Hello Fellow Beech Aviators!

I’m a new owner of a 1961 B55 Baron. I finally had the AC delivered (it is in annual) and as I’m sure as many of you have felt before, the excitement has given way to the next stage of aircraft owners grief, the “what have I gotten myself into; overwhelmed” feeling! I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can from the expert and experienced posters on this forum and hopefully I can pay it forward in the future as I gain experience with a Beechcraft.

Once again, it’s nice to meet you all and thanks in advance for the help and support I know I will receive!

Sincerely,

Michael
14,000hr+ ATP (which means absolutely nothing when learning a 1961 B55!!!)

Welcome Michael!

Robert T

Welcome, Michael!

The B55 is a real sweet spot in the line for economy, capability, and performance. They built a lot of them (that helps for getting parts) and the changes in later models didn't always involve the guts or the wear and tear parts (which also helps for getting parts).

If this is your first old airplane then don't beat yourself up too badly as you discover more things to fix in the coming months. Actually, don't beat yourself up at all- pat yourself on the back for having an eye for detail, then fix stuff and move on.

Fun fact- some various Rustoleum white paints (gloss, appliance epoxy, enamel pro, to name a few) just happen to be very good color matches for the factory "Matterhorn white" paint.

I gotta give a shoutout to BeechTalker Mike Caban for his "CSOB" website. He's got all kinds of good gouge and ownership lessons for the care and feeding of his B55.

When you're flying the airplane and dealing with the order of the levers on the throttle quadrant, first look at the instrument you wish to change and then put your hand on the levers below that (i.e. manifold pressure gauge → throttles, dual tach → prop levers). Old Beeches have the levers in the correct order- with the throttles in the very middle and equal distance from both pilot seats. It was those heretics at Piper and Cessna who screwed things up for all of general aviation, sometime back in the 1950s or 60s. edit: Oh my, I see a previous owner placed some instruments a bit differently in your center panel. Out of the factory, the airplanes had large tach, manifold pressure, and CHT gauges right above the throttle quadrant.

Almost forgot (no, I didn't really forget)... how about some pictures!

Hey Jim,

I’ll try uploading a few pics and I also have a list of “stupid questions that I hope won’t be considered stupid since I asked!” that I’ll start posting to the twin forum.

Now to try those pics...!

Ok now that I see the uploading worked, I’ll get some more ASAP. My wife took a bunch yesterday after the delivery.

One more thing, I’m sure they’ll be some folks on this forum that recognize the plane. It lived the vast majority of it’s life in the Pennsylvania area. The limited history I know of was that it was owned by a business and the pilot who flew it for said business then bought it for personal use and flew it up until he passed.

Michael

Welcome!

I have a '78 B-55 w/550's. The B-55 is the sweetest of them all. If you throw something up and it comes down it is too heavy to put in an airplane, and the B-55 is light! Light in weight, light on the controls, it truly is the sports car of the skies. If you appreciate elegant flying qualities, as I do, then you have the right airplane.

I surmise by your post that you might be a surplus airline or military type and if that is the case and you are returning to light twins after a career of burning kerosene, your willingness to learn demonstrates good judgment.

OEI operations in light twins require an entirely different mentality than Transport category jets. The old "when an engine quits, wind your watch" mantra will not work. They also require an acknowledgment that there are short periods of time at certain weights and DA that if an engine quits, the only choice is to land on something soft that is ahead of the wings and into the wind.

Martin Pauly, a BT youtuber, did some multi training with me, and has made some videos that I shamelessly plug. I think they are worthy of a a small investment of your time as you return to light twin flying.

Congrats and Tailwinds!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/L_KGu2CFUU4[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/VcEg39NmxY4[/youtube]

Ground School includes minimally edited content from both the previous videos.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/oD3YPdOH5Xo[/youtube]

Welcome to BT

Great choice in a light twin Michael but like many B55 owners, I'm biased.

Lots of info, watch outs and troubleshooting to be gained by participating in these forums.

Mike

That is a very cool 55. Did anyone else blow up the photo of the panel and check out the avionics suite? Looks like vintage ARC transport quality stuff plus a Narco UDI-2AR DME which I haven’t seen in a plane in decades. All Gables controls are in a custom panel, flush mounted. An absolute fortune in radios for the early 1960’s!!

I will bet there are nearly 200 pounds of black boxes and wiring with that installation. Would not surprise me if it all still worked too. That stuff was near bullet proof. My dad swore the ARC Type 21 ADF was the very best he ever flew behind.

Congrats on your new Baron!

I liked the Bendix ADF. The AM radio music quality had that super smooth tone of an old prewar cabinet radio...

Sven,

From what I’ve gathered so far from the logs, the plane was delivered pretty much standard from Wichita to I believe a dealer in Philly, then the radio install began and I kid you not, I have every sheet of paper documenting the process and it’s an unbelievable time capsule to unpackage! I’ll try to get some of the more interesting paperwork/wiring diagrams posted but in the mean time....

Here’s a sample.

Welcome
Perty neat.
MC

Doug, I had to laugh because dad installed a T-12C in the Staggerwing and never liked it. He thought the needle was jittery and just wouldn’t lock on to an NDB the way an ARC Type 21 would which was the ADF he flew behind in the army. When he bought the Baron in ‘74 he went with Collins Pro-Line including an ADF-60. Wasn’t happy with that either, always comparing to the Type 21. His complaints at Beech West didn’t go unnoticed so they had a Collins engineer come out and fly with him. They headed from Van Nuys up to Bakersfield when the conclusion was the ADF-60 was getting some kind of ignition interference. So high above KBFL dad shut down one engine to check the theory. When that didn’t pass muster, that engine was fired up and the opposite engine shut down. Still no joy so he turned the Baron into a glider for a bit with both mills shut down. I doubt that poor guy from Collins ever flew again trying to satisfy a customer. As I recall, Collins provided him with a modified different ADF-60 that finally passed the Type 21 comparison test. True story!

Good morning everyone!

So finally flew the new to me airplane yesterday and it was indescribable FUN for someone like me who hasn’t flown a piston twin in years. The first and last time I flew a B55 (well flew in one) was 1998 according to my logbook! We got it back to the hanger where she’ll be put on a diet. I wanted to post some of the pics I took last night after she was put away. Amazingly, all of the lighting still works! The radios still work but we found out that they cannot tune to the split frequencies, eg; 122.225, 122.27...

Way more to come, but here’s the pics!

Michael