Aeroworx Beechcraft B200 Super King Air: Reality vs. Simulation Page 3

By SimHQ on January 31, 2005 in _air3, hide

The throttle quadrant with movable trim, throttles, prop controls, condition levers, and flap selector:

The left side fuel management panel with boost switches, aux-transfer switches, fuel cross-feed, firewall shutoff valves and aux vs. main tank quantity selectors and indicators:

This review isn’t intended to be an exhaustive tutorial on how to fly the King Air B200, so I won’t go through all of the normal operation procedures for flying the aircraft, but I will say that the systems functionality from startup to shutdown are ultra realistic in the Aeroworx B200. Normal start procedures require several switch and lever movements in a relatively rapid sequence so you would be well advised to read the thorough POH to get the most out of this add-on.

The pilot-side (left) sub-panel featuring the starting switches, lights, ice protection, auto-feather and a multitude of other functional (and required!) switches:

Be careful starting the engines! If you hot start them there will be consequences! As a pilot flying turbine equipment on a day-to-day basis I’m very aware that engine temperature has a direct effect on operating costs. Maximum starting ITT is 1000 degrees for 5 seconds and our standard operating procedures limits ITT in normal flight regimes to 750 degrees. A new engine can easily cost over $200,000 each, so give them lots of TLC.

The copilot’s sub-panel contains the environmental controls including pressurization and temperature controls as well as important pneumatic and suction gauges:

The overhead panel contains lighting rheostats, windshield wiper controls, volt/load meters and the A/C volts/frequency gauge:

All appropriate caution lights are modeled on the caution panel. A master caution light flashing on the eyebrow panel should direct your attention to the caution / advisory panel. This panel will alert you to some abnormal items that aren’t necessarily immediate action items, but things that you should know about (such as a generator off-line or props not forward for landing):

My first engine start in the Aeroworx B200 was just like the real thing (I actually started to wonder if I was going to get paid for this flight!). Turning the ignition switch on (after fully completing the pre-start checklists: 36 items!) and hearing the “tick-tick” of the igniters was music to my ears. At 12% N1 I push the condition lever forward and hear the familiar “whoosh” of the engine lighting off as I keep diligently monitoring the engine gauges for normal indications. Usually I’m glancing back and forth between ITT, fuel-flow, oil-pressure and N1.

Normal engine start checklist from the Aeroworx B200 POH: