two more B-90s. We built an FBO, with large hangars, and added an air taxi certificate. We found the King Airs to be good-performing passenger-pleasers. We also transported patients from Mayo to and from the clinic. When I bought the FBO in Albert Lea, we didn't have a large hangar, so we built one that would house King Air and larger airplanes. I sold a King Air 200 to one of the owners of our smaller 90-series airplanes and we operated it for them until the company was bought out, selling it to one of the remaining 90-series King Air operators. We sold our charter business, and sold the King Air 200 to several local companies that also wanted air transportation. One of the companies made the observation "We can sell our products to any potential customer we can get in our plant, but it is hard to get them to visit here in the Midwest. When potential customers do visit, they see neat and clean plants, Midwest work ethic and companies that need the visiting potential customers. We pick them up at an airport close to their homes and our sales staff has uninterrupted time with them en-route to our plant, by the time we get to our plant, we know all about their business, their interests, and even their families, real 'one on one time.' We show them our plant, product, and people then get them back home the same day. They really enjoy flying in a corporate jet-prop!"

One of the companies using the airplane wanted it for exclusive use, they were expanding their sales area, and needed exclusive use, so they bought the airplane. The plan worked as expected and we flew to destinations within a 1000 mile radius, garnering new customers, and opening distribution centers. Meanwhile, the aircraft actually gained value, it was now worth more than they paid for it and when an aircraft broker from Texas made them an offer on the airplane, they scheduled a pre-buy. I flew the airplane to Flying Cloud, and the pre-buy was completed in one day, the aircraft broker was especially impressed with the fact that it had always been a Midwest-based airplane with good logbooks. The broker acknowledged the offer and transferred the money. We flew the aircraft back to Albert Lea, and the broker would leave the next morning. It was only after our return to Albert Lea that it hit me-AFTER FLYING KING AIRS FOR 55 YEARS, I NO LONGER HAD ONE TO FLY!

The next morning, I went through the "button ology" of the avionics systems with the broker/pilot for his flight to Texas, there was a large area of thunderstorms along his path, he elected to divert along the front side of the weather, and then approach his destination from the south. My wife had the foresight to take photos of the preparation for the flight, as I removed personal items. I didn't think much of it at the time, but in reviewing the photos, it really is "the end of an era" for me. After flying King Airs for 55 years and nearly 15,000 hours, it certainly had become an integral part of my life and I had learned to appreciate the reliability, comfort, handling, and capabilities of the model. There are airplanes that "take care of the pilot" and airplanes that "the pilot has to compensate for the shortcomings of the airplane." King Airs have certainly taken care of pilots for all of these years. THANK YOU-Beechcraft-for such a well-engineered product!