B-1900 Training

Islanderflyer

Islanderflyer

Well-Known Member
Hi!
I was hired to fly the B-1900 and currently working to get typed. Would appreciate any tips/thoughts/experiences about flying the B-1900, like trimming, flying into icing condition, operations...... ? Thanks.
 
The mighty beech 1900 ... Is equipped for your comfort and safety. Please follow along as we describe the safety features of the beech 1900 aircraft

Most awesome airplane I've ever flown

Trimming - aileron and rudder trim is never touched once it's set. Even though the checklist calls to reset these trim wheels to zero any FO that reaches for these trim wheels gets warned off
Elevator trim definitely need nose down as you accelerate in the climbout. Once you reach cruise trim out the elevator and if you've got set right you can fly hands off for a significant length of time. If you're flying the rare airplane with electric trim its better to use the manual trim wheel as the primary means to trim.
Passengers don't as a rule walk up and down the aisle (they're stuck in their seats due to fear of the airplane) so there should be no need to reset the trim due to load shifting in flight

I use the flight director as a means of monitoring that the FO is doing what he's supposed to be doing when it's the FO's leg. If the FD is centered. We're on course and on altitude. All is ok in the world for a brief moment. If the FD is doing anything else funky it's time to ask the FO if I missed an ATC instruction or airway turn point? I don't use the FD when it's my leg and the FO doesn't have a FD.

Navigation in the lower 48 is to read off bearing to destination airport from your hand held GPS and then request a radar vector heading from ATC telling the controller what heading you want and direct destination when able

Since it's usually just you and no one else between 12-18000ft. Too high for GA and too low for jets. You usually get it.

Then you tune in an on field DME at the destination for descent planning

The plane handles ice pretty well. If you encounter icing usually changing altitude up (if you have enough to power for it) or down 4000ft will get you out of icing

The airline where i worked the turns are 10 minutes at the outstation and 20 minutes at the hub. This is plenty of time to deplane and board 19 pax and their bags. A typical 1900'can takeoff with a mtow of 17120lb consisting of 19pax 28-30bags and 2000lbs of fuel

For fuel after you figure out how much fuel you need for your next leg. Drop the last two Zeros and multiply by 8 to get the gallons per wing to fuel the aircraft to I.e. You need 1000 pounds of fuel. = 80 gallons of fuel into each wing. You tell the fueler you want 80 gallons in each wing by flashing him a sideways 3 with one of your hands as you shut down

Fingers up = 1,2,3,4,5. Fingers sideways = 6,7,8,9

Not FAA approved but commonly done online (i.e. Do at your own risk = ie never do this) to reducing fueling time you transfer fuel from the right wing to the left wing to the 400lb Max fuel imbalance limit before landing. On the ground fuel only 130 gallons (800lbs) in the right wing. (While pax and cargo going on in the left side) Which will then put a 400lb fuel imbalance on the right wing. Once fueling is complete start transferring fuel from the right to the left wing.

If you need to turn immediately from a stop let the aircraft roll forward first before using full rudder the inboard brake and outside engine. If you try to use full rudder before the airplane is moving you won't go anywhere

Also not FAA approved but the 1900 can be single engine taxied if you're only going in a straight line I.e #97 for takeoff at JFK. - 2 hour taxi for a 45 minute flight to providence RI. The critical thing is not to apply any power to move the aircraft to taxi. Just release the brake and let the aircraft roll forward. If you apply any power single engine you're going off roading. You will need to start the second engine to turn the aircraft around the turn on the taxiway. Otherwise if you have a long taxi and you need to conserve fuel you'll be shutting down and restarting all the time to keep from burning through the 150lbs of taxi fuel you got dispatched with.

Anyways. The 1900 is a great aircraft and provides a lot of experience that you don't get these days flying regional jets.
 
Last edited:
woodreau said:
For fuel after you figure out how much fuel you need for your next leg. Drop the last two Zeros and multiply by 8 to get the gallons per wing to fuel the aircraft to I.e. You need 1000 pounds of fuel. = 80 gallons of fuel into each wing. You tell the fueler you want 80 gallons in each wing by flashing him a sideways 3 with one of your hands as you shut down
Click to expand...

Drop the last zero and multiply by 1.5 is how I learned this. 160 gal is a bit more than 1000 lb.
 
Still gotta divide by two to tell the fueler how much fuel to put in each wing as it's not single point refueling. 6 one way, half a dozen the other. To me its just easier and expedient to multiply by 8 than to be technically correct to multiply by 1.5 and divide by 2. You can tell the fueler 75 gallons per wing and I'll tell the fueler 80.

Since the fuel gauges are analog needles and not nice digital numbers on a totalizer or glass screen, if you can see the difference between 150 gallons and 160 gallons on a B1900 fuel gauge, your eyes are way better than mine... all I see is the needle moved up 5 numbers, from 4 I landed with to 9 after he's done fueling 80 gallons into each fuel tank. 5+5 = 10 = 1000lbs, actually I don't care about the 1000, I just care that 9+9 = 18 = 1800lbs and that's it's what my release says I'm supposed to have to dispatch.

Just like those 28 bags in my B1900 rear cargo hold are exactly 30lbs each - definitely not. and that 280lb K-State linebacker getting on in Manhattan, Kansas weigh 190lbs.
 
woodreau said:
Not FAA approved but commonly done online (i.e. Do at your own risk = ie never do this) to reducing fueling time you transfer fuel from the right wing to the left wing to the 400lb Max fuel imbalance limit before landing. On the ground fuel only 130 gallons (800lbs) in the right wing. (While pax and cargo going on in the left side) Which will then put a 400lb fuel imbalance on the right wing. Once fueling is complete start transferring fuel from the right to the left wing.

If you need to turn immediately from a stop let the aircraft roll forward first before using full rudder the inboard brake and outside engine. If you try to use full rudder before the airplane is moving you won't go anywhere

Also not FAA approved but the 1900 can be single engine taxied if you're only going in a straight line I.e #97 for takeoff at JFK. - 2 hour taxi for a 45 minute flight to providence RI. The critical thing is not to apply any power to move the aircraft to taxi. Just release the brake and let the aircraft roll forward. If you apply any power single engine you're going off roading. You will need to start the second engine to turn the aircraft around the turn on the taxiway. Otherwise if you have a long taxi and you need to conserve fuel you'll be shutting down and restarting all the time to keep from burning through the 150lbs of taxi fuel you got dispatched with.
Click to expand...
The FAA didn't approve a 0 engine taxi being pulled by a tug. The FAA didn't approve a single engine taxi on a single engine airplane. The FAA didn't approve a single engine taxi on a two engine airplane. They didn't approve a 2 engine taxi on a 4 engine airplane. Does the FAA need to approve of you not using full power to takeoff? How about full power?
Better get the FAA's approval to even start an engine in the first place.
 
Y'all are making it way too complicated. The indicator is marked in 200# increments, right? If the left one is indicating 600# and you need 1000# in it, that's 60 gal. Every 200# mark is 30 gal, and interpolate in between.

No dropping zeros, multiplying or counting on your toes required.
 
deadstick said:
Y'all are making it way too complicated. The indicator is marked in 200# increments, right? If the left one is indicating 600# and you need 1000# in it, that's 60 gal. Every 200# mark is 30 gal, and interpolate in between.

No dropping zeros, multiplying or counting on your toes required.
Click to expand...
Or ya know.... Jet A weighs close enough to 6.8lbs/gal. So you get the phone out of your pocket and use it.

The rest of that book on who knows what because tl;dr is making one of the easiest twins to fly ever built into something that requires far too much thinking. Point it where you want to go, point the nose down when you want to go down. You can make the first taxi way from 15,000ft abeam the numbers on downwind. There's no real planning required.
 
Not allowed to use PEDs. ;)

Besides, those indicators are one of the weakest systems on the aircraft. Trying to use them for precise, accurate fuel quantity levels is futile.
 
z987k said:
The FAA didn't approve a 0 engine taxi being pulled by a tug. The FAA didn't approve a single engine taxi on a single engine airplane. The FAA didn't approve a single engine taxi on a two engine airplane. They didn't approve a 2 engine taxi on a 4 engine airplane. Does the FAA need to approve of you not using full power to takeoff? How about full power?
Better get the FAA's approval to even start an engine in the first place.
Click to expand...

I guess the point I was trying to make with those non FAA approved items is, once the OP gets out on line, you'll see captains do all sorts of shortcuts and stuff that is not taught in ground school - they get away with it and everything turns out ok. So you pick up those tips and shortcuts, no harm no foul, you find yourself pushing the envelope to keep seeing what you can get away with. but I've seen so many guys get burnt doing shortcuts and nonstandard stuff, like engine start during pushback (lost all 4 prop blades when the prop struck the towbar, one resultant flying blade embedded itself into the tug driver's cage and would have decapitated the tug driver), backing the plane with beta (put the plane on the tail) , 245kts to 1/2 mile left base, that got them all burnt and violated by the FAA.

Granted I did those things as a low time 1500hr captain paired with a 200hr FO who was watching and seeing what I was doing and getting away with. I eventually got to the point I found myself taxiing around at 35-40kts single engine on the 1900 trying to race Southwest to the runway, starting the second engine on the straightaway... before I stepped back and said what in the world am I doing and how did I get so non-standard? and resolved to clean up my act. I was extremely lucky I survived without hurting anything, killing anyone and getting violated by the FAA.

The 1900 is a great airplane, and the nature of its independent ops - not requiring any ramp crew or jetbridge or any other logistical support that other planes require leads crews to just get the job done on their own. Now that I look back on it 10 years and thousands of hours later, I shake my head at the stupid crap I did when I was flying the 1900 and wished I was wiser back then.
 
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