Emmerson Daily’s Beechcraft King Air F90 helped carry him through a highly successful career supporting material-handling operations in the southern U.S. As he begins to fully enjoy the fruits of that success, Daily has turned to Blackhawk Modifications to sustain his pleasures aloft.
The executive, who over 28 years built Jackson-Miss.-headquartered Daily Equipment Company into one of the U.S.’ largest and most well-known dealers of lift trucks, recently purchased Blackhawk’s XP135A upgrade. That upgrade will increase his King Air F90’s true airspeed and maximum range, decrease time to climb and reduce operating and maintenance costs. The decision to upgrade also spares Daily the cost and uncertainty of a pending hot-section inspection on his old engines.
“Aviation is my passion,” Daily said. “The added performance of the XP135A upgrade will allow me to enjoy that passion more, while increasing the efficiency and value of my aircraft. I look forward to putting the Blackhawk upgrade through its paces.”
Since Daily acquired the King Air F90 nine years ago, it has aided him in visiting and managing Daily Equipment’s six Mississippi and Louisiana locations, flying to those sites twice a week or more from its base at Jackson’s Hawkins Field. Having sold his company in 2012, Daily now expects to fly the King Air every week or two for personal transportation and for his other business activities, including his directorships on boards of a defense contractor, a bank and an insurance firm.
The Blackhawk XP135A replaces the King Air F90’s PT6A-135s with factory-new versions of that engine that carry new warranties from Pratt & Whitney Canada. No airframe modifications are required for upgrade, which is exclusively endorsed by Beechcraft and certified by the FAA, the European Aviation Safety Agency and Brazil’s ANAC. In addition to the improvements in costs, true airspeed, range and time to climb, the upgrade increases the F90’s single-engine service ceiling and resale value.
In addition to the new engines, the upgrade includes STC paperwork, a flight manual supplement, instructions for continued airworthiness, a P&WC engine logbook, a Blackhawk logbook case, a cycle book and aircraft decals, and a prepaid enrollment in CAMP Systems’ aircraft maintenance tracking program and The Trend Group Turbine Trend Analysis program. Customers also have an option to include new Blackhawk Hawkeye DigiLog gauges.