Baronpilot244
Killick Stoker
I fly ours at FL180 and have been to FL200 but it takes a long time to get there and frankly unless you are going to take advantage of good tailwinds it isn't really worth it. I hang out in the 16k - 17k range.
Its noisy and cramped and doesn't give a good ride in the bumps. Watch out for the rear pax sliding their seats all the way aft - this really affects CG and can give you a nasty surprise on takeoff.
The fuel system is a real pain. The limitation on take-off weights over 5990 means you have to fill the tips. So now you have precious little in the aux tanks and the thing gallops through fuel in the climb.
Stage cooling means a lot of forward planning - hopefully speed brakes are fitted to the airplane in question, it really helps when trying to get the thing down in a hurry without pulling power back.
I fly a King Air C90B every day and its soooooo much easier. The 340 is a handful for anyone and the range is just limited.
If they pull the trigger make sure they get a very good prebuy done by someone that knows these aircraft - particularly the landing gear. We've been lucky with ours, only ever had one problem that ended up in a manual extension.
In all honesty its a good owner pilot airplane for a two couples or a family, but as a corporate machine it falls a bit short.
Bp244
Its noisy and cramped and doesn't give a good ride in the bumps. Watch out for the rear pax sliding their seats all the way aft - this really affects CG and can give you a nasty surprise on takeoff.
The fuel system is a real pain. The limitation on take-off weights over 5990 means you have to fill the tips. So now you have precious little in the aux tanks and the thing gallops through fuel in the climb.
Stage cooling means a lot of forward planning - hopefully speed brakes are fitted to the airplane in question, it really helps when trying to get the thing down in a hurry without pulling power back.
I fly a King Air C90B every day and its soooooo much easier. The 340 is a handful for anyone and the range is just limited.
If they pull the trigger make sure they get a very good prebuy done by someone that knows these aircraft - particularly the landing gear. We've been lucky with ours, only ever had one problem that ended up in a manual extension.
In all honesty its a good owner pilot airplane for a two couples or a family, but as a corporate machine it falls a bit short.
Bp244