Thank you, Robert! It's been an honor and privilege to serve our Nation for the past 23 yrs. I've been around a little and there's no place like America!!!:)

BTW: I LOVE the Denver area. I was just there last week and will be returning to Longmont the end of the month. I may have to look you up on one of my trips out.

Joyce

Greetings all, my name is Cedric Van Straten, I live in Francistown, Botswana in southern africa. It is great to finally find a forum where like minded Beech enthusiasts (like myself ) can discuss these lovely aircraft. I have been flying for 5 years now, and have a fair amount of time in our family Beechcraft Baron B55 and Kingair C90.
Our Baron is a 1971 model, serial TC-1364, and we have owned it for 4 years. It has just come out of the paint shop and has 2 reman engines. It has been an absolute pleasure owning this aircraft, I can do 185 knots all day long. I have removed the 2 rearmost seats so I have ahuge luggage area, the middle row now has huge legroom, so my family flies in real comfort. What more can I say, this machine has stolen my heart.

Our kingair is a C90 1981 Model serial LJ-988. Also has a new interior and paint , midlife engines, and is such a fantastically comfortable aircraft. I often fly between my hometown and Johannesburg, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Namibia.

I look forward to tonnes of Beech talk and meeting people who are as happy as I am with these fantastic , awe inspiring and reliable old friends.

Keep flying.

Cedric

Welcome, Cedric!

When I read that you were from Africa, I perked up!!! I have flown in S. Africa many times -- on my simulator, that is:). I do hope to fly there for real one day in the not-too-distant future. In fact, I'm hoping to return later this year. The mission organization I belong to (http://www.myaimi.org) has two mission works in Welkom and Kimberley. I have friends in Pretoria and Hammanskraal as well. I visited Zambia in 2003 and subsequently applied for embassy duty there; that did not materialize .
Look forward to hear more about flying on the African continent. And perhaps when I come over later this year, I can experience an African flight in an 'adult' Beechcraft .

Tailwinds & Fair Weather!

Joyce

Beautiful! I lived in Lommel and Kleine Brogel for three years. Flew a little C-152 Aerobat one time for 45 minutes; cost me $135.00 . I knew I couldn't afford to fly in Belgium very long.

Joyce

OK, here are the first of my pics, they are all very low quality, 1st one is flying on a typical winter morning down in the Transvaal lowveld, low scud the whole way, sitting at FL220. The second one was later that afternoon when there had been the normal vertical development associted with flying in these parts, a bit of ice on the wing, I think it was -16 degrees up there on that day.

More to follow as I figure how to shrink some more photies.

Keep well all.
Cedric

Hi Folks,

Looks like lots of familiar folks over here so I thought I'd join! My name is Mike Caban, a few of you may know me from the Beech List.

I started flight lessons in 1995 after purchasing a Sierra and flew what I would call the best value in a complex, high performance (back in the day 200hp was HP), retractable aircraft, for 9 years and 1400 hours. I had already gotten my IR and multi rating (in a Travel Air) and in 2004 I was able to acquire and restore a 1965 B55. She was a cover girl of the ABS Magazine in May of 2006 (nah, I'm not too proud . Just did my insurance renewal forms and I've flown about 750 total hours in the Baron, LOP and a fair amount lately (with gas over $4/gallon) at 15-16 gph total achieving in the 150+ KTAS range, loving every minute of it.

I have been based in Denton, TX (KDTO) for the last two years, prior to that I was in Tampa, FL (KVDF) and have made many great Beechcraft and aviation friends in those areas.

I have created a site where I have made available lots of Beechcraft Bonanza/Debonaire and Baron Service Manuals and Parts Catalogs and install manuals for popular avionics items as well as some of my personal favorite aviation pdfs. Also included there are many of the learnings I have gleaned in keeping ownership and maintenance costs low, affectionately dubbed "CSOB" for "Cheap Son of a Beech" It is at:

http://www.semco-inc.com/aviation-pdfs

Ping me if you have any questions or need a hand in the Dallas area. Always happy to "pay it forward" for a fellow aviator.

Mike

Hey Mike!

Welcome!

Is that Big Brother staring back at us from your GPS?

Hi Nate,

Thanks for the welcome. I forget what DVD that was, maybe The Last Samurai? But that's in fact the DVD player, that sits up top, the Garmin Portable can be swung down and allows the DVD player to rest on top of it.

Mike

Hi, Mike!

Glad you made it over here. I hope this doesn't mean that we have to clean up our act, now. ??? <grin>

Hi Tom,

Nobody has to clean up their act on my account <vbg>. I hope you are not in danger of becoming a "good man"! (Maximus to Proximo in Gladiator)....

There seem to be enough forums here to keep everyone out of trouble.

Nice to see so many familiar names.

Mike

Good Day All:

I have just "discovered" this group. I puchased a 1980 Be 55 Baron Febraury 2007, I was a very happy Mooney 201 owner for a number of years but a chance comment of my wife of " wouldn't it be nice to take 4 people and luggage" in November was followed a week later by a phone call out of the blue of someone wishing to buy my aircraft. The Mooney was sold in short order!! We considered a C210 but the "Baby Baron" was always my dream aircraft - well dream aircraft considering funds available I managed to put 140 hours on her in a year with trips as far afield as California and the Bahamas. And a trip to Myrtle Beach in november of "4 plus clubs" made the choice the proven right one.

About me: I was born in Zimbabwe - my grandfather emigrated there from England in the late 1800's. I learnt to fly at University and in the 1970's sold Aircraft for the Piper dealer in South Africa. That was fun as southern Africa is wonderful flying country and my employer was kind enought to pay for multi, IFR and instructors ratings.

Coming to Canada in the 1980's I kept my flying hand in with the odd trips to Oshkosh but only really got back seriously when I purchased my Mooney in 1998. I am a member of the Buttonville Flying Club based at CYKZ in Toronto. we have about 160 members of which about 50 own or share Aircraft. it is an active club with regular short and long - some very long distance group flyouts. We keep busy in the winter with monthly guest speakers and safety seminars

Thank you for having me aboard, I would enclose a picture - but do not want to disfigure the board with my ugly mug and we all know what a baron looks like!! but for those who use flight tracker etc the reg is C-GACC

Dennis (Fox)

No, Dennis, it ain't that easy! There are not too many of us worth looking at, but none of us ever saw an ugly airplane, so dish it!

(nyuk nyuk)

PS- Welcome!

/s/ Spike

Hi, folks. If we are not flying, the next best thing is talking about flying. I got my first job on a Monday and the following Saturday went down to the Ft. Collins Loveland airport and started taking lessons. First plane was a '54 Piper TriPacer. Shortly after buying it, all the paint started to peel off in huge chunks - the paint, that looked so good at first, was enamel on fabric, and it just broke up in pieces. It spent two years in the garage, and more or less cured me of wanting to build a plane. But, we flew the family to Baja, landed on the beaches, etc. Then moved up to a '66 C172 - all metal!!! Only two days to California! Then, still in Colorado, went to a nice '72 C182P with a fresh major and new Imron paint, black leather interior, wow. Only ONE day to California. Then in Utah, went to the classic '67 V35 Bonanza...after 750 hours, it was a dream to fly. But later, in SoCal, bought a '79 C310R, a bit unusual with known icing but normally aspirated. Flew it all around, lots of mountain trips to Colorado and Utah. A good plane for traveling, almost as fast as a Baron but much more useable room. Then, with some luck in stock options, went to a '73 Cessna 421B. Now this is an airplane. With a week long FlightSafety simulator course, I was ready to fly around in the teens and twenties, pressurized, air conditioned, quiet, a potty, etc. This is such a comfortable way to get around. Flew it over the western 2/3 of the US, and I could fly 8 or 9 hours a day and still feel fresh. But, started a company, and had to chop it up and feed it to my software guys. Ah, well.
Now, I have a low time and good '68 B55 with Colemill IO550's, and a just right panel. This is definitely the highest performance and most reliable plane of the bunch. It's like a personal rocketship on climbout. We live in Northern California, in the wine country, and work in SoCal, roughly one week at each end...seems like the best of both worlds to us. So we really use the Baron for an actual purpose, so we can take all our liquids and gels with us each weekend.
Took the Baron up to Anchorage two years ago and got a floatplane rating out of Lake Hood. Now that's about as much fun as you can imagine. And very impractical to stay current.

Regards to the group

Curt Brown
Healdsburg, CA

I originally learned to fly in Albuquerque in 1967, Cherokee 140, then bought a 1957 Tripacer - sold the Tripacer in 1970 to help support my ex-wife Moved, didn't fly for 30 years. Decided to re-learn in 1997 (last chance: I had just turned 60) - whole new environment, living in Chicago. Bought a 1969 Arrow in 2000, bypass surgery in 2001, got my IR in 2005, bought a 1976 V35B last month. Haven't even had time to fly it yet.

Not having much success uploading both planes, will try again later.