I have been around BeechTalk for a while now, posting here and there, all while trying to join the ranks of “owners”. After what seems like 4 years of searching and frustration, I am finally a Bonanza owner! I picked up N2016D from Turlock California on February 16th with the help of my good friend and V35B owner, John Roney. This is a story of all the pieces falling into place at the right time and I wanted to share a little of that story...

I knew after my second or third lesson (5 years ago) that I wanted to own a plane of my own. Renting someone else’s plane was immediately frustrating for me, as I have also heard many others say. Showing up to fly only to find out that the plane is having issues, equipment missing in the plane (fuel testers, etc.) and having to go on a scavenger hunt just to pre-flight the plane and just the overall blindness to what is actually being maintained on that rental frankly scared the crap out of me as a renter.
I began looking for something mid-way through my training. Like most other new pilots, 172’s, 177’s, Cherokee’s, etc. were on the top of my list. Amazingly enough my wife was even onboard with the whole ownership idea, I was in! Now, just find the right plane…

Being a good husband and partner is my marriage, I liked to include my wife in almost constant discussion about this exciting new purchase we were making together. She was generally supportive and good natured about the whole thing and basically let me do all of the work, until she discovered a little statistic, useful load! That term changed our whole conversation! We have two kids and she was absolutely against buying any airplane that could not carry our whole family, with light luggage, until the boys were off to college… Yikes! Certainly not in any of the planes mentioned above, so, looks like we start all over.

Enter the Bonanza… Since I was young, the V-tail Bonanza has been one of my favorite planes, but it never really crossed my mind as one I could own. I was scouring all of the normal sources for a 182, Dakota, Cherokee 6, basically any plane that could meet my wife’s requirement. Problem was, I just didn’t like any of these planes. If you are going to do this, might as well do it in style, right? Then, through a mutual friend, I met John Roney, the owner of the V35B. He offered me a ride to Florida (ironically to look as a 177 Cardinal, as I hadn’t fully determined that the 177 wouldn’t fit our mission). Getting that ride to Florida in the Bonanza sealed the deal for me. From that point on, I knew I wanted a Bonanza, I just had to figure out how to get one.
Again, I began looking, and looking, and looking… and then I looked some more. Over the course of 4 years, I think I had found “the one” at least 10 times. So many times that my wife just stopped listening, which is not a good thing as I need her support to make this a success. Each time something would come up and the deal would fall through. Pre-purchase turns up something major, owner sells the plane out from under me (happened 3 times), false information given (NDH, complete logs, etc…) so bank won’t finance, on and on… I was to the point of giving up and just going back to renting.
As luck would have it, I had a business trip coming up to San Francisco. Just before leaving I was browsing Trade-A-Plane (as I did all the time, along with other sites) and saw a new add for a 66 V35 fairly close to SFO, and, it had literally everything I wanted already installed. I was arriving early that morning and didn’t really have anything to do in the afternoon so I called the owner and asked if I could come see the plane. He agreed and I was soon heading to Turlock in my rental car.

Arriving, the plane was in the hangar and on jack stands as it was in the middle of its annual inspection. Although not able to fly it, I spent about 3 hours there with the owner talking about the plane, looking at logs, and all the other things that go with looking at a plane. It was exactly what I wanted. V35 and newer, IO550 (not required but a huge plus) low time on the engine and prop, great panel with an AP that I am used to (I wanted an STEC 60 or C2000, this has the C2000), great interior and decent paint. All in all, I really liked this plane! I went back to my hotel, did some research and put some of the numbers together. I had a price and I put together an offer while I was in San Francisco. I wasn’t holding my breath as I had done this so many times in the past and I still didn’t have an airplane. The owner countered and we agreed on a price and next steps.

This time, it was different. Everything from this point forward went super smooth. Plane checked out with no issues, financing was in place, insurance was all set, plane tickets bought for final inspection and delivery. Looks like I am getting a plane, finally! And that is exactly what I did.

John and I departed KCLT on Sunday morning, 2-16-2014 and made our way to Fresno, CA where Dennis, the seller, picked us up from the airport for the 90 mile drive to Turlock. Once at the airport, we inspected the plane, packed up all the extras that Dennis included with the plane and finally loaded all of our bags for the 2000 nautical mile trip back to North Carolina. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to finally be behind the controls of a plane that I own. It was a pretty sweet feeling for sure!
We departed O15 around 3:00 local time for the short 2:20 flight to KBVU, Boulder City, NV for an overnight stop. Flight was great as our route to the south took us past Bakersfield and around the Sierra Nevada’s. ATC routed us right past Edwards AFB, which was quite a sight. We arrived BVU just before 5:30 and the FBO, BFE LLC, was still open, but just for a minute. The line worker, Dallas, greeted us, tied us down and offered us a ride to our hotel, the Railroad Pass, which was just a couple of miles away. He even stopped so John could get a couple of celebratory cigars. Dallas was a great help and BFE was a nice place. Look them up if you are in Vegas and don’t want to land at the big airports.

The hotel was ok, but what do you expect for $45.00 per night. Food at the restaurant was good and John won some money at the casino, so, can’t really complain.
The next morning was an early start. Up at 05:30 and arrived at the airport at 06:30. After fueling, we departed at 07:00 headed for KJQG, Watonga, OK for a fuel stop. We climbed to 11k and began our long cruise to Oklahoma. We averaged about 180kts for the majority of the leg, getting a little tail wind along the way. Smooth ride the whole way and the scenery was outstanding as the weather was severe clear! Total time for this leg was just over 5 hours.

Watonga was a little sleepy airport in the middle of Oklahoma. After we landed and taxied to the ramp, we were concerned that fuel may not be available. It was lunch time on Monday and there didn’t seem to be anyone at the airport office. Just about the time we were thinking about leaving a truck pulled up to the gate and parked at the airport office. It was a really nice young man who came to greet us. I couldn’t help but think this was straight out of the aviation history books I like to read. Local airport guy was not working at the time, heard a plane coming into the pattern and headed over to the airport to see how he can help out, and that is exactly what happened! It was great! Cheap fuel, great guys (another showed up soon after the first) and, all in all, a nice place to stop if you are crisscrossing the country!

John took over left seat duties for the final leg from Watonga to Concord, NC. There was a chance of weather over eastern Tennessee and I am not IFR rated so John got the chance to fly 2016D from the captain’s seat. Once airborne we picked up our clearance (we filed IFR the whole trip) and were given those magic words, “16D, cleared direct to Barrett’s Mountain, as filed”. BZM is a VOR just north of Charlotte, so, we were cleared direct almost all the way home! Doesn’t really get any better… Or does it?
Shortly after takeoff, we climbed to 11k and noticed that we were doing close to 190kts over the ground. Then, 195, 197, 199 and finally, 200kts! We were thrilled but little did we know, it wasn’t over! Somewhere in western Arkansas the winds picked up and we began accelerating more. As we were in central Tennessee we took a screen shot of John’s WingX display showing us doing 230kts over the ground at 11k feet. We were cooking! But, as excited as we were about the speed, there was a storm system looming in the distance and things were about to get nasty.

Our planned altitude for the entire trip was initially planned to be 15k. But, the O2 system that came with the plane was old, and had not been used in a long time. The cannulas were gross, to put it mildly, and neither of us were comfortable relying on that system to keep us alive. So, 11k was chosen and all was good. Until we hit eastern Tennessee. The tail end of a system was still hanging around. We could see the tops, which looked to be about 14k. Air temp was -2 so icing was a real threat. As we entered the clouds we did not pick up any ice but it was a bit of a wild ride. It was rapidly getting dark and we were still in the nasty stuff at 11k. Precip was getting heavier and we were seeing early signs of light ice so we asked for lower, 9k, as the freezing level seemed to be around 9.5-10k. We descended and the OAT gauge showed 2C for the temp. It was a bucking bronco but after about 35 minutes we came out the other side around Asheville, NC. What a beautiful site it was after getting thrown around for what seemed like forever. The air was smooth, we still had a great tailwind (215kts GS) and a beautiful view of all the lights of Asheville.

The rest of the flight (30 minutes or so) was peaceful, quiet and beautiful. We didn’t talk much after the wild ride, just enjoyed the smooth air and knew we were almost home.

We landed at Concord (KJQF) around 8:00PM EST. We were greeted by my wife and two boys (12 and 13) who were all very excited to meet the new member of the family. It was dark and cold but they all took a quick look and gave me the approval I was hoping for. What an amazing 2 days! N2016D was home!

Congrats. That's awesome. Thanks for the write up. I find myself in the Charlotte area about every month or so. I'd like to meet up with you and talk more about your new machine.

Congrats!!!! Great write up....and super plane. Your story is similar to mine. I purchased mine about 2 yrs ago from Bend Oregon....flew south to Bakersfield and then east for home to Frederick, MD.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=60075

Well done. Many happy trips & memories with family ahead.

steve,
welcome aboard, looks like the bonanza gods were smiling on you.
gary

What a neat story and great write up!
Enjoy your new Bo. mine is a 67 as well.
Congratulations , you own a Beechcraft Bonanza man,a V tail!

Congrats, great story and write up.

Tim

Welcome to our ranks!

"It was a bucking bronco..." Welcome to my world. I often fly over those mountains.

Looks like you changed routing and flew to the Harris VOR...HRS?

Congrats, thanks for posting!

Great write up. I have a similar story picking mine up in Bedford Maine and bringing her back to Southern Cal. Didn't get those kind of winds though.

You are going to love being a Beechcraft owner.

Great story! Thank you for sharing it with us. And welcome to BeechTalk!

-Neal

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I am so far having a great time with the plane. I am finishing my insurance required training this Saturday, then the real fun will begin!

Max, we changed our flight plan a couple of times coming through Tennessee due to weather, hoping to avoid the bad stuff. Atlanta actually gave us a block altitude from 9k to 13k and up to 30 degree deviation to help with the weather. They were great!

I hope to fly 16D around to some of the fly in's this spring, summer and fall so I hope to get to meet some of you in person in the coming months!

Steve

Congrats on the new plane. I'm sure you will enjoy the heck out of it.

Steve,

Congratulations on the Bo. Your story is amazingly similar to mine on the search and also how I envisioned my buy going. I travel a lot and have become a ramp rat at many airports around the country, looking for "the one".

After several near misses & disappointments, I'd accepted that I wouldn't find "the one" and broadened the horizons a bit, added Barons to the Bo mix, even looked at other makes. My wife fell for a friends Baron so the fun began again with looking. Long story short, I closed on a B55 this morning. Looking forward to getting the plane through annual and up in the wit in a week or two.

Hope to see you at Max's fly in.

Ed

Dude... Right on - I'm a few weeks into owning my bird and I love it.