King Air Taxi (Real life experience)

[CraigC 0]

There have been several threads dedicated to the issue of the default King Air taxiing too fast. Even new airfiles created and other fixes to reduce the taxi speed of the King Air. Well, earlier this week I had the pleasure of flying right seat in a King Air E90, and was given command of the aircraft to taxi (as well as take off, climb to FL210 and land, but thats a different story altogether!) on the dead leg of a charter flight.It wasnt long before the aircraft was speeding away on me down the taxiway, and one of the first things to pop in my mind after keeping the aircraft on the yellow line was the MSFS King Air. The charter pilot/MEI told me that it is often necessary to go into beta mode (a thrust setting that is just behind the idle stops, or a very light reverse thrust) to keep the aircraft from going too fast. I never knew that it was necessary to technically enter a reverse thrust to keep the aircraft under control, and Ill bet that the 350 is twice as bad as the E90 I was in that day.I thought that I would post this information for some of the virtual pilots that are always seeking the most realistic flight possible. It isnt so surprising and discouraging to me now when the MSFS King Air starts to speed away on me when taxiing. Hope this has helped enlighten at least someoe out there.Craig

[Guest]

Duplicate post, sorry

[Guest]

Many yeas ago with my first job I flew both the 90 and the 200 model. Both will begin rolling at idle power once the parking brake is released. The only exception was the 200 at close to max gross. Next time you get the chance to see a King Air taxi in or out for that matter listen to the sounds the prop is making. You

[Guest tinman]

Not sure if the E90 has 3 or 4 bladed props, but King Airs with 4-bladers are a LOT more fun to taxi. The engines idle higher with 4 blade props (60%N1 compared to 52-54% for 3 blade props), and they like to move along the ground a lot faster at idle. We used to have 4 bladed props on one of our KA200s, and the difference in flight performance, as well as taxiing was amazing. One of our 200s has almost every modification known to man installed on it (spar strap, wing lockers, high flotation gear, etc.) and the added weight prevents the fast taxi problem. You actually have to feed it a little power to get it moving, but once it is rolling, it taxies like the others.

[CraigC 0]

Hi JP, Yep, I got the lecture about the brakes when I first applied them. Since we didnt have any passengers (it was a freight charter), the lecture was about the brakes. No doubt for me, the hardest thing was getting it out to the active. Its definitely larger than anything Im used to taxiing, so staying on the centerline is really important.Craig

[Guest]

HI Craig,Interesting post, and it confirms what we (that is Beach Comer and myself) knew all along. Sephen Comer is an ex-military KingAir pilot and when we developed (Seve flight tested it) the Fly King Air we took great pains to make it slightly accelerate at idle, and just as you describe, we set it so that "slightly" going in to Beta checked the taxi acceleration.The FS version of the KingAir sort of gets this right but maybe it runs away too much on idle rpm.Not all users of the Fly KingAir, or the FS KingAir, are convinced that an aircraft should accelerate on idle thrust, but you have confirmed this. Thanks!Kind Regards,Rob Young - RealAir Simulations