To the many here who I know well from the Beech Owners’ List: Hello again.

I learned to fly when I was in the USMC. A Sergeant (a draft dodger, I joined the Corps to avoid the draft) radar repairman, bored at MCAF New River, I took a ten-dollar FAM ride at a grass strip where the WalMart now stands in Jacksonville. Most expensive ten dollars I ever spent. Learned to fly there, and bought a plane as a student pilot there.

First plane was a Cessna 175 and I added the Doyn 180HP Lycoming and constant speed prop. It would jump off the pasture near my farm entrance driveway. A few years later, I found a repossessed 36 Bonanza (E-175) with 137 hours on it, and flew it 28 or so years, all over the CONUS and Caribbean. Concurrently, I had half of a retractable Arrow for a while (a joint venture of two wives learning to fly) and a Pitts S1, which was very selfish of me, so I sold it.

A P-Baron followed, with reversing props (that’s right. King Air hubs, Baron blades, and clever engineering by a retired TWA shop foreman who knew Howard Hughes and retired to his home town of Piqua, OH) followed, then a Caravan amphibian. We sold off the floats and used the money to upgrade the panel. It’s just a big GMC Suburban with wings; a GREAT aircraft. A ton of fuel, a ton of stuff, and five hours range. My partner in the non-ice Caravan needed a fully deiced Citation III, so we sold the Caravan and I bought a lovely old B55 Baron. Upgraded its engines a few years ago, just after I attended George Braly’s, Walter Atkinson’s, and John Deakin’s engine class in Ada OK. Greatest weekend I have ever spent since I began flying. I thought I knew something about engines; but they added so much more. The Baron benefitted: engines clean as whistles now, running like fine watches.

Larry Olson and I started something we call the Advanced Baron Seminar. Stuart Spindel now helps us run it. About a dozen pretty sharp Baron owner assemble in Orlando each spring and we work ourselves out in the simulators and classroom. Every participant has to teach something of his choosing. He does not have to be a CFI, just experienced in the Baron. We skip the SimCom standard course, as we all know how to do holds, etc. We work on the really hard stuff that is grossly unsafe to do in an aircraft...and it’s great fun.

This Colemill President II B55 is, sadly, for sale. I love that ship and have spent far too much money on it. I don’t believe in adding the latest and greatest and I can still use steam gauges, so it’s a lovely clean plane that is very capable, and superbly maintained. If you know anyone looking, please send them to http://tinyurl.com/5j6pkr

I just dropped its price by $25,000; as it’s a terrible time to be selling a Baron.

Buy High; Sell Low. That’s me I reckon...
....as I bought a really nice Blackhawk King Air C90 in March 2008 and have been learning a bit about it. The transition only took three days, all in the plane. Easy bird to fly; much easier than the Baron, really. But few craft are as nice as the little Baron with its light flight controls. The A/C is nice, the pressure vessel is nice, and the potty is popular with some. Never been used, though. Reckon that’s because its new sign says “U-TOTE-EM Airlines; U-USE-IT; U-DUMP-IT. ?”

I just got back from a month in Newfoundland, Labrador, Baffin Island, and Greenland...all in the Blackhawk. If interested, please see the QuickTime videos at http://www.ballyshannon.com/extras.html

I appreciate healthy intellectual discourse; I appreciate all who seek to learn and/or help others, as I try to do; but I cannot stand “in-your-face” aggressive posts that insult people. So I have recently departed another forum, where I could no longer stand reading that stuff.

So, being quite junior here, (and respecting my elders like Old Bob, an Old Corps Sergeant of Marines) I shall wait to participate here.

Thanks for including me, Jeff and Jeff.
Fred

Wow Fred, welcome! Great video... I'm curious, how many fellas do you figure these two ate to get this size? I put the over/under on about 4





Very welcome, great to have you aboard! Btw, waiting to participate isn't part of the curriculum, so please jump right in!

Jeff

Hello All-

My name is Bob Siegfried, II. I include the "II" to distinguish myself from my father, also known as "Old Bob".

As with the rest of the children in my family, I was very fortunate in that I did not have to make a decision regarding learning to fly; it was just part of growing up in the Siegfried household.

I fly an S35 Bonanza with an IO550. It has older (some would say ancient) avionics, but I seem to be able to afford to keep them running and the only thing I am currently missing out on is LPV approaches. There is more about the plane in the January 2005 ABS Magazine.

I also fly whatever other planes any one is foolish enough to let me come in contact with, and I am lucky to have some family members that are pretty foolish in that regard.

I make my living as a geophysicist, and like to think that I am making some small contribution toward maintaining the availability of fuel to run our engines.

I look forward to participating in this forum, although I tend to stay pretty quiet unless I have some information or a perspective that someone else has not imparted.

Regards,

Bob II

Welcome, Fred and Bob II.

Those are significant additions to our growing clan here.

I would expect we will get a few others coming from online lists and bulletin boards. Some of them may bring the "culture of rudeness" with them, and it may take a little encouragement to educate them to the pleasures of a place where we respect each other, even when we disagree.

Fred left out a lot of stuff about himself, but some of it may leak out over time. I'll leave it to him to share. Let's just say that he can be a bit of a neigh sayer.

Hi, John Foose here. Born in Penna. Learned to fly in 1969 after having served in the US Air Force, and then going to college in California. I have owned just a couple planes from an Ercoupe with no rudder pedals, Tri-pacer, Cardinal, and three Bonanzas, including the latest a 1978 A-36 with a Turbonormalizer. We live in the Seattle area and anywhere we go except Hawaii is over mountains, so as we travel a bit, I can say I love the Turbo. My wife, Betty Sue, is also a pilot and we enjoy flying our wonderful Beechcraft. John

Welcome Fred, Bob and John! Nice to have you over here. Nice to see accomplished, courteous folks like y'all here

Best,

Dave

Hello BeechTalk!
I currently fly a 1976 Baron 58P but am in the process of restoring/refurbishing a 1981 Baron 58P with Dale Cox at Elite Air Center. It should be finished in November. Learned to fly in 1999 and immediately bought a Commander 114 that I flew for two years and 450 hrs, then in 2001 bought 50% interest in my current plane and have about 800 hrs in the Baron.

As anyone reading this forum knows, deciding which plane is best for them involves playing one compromise off against another. Or, more properly, one attribute against another. What I like about the 58P: pressurization, redundancy, stable ride, robust systems, air conditioning, nice perfomance, and most important, it's just plane cool. Negatives: it's not free. But I've never seen a plane that didn't have it's positive points. They're all great!

I just found this forum three days ago, after being referred by Dale Cox, and can't get enough. I think I've read every thread! I might need to look into BeechTalk Anonymous.

Hi Everyone

Great site, I’ve been lurking for awhile but needed to join to see the pictures and like everyone else, introduce myself.

I grew up a Nebraska farm boy and didn’t have any relatives or neighbors involved in aviation. I didn’t even meet a pilot until I was 18 and had left the farm, but I’ve always wanted to be a pilot. Where the itch comes from with no aviation exposure is certainly something for the psychiatrist’s to study.

Most of 1970 was spent servicing the attack/terrain following radar in F105’s on the flight line in Takhli Thailand. That was a great year. When the Thud’s came back from a mission and they did their overhead left break for landing, I can tell you all work stopped on our aircraft until they were on the ground. I thought it looked cool and was probably a lot of fun then, but now I know it still looks cool and really IS a lot of fun.

My next aviation experience was flying as an operator, technician on the US Forest Service’s infrared fire mapping aircraft (B90 King Air, Queen Air & Merlin III) for a couple years out of Boise. Some of the pilots were CFI’s and they tried to teach me to fly the King Air. I didn’t learn to fly the B90 so much as I did learn ‘mountain flying’ basics. I had an altimeter and compass in back with me so I could give the pilot vectors and altitude for the fire mapping. Most of the fire mapping time was either in the smoke or just above it.

I finally got my ppl in the summer of 1994 and shortly thereafter joined the Civil Air Patrol. By the spring of 2007, having logged nearly 1,000 hrs. the magazine “Pilot Getaways” had created another itch, to see the United States from the air . . . low level. So during a CAP SAREX morning breakfast I was talking to a much wiser more experienced pilot friend and said “I think I’ll buy a C172 and flight see the country”. He said I didn’t want a 172, what I needed was a Bonanza and he had a friend that was selling his P35. With approval nod’s all around the table, I followed up on his advice and bought the P35. After visiting 53 different airports in 24 states and logging 170 hrs. the first year, he was right.

The Civil Air Patrol has a G1000 C182T based here in Jackson and while the Skylane is easy to fly, the Bonanza is smoother in turbulence (higher wing loading?) and is certainly easier to land in a cross wind. I think I’ll keep it.

Bill Jepsen
P35 N1400G
Jackson Hole, WY.

Greetings,
Fred is in, I am in. My civilian training began in 1974, which is when I soloed. Became a PP SEL in 1990, and instrument rated in 2002. Owned and flew a pristine Cherokee 180C from 1992 until 2002. Bought the Bonanza in 2001. It is the fifth Debonair that is really a Bonanza, it says so on the side!

Was raised in Piqua, Ohio; home of the Hartzell Propeller and Don Gentile. Fred, who was the engineer? Did you know Bill Lear, and his lovely wife, Moya, lived in Piqua for a short time?

Will try to post some pix and videos.

Regards,
John C. Califf
http://www.califflaw.com

Welcome Friends!

You recent joiners will add a great depth of experience and wisdom to this nice and fast growing forum.

I've been here since the beginning and it has been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot. I'm looking forward to your participation as I've learned a lot from your posts at other forums.

One thing I really like about this forum is the full name usage. This is the first time I have known that John was NOT from California. ( CALIFLAW ?) I suppose I could have thought about it a bit better, but this old brain won't work but so hard. He and I were emailing yesterday and it never entered my pea-brain to think anything else.

John, the shop foreman for TWA at MKC was Charlie Groff and his Piqua OH prop-reversing "Company" was "TARD, Inc.". Technically "Thayer and Research Development" or somesuch in the SCC registry, but it really meant re-TIRED, or i'm-TARED (in southern dialect).

I loved that idea and later set up a few companies with similar acronyms.

Charlie died with his grandchildren on a Christmas local flight around the patch. Early '90's, I think it was. Low scud WX; I don't think he had an IMC rating and/or was using a homemade approach procedure. Nothinhg realy wrong with the latter. I have lots of bush-aviator pals who use similar techniques, but not when the WX is down in the dirt.

Bonanza and family gone. Boom. A nice, smart, clever man. Very sad.

I wrote to and got a nice letter back from Bob Buck about Charlie and my quietly competent early flight instructor here (Claude Coakley, a FE in 747 ultimately, but Captain qualified. All FE's were at TWA.) with whom Buck flew the small, and their favorite, TWA Connie. Great men; all gone now.

We head out soon enough, so in the meantime, I am emulating my new friend, above, from Jackson Hole (Hope to see you at KJAC the next week or so. My niece just moved there, with the brand-new-lawyer son of the lovely lady hugging the Newfoundland dog above. It's a 1.5 size bronze statue in St John's harbor, Jeff. the other dog is a Labrador. Get it <grin>??)

Does anyone know how to get rid of these dancing, mostly yellow, idiots over to my left? People send them to me from time to time. Is this where they come from? I reckon I prefer good writing to graphics.

Is there an Instruction Guide for this place? Where? I find the web-based design really awkward, but will try a bit longer. I live in the countryside. we don't have coffeeshops and high-speed web access on every corner (Let Us All Give Thanks!)

Nice guys here though. Incredibly helpful. Lots of very familiar names and close friends, and I REALLY appreciate the civil tone.

Enough about me. I'm here to help if I can. Otherwise I shall watch, quietly.

Fred

Fred,

Go to the top of any BeechTalk page and click Preferences. When the next page is displayed there will be a blue line to the left of center labeled "display options".

After you click on that you can choose to display only the items you want, all the way down to having just plain text. I've gotten used to the avatars, the smiles, and all the other as often they show the tone of the message as intended by the sender.

I'm old (like you ) but trying to catch on to this more modern way to communicate.

Hi, all:
I'm Jim Harper. Live in Montgomery, AL. Pass gas for a living. I've been flying since I was 16, on and off. I discovered Bonanza's (well, Debonaires) on the recommendation of my mechanic a couple of years ago. Bought an '90 F33A with a 550 then. Always planned on adding a TN to it (the engine had 1900 hours on it when I bought it). We use the airplane for trips from Montgomery to Santa Fe, NM (where we own property) and all over the South (most common trip is to Jacksonville, FL, where one of my sons live...we have season tickets for the Jaguars). We generally fly as a couple but she who must be obeyed wants the capability to toss two friends or family and reasonable luggage in.
I decided to go for it this year, but with prices of airplanes where they were, I looked at changing airplanes. Looked at most of the possibilities up to and including Barons or even Cirri. After all was said and done, given the mission, putting a new engine and TN in my Deb makes the most sense. We get an up in gross weight and the CG moves forward an inch and a half. Other than a TN '36 (and frankly, I've got my airplane in perfect condition, so I was disinclined to take on another airplane with the potential for fixing that one), nothing else has the weight carrying speed at the fuel flow. Sure, a Baron works, but at more fuel. While I loved the Cirrus' panel, and the air conditioning was yummy, it can't carry the load.
So...the Deb goes to Ada the end of this month to get a new "Gami spec" engine, TN, new Hartzell scimitar prop and built in O2. When I get it back I am going to improve the already good avionics (WAAS 530 already) by adding a new stormscope and a GMX 200 (mostly for the Jepp charts).
The photo is of, as my wife puts it, the only two girls I am allowed to rub.

Jim

Fred,
I was NJ resident in the early 90s, but upon my return to Miami County in 2000 I heard of that accident and that name. I did not know the other details. Interesting, and sad.

BTW: http://www.califflaw.com

Regards,
John C. Califf

Jim: You are going to have a heck of a nice plane there.

I've owned two TN Bonanzas (one a 33, and one a 36).

I would offer a suggestion. If you haven't done it already, you may want to consider taking the Advanced Pilot Seminars course on engine management. No one knows more about operating the TN engines. Plus, they present information on using and understanding the engine monitor that just can't be found elsewhere.

I'm not affiliated with them. Just friends with the Three Amigos, and I've been to the the class.