BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 18:51

Wow - My hangar is full, but this plane looks like a really cool screamer. Does anyone have any experience with them? I would hope with all that displacement and twin turbos it could put down some high TAS at altitude

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 18:52

Username Protected wrote:

Wow - My hangar is full, but this plane looks like a really cool screamer. Does anyone have any experience with them? I would hope with all that displacement and twin turbos it could put down some high TAS at altitude

Sounds like a lot of fun, but likely a problem child.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 19:04

Username Protected wrote:

Wow - My hangar is full, but this plane looks like a really cool screamer. Does anyone have any experience with them? I would hope with all that displacement and twin turbos it could put down some high TAS at altitude

Sounds like a lot of fun, but likely a problem child.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 19:13

Pirep on the normal Comanche’s by Budd Davisson
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepComanche.1.html

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 19:22

Dick Collins says 400hp was “too much of a good thing”, not much more speed with much degraded handling. It’s in the middle of an excellent but long article here:

https://airfactsjournal.com/2014/10/ret ... -fad-ugly/

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 20:14

Popped that balloon pretty quickly. Mental note to self - cool in theory but not in practice.

I have to stop browsing barnstormers on boring conference calls.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 20:18

Username Protected wrote:

Popped that balloon pretty quickly. Mental note to self - cool in theory but not in practice.

I have to stop browsing barnstormers on boring conference calls.

Et tu?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 20:19

Username Protected wrote:

Popped that balloon pretty quickly. Mental note to self - cool in theory but not in practice.

I have to stop browsing barnstormers on boring conference calls.

You should get a Wing Derringer!!!

Or that Twin Turboprop 4 seat General Avia with Sticks (not yokes) in Europe....

Tj

Username Protected · **Posted:** 26 Oct 2020, 20:34

Username Protected wrote:

Sounds like a lot of fun, but likely a problem child.

There’s one guy who knows how to fix them and he died five years ago.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 07:09

Username Protected wrote:

There’s one guy who knows how to fix them and he died five years ago.

Fix the Comanche or fix the IO-720?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 07:41

Username Protected wrote:

Dick Collins says 400hp was “too much of a good thing”, not much more speed with much degraded handling.

Yep. It's like a big block in a C3 vette. It's cool, but doesn't do much for you in any real terms.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 07:42

We had 4 Comanche NA 400’s at our local airport....beautiful flying machines and if one plane did NOT need turbos this was the one!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 08:59

Having flown, bought, and sold airplanes for over five decades, needless to say, I've "looked" at the 400 Commanche several times. When you look at the real numbers between it and a Bonanza or 210, it always seemed to me sort of like:

Getting things done around here is like mating elephants!! It's done at high level Its accomplished by a great deal of screaming and roaring And It Takes Two years to Produce results.

Lots of noise, lots of maintenance, lots of fuel and very little performance advantage.

That being said, I have rarely seen an airplane I didn't want to own. :thumbup:

Jg

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 09:13

But wait! Everyone on BT always says you can never have too much power!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 27 Oct 2020, 09:38

I flew several of them back in the 80’s, working for a guy who specialized in Comanches of all types. I fell in love with them in general, the 180 was a dog, 250 & 260 were very cool but I (as a muscle car guy) loves the 400. Nose heavy, fuel guzzling, non-turbo and plenty of quirks but damn that thing had hustle. Flew oneback from Texas, used enough fuel to get into low earth orbit I’m sure but running flat out near 190 plus knots, burning around 24 gph, with tailwinds I was ripping. Terrible “shotgun” panel and not as comfortable as a Bonanza - didn’t care, was in heaven.

If I won the lottery I’d have one fully restored in the hangar full of quirky cool aircraft, I think I’d park it next to the deep red Beech Staggerwing with the teak panel. It would be a folly.

Regards,

Tom

IO720 400hp twin turbo Comanche