NORTH EAST AVIONICS
brings new life to the King Air 200
To say that the venerable King Air 200 is the most popular twin engined, pressurised turboprop in the world goes without saying. Performance, operating economics and its very useful carrying capacity have made it irreplaceable in Africa for decades.
In recent years the reliability of the ageing avionics suite in these aircraft and the high cost of maintaining this equipment has been increasingly problematic for both the owners and pilots alike. In addition, this old equipment is unable to comply with any of the new navigational requirements in terms of GPS/LNAV and LPV approaches, which are becoming the norm worldwide.
Over the years the King Air 200 has been graced with various performance enhancing airframe and engine modifications, Black Hawk, Raisbeck and the like. However, the avionics suite remained largely as it was when the aircraft left the factory. Until now.
Recently North East Avionics had the opportunity to give this King Air B200 a new lease on life. The entire avionics suite was brought up to date with a state-of-the-art upgrade which included:
• Dual Garmin G 600Txi 10-inch touch screen Flight Display Systems
• Garmin GTN 750 Comm / IFR Navigator
• Garmin GTN 650 Comm / IFR Navigator
• Garmin GMA 35c Audio system
• Garmin GTX 345 Transponder (ADS-B In and Out capable)
• Garmin GTX 335 Transponder (ADS-B Out capable)
• Garmin GWX 75 Weather Radar
• Garmin GI 275 Standby ADAHRS with backup GPS
• Newly certified Genesys Aerosystems S-Tec 3100 all digital Autopilot.
Functionally this upgrade provides full RNAV / RNP operations allowing GNSS approval. Dual independent ADAHRS / ADC systems for pilot and co-pilot, with the ability to cross select air data from the pilot and co-pilot’s 10-inch touch screen PFD / MFD displays. Independent back up ADAHRS. ADS-B Transponders, with the No 1 system providing both ADS-B In and Out as well as advanced, digital weather radar.
The new S-TEC 3100 Flight Director Autopilot provides full 3-axis operations including auto trim and yaw damper. Altitude pre select with both IAS and VS climb and decent as well as fully coupled GPS / LPV or ILS / GS approaches make serious IFR flight operations much safer. An auto level mode provides a lifeline in case of inadvertent loss of control of the aircraft. The installation involved the removal of all the ageing spinning gyro’s as well as the pneumatic instrumentation, avionics, autopilot and the associated wiring and hardware. An extra benefit of this is the significant weight saving. Approximately 25 kg of wiring was removed and another 45 Kg of equipment and hardware. Complete new avionics wiring looms are fabricated and installed and a new panel was customised, painted and engraved in house to accommodate the new equipment.
North East Avionics have been factory authorised dealers for Garmin Avionics and Genesys Aerosystems for more than 20 years. North East Avionics knowledge and expertise has ensured this aircraft will provide safe and reliable operations well into the future.