BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Jan 2024, 18:05

I was fortunate to do a deep stall series in a 31with an “Authorized Learjet Stall Pilot”. He was scared and I was dumb. I did the flying and he recorded the numbers.
This was after we hit a goose going into Little Rock; leading edge damage repair.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Jan 2024, 18:59

Username Protected wrote:

I was fortunate to do a deep stall series in a 31with an “Authorized Learjet Stall Pilot”. He was scared and I was dumb. I did the flying and he recorded the numbers.
This was after we hit a goose going into Little Rock; leading edge damage repair.

On the test flight I went on we had sand bags piled at the entrance to the cockpit for a forward cg and a test engineer sitting just outside the cockpit calibrating the stall system.

The shaker and pusher were turned off for the deep stalls, and you could hear the rumbling turbulent air on top of the fuselage working it's way back to the tail. When the stall broke, the test pilot held the stick back in his lap, and was moving the yoke lock to lock right and left to keep the wings level, not using the rudder.

I asked him why, and he said normally the pilot would be using coordinated control, with better control of the plane.

He also told me that the wing mod reduced the stall speed by ten knots, but not to reduce the approach speed ten knots.

So taking the plane back to Houston with just me and the co-pilot onboard , with my new found confidence in the airplane, I decided to bring it in ten knots below ref, figuring the test pilot was just giving conservative advice.

It was handling nicely at ref minus ten, but when I went to flare, the nose came up, but the sink rate didn't stop, and I pranged it on the runway quite firmly. :eek:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Jan 2024, 21:01

Username Protected wrote:

It was handling nicely at ref minus ten, but when I went to flare, the nose came up, but the sink rate didn't stop, and I pranged it on the runway quite firmly. :eek:

Those silly test pilots, what do they know? :rofl:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Jan 2024, 21:43

Username Protected wrote:

The first Lear I ever flew was 23-009.

Give me a nice light 24 and a tank of gas and I’d be smiling for days.

Once the 20 series fleet started to be replaced by 30 series, I didn’t have much desire to fly the Lears anymore.

After I got my type in the 23 a Texas oil company sent me to Flight Safety on the Lear 35 and I flew it for them until the oil bust and it was sold.

Then I moved back to northern California and flew a Lear 24B for a car dealer that had 13 dealerships and did a lot of television advertising on the west coast. The airplane had the Dee Howard Mark ll smooth wing, hydraulic reversers , drag chute and a gravel kit. It had a 98 knot basic ref. We kept it at the bosse's ranch which had a 3000 foot oiled dirt strip and our own 10,000 gallon Jet-A tank.

That airplane was a blast to fly. We were always light and came off the ranch straight to FL450 coming out of the Sacramento area. But like all the 20 series Lears they were range limited, and too many times we were in the descent with the low fuel lights flashing.

I kept pressuring the boss to get a Lear 35, and after I went to the airline he got one.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 00:16

I'm not sure where that museum is, maybe Tilamook Oregon?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 00:36

Username Protected wrote:

The picture in my avatar is of a panel in a 24B at 410 on the way home from San Diego to Hooks which we made nonstop. I earned 1600 hours pic time in 24s. B, D and E models.

Serial number 162, 23, 311, and 430 if my memory serves me correctly.

I was flying a brand new 2001 A36 for a guy from Hooks to Sugarland to West Texas small towns who owned a well servicing company. 7AM departure and back at 5 Monday thru Thursday rain or shine. That bonanza became and extension of my body. 692 hours of flight time in 12 months. I had begged borrowed and begged more for about 200 hours of king air pic time during the same time frame.

The owner sold the well servicing company and bought a Lear 24. He was adamant I flew it for him. So off to SimuFlite in Dallas I went with 2 other pilots who didn’t want to see me make it that had way more time and experience than me. They wanted my job!

I busted my ass and made that sim my bitch. The instructors were blown away at the fact I handled the airplane so well with no prior jet experience. I kicked the 2 guys trying to take my job asses!!! Ultimately they flew right seat for me after my 25 hour limitation was flown off. Those were also the good ole days of reasonable insurance and cheap jet fuel.

Looking back 20 years later I was an ATP MEI and had gone through a professional program and it reminds me I of all I went through to get there. Good times!

Flying the 24 was a blast. We would come out of Oklahoma City and get an unrestricted climb to to 210. Power set 80 knot cross check v1 vr positive rate gear up lights out yaw damper on. Hold the airplane as low to the runway as you could. At the numbers pull the yoke back firmly and smoothly. At 190 power to idle and push the nose over. Everyone in the back was floating LOL. The boss loved doing it with oil deal buddies on board .

I remember having to pull the power back while on one engine because if you didn't you would shoot straight thru 250 knots below 10k.

Pardon my rambling and reminiscing as I remember glory days of my aviation career.

I've heard rumor that the way to do a quick level off from a high climb rate is do a 1g roll, keeping the folks in the back in their seats.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 04:40

600 some hrs in early Lears
Actually rode on a flight in a 24 with old man Lear driving it
Flew #12 a few times Red velvet interior looked like a French whore house inside
Taxi out on one -YUP
410 or bust YUP
Short 20 series as the hardest airplane I ever had to hand fly at 410 and we hand flew a lot back then.
Put a 25 into a 4000 ft runway at night once (long runway was closed). Actually not too bad
Did a stall series once at the factory. He flew I wrote the numbers down. He went lock to lock with the wheel also in the stall. We had lead bolted on the floor by the door.
Its record to 410 as set at 7 mins and 41 seconds in a23 IIRC.
The straight wing 23 was a hot rod
Once had Guns and Roses onboard and they wanted a roll at 410 we said NO they put $500
on the radio console but again we said NO - they took their money back.
Early Lears did a great job of converting fuel to noise.
Once you were used to it you really could do single pilot without too much sweat. BUT then again you can do the same with a 737 once you're used to it.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 09:00

Username Protected wrote:

The picture in my avatar is of a panel in a 24B at 410 on the way home from San Diego to Hooks which we made nonstop. I earned 1600 hours pic time in 24s. B, D and E models.

Serial number 162, 23, 311, and 430 if my memory serves me correctly.

I was flying a brand new 2001 A36 for a guy from Hooks to Sugarland to West Texas small towns who owned a well servicing company. 7AM departure and back at 5 Monday thru Thursday rain or shine. That bonanza became and extension of my body. 692 hours of flight time in 12 months. I had begged borrowed and begged more for about 200 hours of king air pic time during the same time frame.

The owner sold the well servicing company and bought a Lear 24. He was adamant I flew it for him. So off to SimuFlite in Dallas I went with 2 other pilots who didn’t want to see me make it that had way more time and experience than me. They wanted my job!

I busted my ass and made that sim my bitch. The instructors were blown away at the fact I handled the airplane so well with no prior jet experience. I kicked the 2 guys trying to take my job asses!!! Ultimately they flew right seat for me after my 25 hour limitation was flown off. Those were also the good ole days of reasonable insurance and cheap jet fuel.

Looking back 20 years later I was an ATP MEI and had gone through a professional program and it reminds me I of all I went through to get there. Good times!

Flying the 24 was a blast. We would come out of Oklahoma City and get an unrestricted climb to to 210. Power set 80 knot cross check v1 vr positive rate gear up lights out yaw damper on. Hold the airplane as low to the runway as you could. At the numbers pull the yoke back firmly and smoothly. At 190 power to idle and push the nose over. Everyone in the back was floating LOL. The boss loved doing it with oil deal buddies on board .

I remember having to pull the power back while on one engine because if you didn't you would shoot straight thru 250 knots below 10k.

Pardon my rambling and reminiscing as I remember glory days of my aviation career.

I've heard rumor that the way to do a quick level off from a high climb rate is do a 1g roll, keeping the folks in the back in their seats.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 13:09

The airplane has a lot of roll inertia with the tip tanks full, but that was also a problem in the early days when it was sold to new pilots. They would get the wings rocking back and forth on approach and sometimes catch a wing on the runway landing.

The 35 has spoilerons and has a lot crisper roll control when slow. The early 20 series were bone simple with early 60's technology, but were very reliable. When Jet-A was relatively cheap it wasn't too expensive to fly. We bought out 24B from a Canadian oil exploration company with mid time engines in 1983 for $250,000 with good mods on it, good paint and interior Noisy airplanes were on their way out.

Some of the crashes were the check haulers where the planes were disappearing off the scope at high altitude and they couldn't figure out why they were crashing. Finally the pilots told the story of some pilots turning off the overspeed protection to fly faster and would hit a little turbulence or load the wing up just a little and the plane would lose roll control, tumble and disintegrate.

On the trailing edge of the ailerons are about 1/8 inch square strips called "buzz strips". As the plane overspeeds and the air starts to separate from the ailerons, the last thing that has contact with the airflow are the buzz strips. They are called buzz strips because they would set up a rapid small oscillation in the yoke, and any more speed or loading the wing and the ailerons would lose control resulting in uncontrollable "aileron snatch" then tumble out of control." The overspeed protection pulls the yoke back with 15 pounds of force to prevent this.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 22:04

There was one well known 20 series operator that actually installed a cut out switch for the overspeed system.

When engineering had to put the tall vortex generators on the wings out ahead of the ailerons old man Lear called them - wait for it-------------fuck up fixers --!!!!!

I used to sell reclaimed (surplus) JP-4 for 10 cents a gallon in the very early Lear days.

I'm trying to remember but I think that the factory got into a high speed tuck under and found out the speed brakes only exasperated the situation and the only thing that saved the airplane was throwing the gear out. All the doors departed but the gear went down and slowed the plane down and allowed a pull out with the shift in Center of Pressure with slowing airspeed. IIRC

There was a time when the GI Bill paid for a lot of Lear type ratings. Bakersfield CA (KBFL) was a prime training airport back then with Lear touch and goes.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 22:32

Username Protected wrote:

There was one well known 20 series operator that actually installed a cut out switch for the overspeed system.

When engineering had to put the tall vortex generators on the wings out ahead of the ailerons old man Lear called them - wait for it-------------fuck up fixers --!!!!!

I used to sell reclaimed (surplus) JP-4 for 10 cents a gallon in the very early Lear days.

I'm trying to remember but I think that the factory got into a high speed tuck under and found out the speed brakes only exasperated the situation and the only thing that saved the airplane was throwing the gear out. All the doors departed but the gear went down and slowed the plane down and allowed a pull out with the shift in Center of Pressure with slowing airspeed. IIRC

There was a time when the GI Bill paid for a lot of Lear type ratings. Bakersfield CA (KBFL) was a prime training airport back then with Lear touch and goes.

Northeast Jet lost a 25 in 1980. Their other Lear was found to have the over speed cutout switch and they admitted the accident aircraft had it too. Thunderbird Airways (who I worked for at the time) also lost a 25 the same year. No illegal cutout on that one as the over speed warning was heard on the radio.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 23:14

Bill Lear made a cameo appearance in the movie "In Like Flint." 1967

Username Protected · **Posted:** 09 Jan 2024, 23:21

Here's an old 20-series Learjet with Faye Racy flying and Bob Hoover in the right seat. It was to a new airport dedication near May, Idaho. Photo by me in the 31A.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Jan 2024, 00:05

Username Protected wrote:

Here's an old 20-series Learjet with Faye Racy flying and Bob Hoover in the right seat. It was to a new airport dedication near May, Idaho. Photo by me in the 31A.

OK what's the back story on Faye Racy? I think that LJ is still at KVNY but has not flown in a very long time.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Jan 2024, 00:37

Username Protected wrote:

Here's an old 20-series Learjet with Faye Racy flying and Bob Hoover in the right seat. It was to a new airport dedication near May, Idaho. Photo by me in the 31A.

I’m always open to learning new things, so, educate me on a 31a that had tip tanks?

Learjet 23 Restoration