Hi Everyone,

Nice to meet you all formally. After lurking on this forum for many years, I finally succumbed to the inevitable and purchased a Bonanza (yesterday, as it were). It's my first plane, and all a bit surreal...! Lots of training ahead...

A big...no HUGE thanks to Neal Schwartz. I read enough over the years to know that I needed to find a knowledgeable advisor to help me through the process and avoid mistakes, and my first choice was Neal. He and I clicked right away (or at least I thought we did!). Neal was a joy to work with, a joy to fly with, and most importantly, I think he found me a great plane. I can't recommend him enough.

Another thanks to the former owner, Bill Keen, who took great care of the plane and has been a gracious ambassador of all things Beech. I hope to continue on the same path.

Finally, thanks to everyone on this forum - it has been great to live vicariously through all of your posts and get a sense of what I might expect from ownership - good...and especially, bad. I expect that I will be posting quite a bit going forward...but I will try to use the search function first.

And now...the obligatory pics (which are old, but accurate):





Hope to meet many of you in person.

Dan

Beautiful bird, welcome to the club.

Wow Daniel, gorgeous plane! Congratulations!
It is a bit surreal isn’t it.
Did you sleep in the hangar?
Where are you going today for your first trip?

Daniel, First Post and I give You your first Like Welcome to this Fine Group!
Your Bonanza?...................... "Beautiful"

Beautiful Bo Daniel! You are going to love that Bird. I just sold mine through Neal, stepping up to a B58. It was a bitter sweet sale....Neal did way too good of a job selling mine too fast!

Where are you based in CT?

Thank you for the kind words Dan and congratulations again! Being on BeechTalk was one of the best decision you could have made as you worked towards Bonanza ownership. the wealth of knowledge and information on here is simple incredible. No more lurking...time to participate!

By the way, you are officially the 4th BeechTalk member to own N479KS. How cool is that? Each member has taken a good plane and made it even better. I look forward to seeing your first upgrade

-Neal

Brett,

It didn't even dawn on me that I should introduce you guys to each other. My apologies! You should connect via PM and then offline or I can introduce you guys via text or email. Dan lives near HPN on the CT side but will be basing at DXR.

-Neal

Hi all,

Thanks for the warm welcome and the kind words!

A few quick responses:

1) Ben - thanks!

2) Luc - I believe my first real "XC" flight (besides the one I did with Neal Schwartz to get the plane to CT from KS) will be up to a BPT weekend in New Hampshire (in two weeks). Really looking forward to that. Until then, I am flying in the area with a BPPP instructor. BTW, I am in a shared hanger at my airport with some really interesting planes (Texan, Stearman, King Air, Baron, M2).....so yes, I did want to sleep in the hangar!

3) Sidney - thanks! Very kind of you.

4) Brett, nice to meet you. If you are nearby, would love to meet up. As Neal said, I live right by KHPN, but there's no hanger space there. So I keep the plane up at KDXR.

5) Neal...thanks again, man. Not sure how much I can improve this plane...but I am sure I will come up with something!

Thanks all,
Dan

Dan, not sure how long you have been following BT, but spending OPM is our specialty!
Tell us your budget. We will quickly triple it for you, and then disagree for about 6 pages.
Great stuff!

Ha - Luc, that is too funny (bc I am sure it is true).

I will partially bite....

Neal was right about one thing (among many) - the engine monitor is small and not the easiest to see without really focusing on it. I am interested in putting in something like a JPM930 where the Garmin Aera currently resides. Nice and big and (I think) I would not need to manipulate it often - just reference it. If I were to do that....

1) Would you keep the analog instruments?
2) If I were to ditch the analog instruments, could I move the radio stack closer to the left seat (or is it part of the "infrastructure" behind the panel) on an '84/later A36?
3) What would you do to the panel?? (Dangerous Q...I know...)

Thanks all!

Ben - I think you have seen this bird before. We were approaching KNEW on my first ever Arrival procedure, you were flying under us after your departure. Kept us up high then slam dunked to a precision approach. First time my wife ever flew an approach in the clouds to see a runway materialize.

Daniel. Sorry the weather caused us to miss each other on Friday. Hope you enjoyed Lunken.

Brings back great memories, including a trip to CT, described here. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=73882&p=852724&hilit=Grandpa#p852724

Sadly heading back to Bristol Friday for a final farewell to Grandpa.

Enjoy 9KS - she was great for us and I know Bill made her better.

PS - those pics look familiar. :;

Dan,
I would go for the 830 JPI, and keep the steam gauges as primary.

I’ll let others chime in for the rest of the panel.

Matt,

Yes, I am bummed the weather kept us from meeting in person - Neal has the nicest things to say about you.

Much more than that, my condolences to you and your family. I just read your thread, which was touching. Thanks for sharing that part of your life with me/us. Truly.

Safe travels.

Dan