N982GA is a 1976 Beechcraft (now Raytheon) Super King Air 200, serial number BB-149. The factory production fight test is signed off by Ralph Bills, an old Beechcrafter acquaintance of Tom Clements, and the plane was issued its FAA Airworthiness Certificate on 18 May 1976. Stevens Beechcraft of Greer, South Carolina, sold it new to Smith's Transfer Corporation of Staunton, Virginia, Grady Adams, Chief Pilot.

In 1987 the airplane was bought by a German owner and registered in Germany as D-IAHK where it remained until 1998. It was brought back to the United States by Gant Aviation, inspected and re-registered as N982GA. At that time, the full Raisbeck Engineering performance enhancement modification package was installed: Quiet Turbofan four-blade propellers, Ram Air Recovery System, Enhanced Performance Leading Edges, and Dual Aft Body Strakes. Excel Aircraft of Mena, Arkansas, refurbished the airplane with new paint and interior, as designed by Patti Pardi, and it was sold through Ed Pardi of Aviation Sales International to Patrick R. Gallagher. Tree Top Flyers, LLC, was formed to own and operate the airplane.

Pat and his wife, Ashley, are not pilots and hence they use pilots on a contract basis when the airplane flies. Ed and Patti Pardi, Herb Toney, and Pam and Tom Clements have done the bulk of the flying for Tree Top Flyers. One of Pat's lifelong dreams has been to circumnavigate the earth in his own plane…and now that dream is coming true!

To improve the airplane even more and to prepare it better for World Flight 2001, a major cockpit upgrading was accomplished in the late summer and early fall of 2000 by Autopilots Central, Inc., of Tulsa, Oklahoma. As sold by Bob Ferguson and installed by the very capable crew headed by Weldon Levacy, the upgrade saw nearly the entire 1976-vintage King Gold Crown avionics package being removed. Installed were:

• Dual Garmin GNS 530 Com/Nav/ILS/GPS Units
• Dual Garmin GTX 327 Transponders
• Garmin GMA 340 Audio Panel
• BFG Skywatch Traffic Collision Avoidance System
• BFG WX-500 Stormscope
• Shaden ADC 2000 Fuel and Airdata Computer, fully interfaced with the 530s
• Avidyne 850 Multifunction Display capable of displaying radar returns from the retained Bendix RDR-1200 radar unit, along with Traffic, Stormscope, Moving Map…even an audio CD player!
• Sandel SN3308 EFIS HSI on the pilot's side, with the capability of being driven by either Compass System No. 1 or No. 2
• Dual RMIs, with one needle devoted to ADF and the other needle selectable among VOR 1, VOR 2, or GPS
• Dual Bose-X noise-canceling headsets

About the only items retained were the Gold Crown ADF and DME, along with the King KFC-300 Autopilot/Flight Director (AP/FD) system.

A portable HF communications radio package will be installed so that communications can be conducted on the long, over-water legs.

While the avionics work was being done, Autopilots Central also installed the Raisbeck Wing Lockers kit as well as performing complete Phase 1 through 4 inspections.

As with any other project of this magnitude, some problems needed to be sorted out and the airplane had to return to Tulsa for some "tweaks" in the months following completion. However, now that the system has been fine-tuned, it is proving to be an absolutely marvelous boon to situational awareness and operational safety.

Credit should also be given to Rocky Paul and his comrades at Muncie Aviation Corporation (MAC) of Muncie, Indiana, who were able to easily find and solve some vexing autopilot problems we had encountered. MAC really seems to know the KFC-300 system well! Although not a recent design, the KFC-300 flies the King Air smoothly and accurately and has proven quite reliable after MAC's work.

Some performance numbers may be of interest:

• Maximum Ramp Weight: 12,590 pounds
• Basic Empty Weight: 8,200 pounds
• Maximum Fuel Capacity (without extra tanks): 3,645 pounds
• Typical Long Range Cruise Altitudes: 25,000 - 29,000 feet
• Typical Long Range Cruise Speeds: 230 - 260 knots
• Typical Long Range Cruise Fuel Consumption: 460 - 540 pph
• Typical Long Range Cruise duration to dry tanks: 7.0 hours
• Typical Takeoff Distance (to 50 feet, both engines): Less than 4,000 feet
• Typical Balanced Field Length (engine failed): 5,000 feet

All Super King Air 200s (commonly abbreviated BE-200, but listed on the flight plan form as a BE20) are powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) PT6A-41 engines rated at 850 Shaft Horsepower. The "family" of BE-200s include (1) the "straight" 200 (like N982GA) that was manufactured from 1974 - 1981; (2) the B200 that was manufactured from 1982 until the present day. The B200 differs from the straight 200 in that it has PT6A-42 engines, still rated at 850 SHP, but designed to maintain more power at altitude than the -41, and a maximum differential pressure of 6.5 psid instead of the 6.0 psid limit of the 200. Typically, B200s are about 10 knots faster than straight 200s. and (3) the military series of C-12 airplanes, including all their many variants. As a note of interest, the missing "A200" designation was actually Beech's designation for the first C-12 models. Some of these airplanes are now appearing on the civilian registry as the military disposes of them.

The 12,500-pound maximum weight limit of the 200 and B200 was selected so that the extra certification and piloting requirements of "heavy" aircraft could be avoided. Some military versions fly up to weights in excess of 15,000 pounds, with very minor changes. If ever there was an airplane with a lot of margin left over when operating at its certificated maximum weight limit, this is it!