I currently own a Twin Comanche but have in the past had an A-36 and a V-35. Being in the engine overhaul business for 35 years afforded me the opportunity to fly at least one of every BE-35, 55, 58, 58P models. Toss in some 18's, 19's 23's, 24's, 33's, 45's,95's and one "Tbone" would add up to well over 200 Beechcraft airplanes. I once added up how many 33,35,36 models alone and it was 110. I am here to enjoy a new forum. I also offer to help with engine questions. Charlie Melot Zephyr Aircraft Engines

Hi guys and gals, You know me from other boards as T.D. NC19143, Old Mech, or Tom Downey. I live in Oak Harbor Wa. and am a retired Navy Chief with 22 years active service and 12 years as government service as a T-56 engine builder here at NAS Whidbey servicing and overhauling the P-3 Orion engines.

I now am fully retired and am full time into restoring my pet project. http://www.whidbey.com/fairchild-nc19143/

I started flying a long time ago, and flew in the navy and have continued to fly for fun after retirement. Beechcraft is not my expertise, but Barb and I are considering a Bonanza as our next aircraft, so we'll be asking more questions than giving answers.

Howdy from Montana. I'm Brian C, but use "hydroguy2" as my login on every website as I have enough other stuff to remember. I'm a lowtime VFR pilot. I had my 1st lesson and passed the written in a 1979 high school class. Lesson #2 was in Jan 2005! I joined a flying club and have access to mostly Cessna's, but logged some time in a Musketeer before it was sold. We liked how it handled the turbulence as opposed to the 172's. I still get some Beech hours, as I am helping a military guy keep his Musketeer lubed while he is in Iraq.

In 2006, With ~100hrs under my belt and a XC to Idaho, my wife and I discussed buying a friends J35 Bonanza. We loved the smooth ride, the speed and roominess, but financially it would have been a stretch. So, I'm still in "the club". It's inexpensive flying, but nothing special. I log most of my time in the Citabria these days, while I build my RV-7. http://www.mykitlog.com/hydroguy2

I probably won't have much to add to the forums, but visit the sites for knowledge and enjoyment.

Brian

Hi Beech Nuts
My name is Pat Byrne, live in Clinton, TN few miles N of Knoxville. Fly a very nice G35 1956 V Tail. Been a pilot since 1945 Navy training, left when war ended and went to college at Stanford just South of San Francisco. For a few years I flew rental, WWII trainers like the Stearman, BT13, etc. plus almost every light plane I could get my hands on. Flew sailplanes in Calif desert for years, finally in mid '80's felt rich enuf to get back into powered flight, bought an Archer and then when I retired and moved to Tennessee (married a TN gal) finally achieved my ambition and bought a Bonanza. Love the plane, generally take at least one trip a year back to the Left Coast--still have friends there and 3 of 7 kids in Long Beach, plus my old home town of Eugene, OR where many high school buddies are and sister. Also should mention we have in Tullahoma, TN a great Beech museum and a grand gathering of the flock every October.posting.php?mode=reply&f=7&t=34#

Hoody-hoo.

Spike Cutler, Dallas, Texas; based at Addison (ADS).

1969 V35A.

Hi!
My name is Barry Kessler.....alias BKMirage, BMK, or BKPilot on some other aviation boards.
I'm your basic recreational pilot with a little business flying thrown in, averaging about 120 hrs / yr. Though I presently own a neat little Piper Cherokee, and belong to a number of other flying related sites, there are a number of reasons I decided to join this particular board.

1. I really enjoy conversing and sharing ideas with other pilots. I think there is much to be learned about flying from other members regardless of what type of plane you own. So, I'm looking foward to meeting new people and to continue to grow my knowledge of aviation.

2. I 'know' Jeff and Jeff, from another message board. Based on that, I'm confident that this will be a well planned, well run message board experience.

3....and most importantly; In late spring, early summer, my flying mission will change substancially and I will be purchasing a new plane. I'm in no hurry, and plan on doing a lot of research into each model I'm considering. One of my options is a Bonanza.....at least it is now.
See, originally, I thought I had narrowed my choices to a few planes, mostly in the Piper Six / Lance category. I originally thought that a Bonanza might be more $$$ than I really needed to spend. However, my present hangarmate (owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, BTW) thinks I'm crazy if I don't at least consider a Bonanza. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Bonanza guy and has convinced me to seriously explore it as an option. He's given me a lot of great information on them already, though he HAS stopped short of throwing me the keys to his and inviting me to take her out for a spin.
So this board should prove invaluable to me from a research perspective.

Hi, Rick Ott here, I've been flying for a little over 20 years primarily so that I can both maintain my construction business and stay married. So far so good. In my accumlated 6100 hours approximately 5500 are in Beech products primarily in V tails and straight tail Bos. About 6 months ago I picked up newly TAT turbonormalized Bo and love it. I'm considering a 58P as my next bird and hope to get some good advice here on a worthy candiate.

Hi, My name is Doug Castro and am excited to see a board dedicated to Beech. I love flying and do it everyday between a Bonanza. Occasionally I fly in my 58P which is used for business and Angel Flight, and a 1937 Cub which I just bought. I have 755 hours in a year in a half mainly in the Bonanza and have loved every moment of it. I have had very little problems with it.

Nice to see some familiar names here. I'm Gil Buettner, owner of a 1967 V-35 for about 13 years and 1,300+ hours. I'm a part-time CFI and full time broadcaster (television) with about 4,000 hours total time, including military time in C-130s.

Hi All,

I'm relatively new to aviation. I started flying in Dec. 94 (Cessna 150). I was 41 and looking for a way of reducing the stress of turning around a failing business that I was brought in to fix. Flying certainly has a great way of improving one's focus! In any case I got my private in 95 and when on to get my IFR ticket in 96 (Piper Archer and Arrow).

Now with a license to learn, a few extra bucks and a really understanding wife I purchased a Piper Dakota, upgraded the avionics and flew it for the next 8 years up and down the East Coast. Also during this time I moved to an airpark and built my home with a built in hangar for the plane (5B6 - Falmouth Airpark on Cape Cod)

Faced with the choice of overhauling the engine and being totally upside down ($$$ wise) I sold the airplane and went on a search for the perfect Mooney (trying to be economical ). Almost bought a 201 but realized that the inner gear doors would be way to close to our grass taxiways with the possibility of ripping them off when the turf was soft. My A&P begged me not to buy a Mooney (he hates to work on them). Many of my friends here thought I was nuts to buy anything other than a Bonanza (we have a number of them on the field). After many joy rides in theirs...and with much feigned acquiescence, I succumbed and said...well ok!

I was lucky enough to find a great S35 out in Vail CO. I joined ABS, asked them for help in locating a Beech expert to do a pre-buy/annual and flew to CO to meet Ken Pearce and his grandsons (all IA's) to go through the plane. After a thorough pre-buy and annual I purchased the plane and had Ken (also a BPPP instructor) check me out in the Bo and sign me off for insurance purposes.

It's been 3+ years and a whole lotta joy flying this marvelous airplane. My wife and I are both recently retired and my dream is to convince her to fly around the USA for a few months in the BO. First I have to get her to fly more than 90 minutes at a time. Either that or win the lottery and get a King Air with all the facilities of home!

Jeff, Thanks for the opportunity to share my story.

Norton here, just finished my PPL and have about 100 hrs, most of it in a 1975 Sundowner that I purchased with a friend to finish my training. Now just enjoying having the ability to do cross-country flight without anyone's "ok".

The plane is basic, we upgraded to a Garmin SL-30 radio and an engine monitor. It's comfortable to sit in (a lot better than the 172 I flew) and stable, should make a good IFR platform when I start lessons.

My parents were both pilots and owned a '67 Musketeer, so the Sundowner was a natural for me.
Always wanted to fly and finally had some money and needed some stress relief so I started lessons. It's only a little bit more expensive than a shrink and a lot more fun!

Hello,

Started flying at 16, (1991) Joined the Army as a Huey Mechanic then built Lancair IV's for the rich. Acquired A&P then restored T-34's and many WWII era war birds. Changed careers into Information Tech. and became a Beech snob after owning a Skipper for nearly a year.
Recently I revived an abandoned "fixer" Debonair in Aug 06. Our Deb, named "Angie" is a work in progress and has been awesome to own. We're based at Chino, California where we "hold-short" for P-51's, P-38's, B-25's and such.

Name is John Kidd.

Location is ADS (Dallas)

I am coming up on my first full year of ownership.

Last December a dream came true with the purchase of my Baron. It is a '78 (First one made that year) and is a BE58TC - essentially a 58P without the pressure vessel. If I may gush, I love this plane. I have flown approx 200 hours this year after getting my multi in it in March and have loved every minute - both flying and working on it!


John

Hi, I am Brandon. I starting flying when I was 16 but after Solo got sidetracked by girls and cars and ended up taking a 5 year hiatus. After finishing college I took a healthy signing bonus and an offer to match it from my dad and finished up my PSEL. I fell back in love with aviation and haven't looked back. I finished my IR and then about 6 months later bought *MY* Bonanza. It is a 1957 H35. I knew I wanted a Bonanza but felt they may be out of my price range but kicked a few tires anyways. When I found mine I knew it was the one. It has been very well taken care of over the years and was just beautiful. I spend a good deal of time and money making sure that I wouldn't turn out to be a horror story and took delivery on her about 1 months after out first flight. Other then a nose shimmy I have yet to track down I couldn't ask for more. She climbs like a homesick angle with his relatively light weight and IO-520/3 Blade prop combo and is a site on the ramp. Lots of people wonder how I can have such a plane at this age and sometimes I can't believe it either. I work hard to keep costs down by working with mechanics and flying LoP! Since I took delivery of her on August 10th I have flown about 90hrs. The bills are finally catching up and I am going to slow down a bit. I have already designed a new panel I plan to install in the next few months making this truly my perfect Bo.

One of the greatest things about owning a Bonanza is the support group around them. I have found lots of people with tons of experience willing to help me troubleshoot any issue that has come my way. I hope that this place becomes some ware that all these types can meet.

Anyways here she is: 1957 H35 Bonanza.

Hello! My name is Brett. I'm a CFII down in Dallas being type rated on the Raytheon Beechjet 400. This is a part of what is called the Supporting Crewmember program at CAE Simuflite. When people don't have training partners for their Level-D flight training I sit in on the right seat. I hope to possibly get some contract flying work. As soon as my training is done I hope to get my MEI and do some part time flight instructing.