King Air Smooth Ground Handling

[tazz 16]

I really enjoy this twin. But I have the hardest time taxing, seems like I'm always riding the brakes or hitting the reversers. I either speed up to fast or come to a halt. I'm just looking for a smooth taxi to the runway.   

 

I also find it hard dealing with throttle response lag. Is this really how a turbo prop operates? Or are my control settings off.  

 

I'm sure there's some good King Air pilots out there that can share some advice.  

[KenG 492]

That is correct for taxing in high idle. You need to either taxi using Beta or you will ride the breaks. The mechanics don't like having to change the breaks so in the real airplane we normally taxi using Beta. For the sim, since no one has done a good job with modeling the propeller behavior in Beta/Ground Fine, I recommend using Low Idle.

 

The power is atypical for a free turbine engine in that there is some turbine lag, but based on being such a small engine it is nearly undetectable. It is most detectable on touch and gos and has more to do with the propellers stabilizing on the primary governor then turbine lag. When your N1 range is 70% to 101.5% there is not much room for turbine lag...