Beechcraft Bonanza V-Tail - Love, Hate and Faulty Gear
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- In this aviation documentary, we bring you the history of the Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail. A revolutionary design everyone loves makes this plane an ideal family plane for cross-country flights. This bonanza was often called a doctor killer, but in fact, bonanza s35 and v35 are reliable planes, and more incredible facts in our video will prove that!
![Beechcraft Bonanza [what's with the V Tail? Is it Safe, is it really a Doctor Killer?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/H-9hI2aDCkk/mqdefault.jpg)
In 6500 hours of flying from military jets to a Vari-eze, the Bonanza is the cream of the crop in my opinion. It is extremely tough and well engineered while looking like a work of art. Bonanza test pilot, I think Tony Levier, flew outside loops in the Bonanza to prove its strength. The doctor killer rep came about because low time pilots who had a lot of money got in over their heads in a high performance airplane. I have 1200 hours in a 1947 Bonanza. It would cruise at 153 knots with four hours of range on sixty gallons of fuel with reserve. It was truly revolutionary in 1947 and is not far off in performance with late model piston singles today.
My Father and his best friend flew a 1977 V35B N4FH around the world from Addison Texas. A second Bonanza flew with them and they hold the speed record for two planes around the world in formation.
That's really cool!
These are the stories that brought me to loving aviation through the bonanza. Love to try and catch a v tail flying over the house whenever I can hear one coming in time. Also in Texas.
Would like to replicate this story in flight simulator
Great video! The S35 and V35 are great airplanes for those who can afford the acquisition and fuel costs, but I would encourage those with less financial liquidity to consider the “e-series” Bonanzas (1947-1956) if they still long to join the V-tail club. 75% of the capability at 1/3 the cost.
Thank you for debunking the idea that Bonanza is a killer. Most Bonanza crashes were due to incorrect procedures on the part of the pilot.
It was called 'The Doctor Killer' because it was the nicest, fastest single engine plane that a rich, new pilot could buy. The doctors who bought it had a 'God Complex' which lead them to exceed their abilities and fly too fast and in bad weather conditions. And, if you exceeded the G limits pulling out of a dive and over stressed the tail, it would fold up.
If you are are doing dives in a bonanza then thank god youre out of the gene pool
The Bonanza is very clean and accelerates very quickly. I"m convinced that many who lost their lives got in over their heads VMC into IMC, lost control and tore the airplane apart over G'ng the pullout.
The S and V35 are my favorites too.
Did you know the wing on the Bonanza was used on darn near every Beechcraft airplane built. Queen Air, King Air, Barons, T-34 and more used the wing airfoil, it was that good. Unlike Cessna, Beech changed very little in the aircraft design since 1947. Look how many 210 major changes there were over the years. I have a friend with a Navion that shakes his head and askes "how can this thing go this fast?" . I have a D model that has the same 225 Continental as the Navion and it goes 50mph faster. It's 1740 pounds and is supposed to gross at 2720#. I can get 185-190 mph and stall dirty at 54mph. It's really quite the performer on 225hp.
I had a Navion with an IO520,,, thing climbed like smoke. The bonanza killed the Navion by being just a hair faster,, but the Navion wing was a high lift wing, not high speed
The ergonomics of the Bonanza were not completely rectified in 1962. While they separated the gear and flap levers, they put them in positions opposite to those found in other aircraft. It is therefore very easy to accidentally raise the gear while you are adjusting the flaps if your hand goes to the wrong switch. This was later changed a couple of decades later so now some Bonanzas have the gear on the left and the flaps on the right while others have the flaps on the left and the gear on the right. I’m a member of a club that owns a Bonanza and we had a 20,000 hour airline pilot raise the gear during a touch and go thinking his hand was on the flap control. The AC elegantly settled on its belly. We now forbid touch and goes in the airplane and train to not raise flaps until you are clear of the runway. The engine controls are also located below the control column that penetrates the dashboard in the center of the dash. Though corrected on later models, in most Bonanzas the line of sight to the engine controls is interrupted by a lot of control column structure, and it is imperative to learn the engine control placement by feel. It is very easy to pull the wrong knob. We had a pilot accidentally pull the mixture to cut off, thinking it was the power or propeller knob. He made an of field landing as a result. I did the same thing in early training with an instructor who allowed me to nearly kill the engine before pointing out that my hand was on the wrong knob. The airplane has a high climb speed, a low rate of climb at altitude, and a resulting shallow climb angle. We fly in the west, and flatlanders flying Bonanzas in the mountains often try to out climb terrain, often with out success. The long and short of the airplane is that it’s not as forgiving as many aircraft and has a lot of ways that it can bite you. I refer to it as a needlessly complex complex airplane. It handles and performs well and will practically land itself, but you have to be much more careful in this airplane than you do in other aircraft types to avoid mistakes.
Just shows you that no matter what plane you are flying you look before you move a switch.
@@johnmajane3731 exactly right! Except you can’t see the engine controls in an older Bo without dipping your head down and over. They are hidden under the control column. Perfect for IFR disorganization.
@@glenwoodriverresidentsgrou136 that doesn't seem to be a problem for me given the knobs are very different. But I can still see them. The throttle and mixture are in the original location but there is propeller control knob also. That is because it has the Hartzell conversion.
@@johnmajane3731Exactly sir. I had the pleasure of owning a 1958 J35 for a few years in the early 90s. It had an entirely original panel with those "confusing" control layouts. Throttle, prop, mixture were all the ivory colored originals, no PlaySkool blue and red knobs. Four years with it, never had any trouble. The old Bonanza is an elegant machine that needed a bit more pilot focus and sensitivity than the pedestrian 172s and Cherokees, and I didn't have any problem granting that consideration. As Hartman said, "Move the rifle around your head! Not your head around the rifle!"
Prepping to take the test on my private pilot license (August 1980). A gentleman and I can't remember his name who was quite old. He could only teach ground school.
Talking to him after going through the prep for my written. He told me what he called the true story about the V tailed Bonanza's.
He told me contrary to popular belief the V tail caused quite a bit controversy. And that it wasn't until after they actually had built one and saw it flying that they decided to produce it. But not for the reasons most pilots think. It was simply because you could see the V tail from great distances, and could tell what it was at a glance. That is what he told me was the only reason that it was actually produced.
I only saw him that once. And I asked the owners whom were friends of my dad at the FBO I was going to school at. They did know about that, but they did know that he did work for beach and was quite high up in the upper management Once upon a time. Take it with a grain of salt. And Make your own decision.
I own Bonanza 1958 j35 N514K very cool plane to fly
I have a 1957 H-35 Bonanza. It's got the old "shotgun" panel where stuff is all over the place. Beech put the landing gear switch where Cessna puts the flap switch. So everyone learns to fly in a Cessna 150. I was taught by a Canadian bush pilot (my primary instructor) to raise the flaps as soon as you touch down, so that the wing makes less lift and the brakes are more responsive. This could cause real trouble in an old Bonanza as you think you're hitting the flap switch but you actually retract the gear. So far I've not done a "gear-up", but I do the GUMP check at least four times on every landing! (Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop)
Hate? Never, love always, as for faulty gear I know a few 35-s still flying. They lived this long with good reason.
Dad had a partnership in his first Bonanza and then purchased his own later on. I helped with a gear test on a couple of occasions. The gear would come up, but not come down. My task was to crawl into the back seats and operate the emergency hand crank. Once unlocked, the gear came down on its own by gravity. It turned out the electrically driven cable operated gear had a faulty cable. A new cable fixed things up. Great plane, but you had to pay attention as it was very clean and could quickly exceed its safe design speed in a dive and end up ripping off the tail.
This is nonsense. The Bonanza landing gear is mechanically connected to an electric motor. It cannot gravity freefall.
The emergency hand crank disconnects the gear from the electric motor. I know, cause I've done it!@@smark1180
@2:12 The early Bonanzas did not seat 6.
The Bonanza and the Cessna 195 both came out in 1947. The Cessna 195, while absolutely beautiful. Looked like it was right out of 1936. The Bonanza looked like it was right out of 1964. It was way ahead of it's time. The 195 had an old style radial engine. While the Bonanza had a modern new style flat in line engine. The 195 was a big tail dragger that sat with its nose way up in the air. Making it hard to see forward around that fat engine. To taxi the pilot would have to do S-turns down the taxiway to see where they were going. They also had to learn not to ground loop their plane. The Bonanza had tricycle gear that was easy to taxi, take off and land with. Plus it was a smaller plane. Easier to handle and to hanger. I cannot think of anyplace that the 195 had an advantage over the Bonanza.
Also, the Germans in WWII played around with the V-tail too. They even created v-tail prototype of the BF-109.
The Bonanza never had an inline engine. All its engines were horizontally opposed.
The Cessna 195 was a 5 seater and the early bonanzas were 4 seaters.
Did you count them all by yourself?
Nothing wrong with the gear if maintained.
To use a tired phrase, planes don’t kill people, people kill people.
Less intersection drag.
my dad hade one i'd fly it in the right seat all the time with him by the way he bought it from a DR. LOL. wonderful aircraft
The Cirrus SR22 line is the modern day doctor killer.... Same reason. Too much plane for an inexperienced pilot. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you are good enough to fly it.
The Bonanza was known as a doctor killer for the following reasons. 1) A new doctor suddenly has money that he/she never had before. 2) He/she is very smart and flight lessons would be a breeze compared to medical school. 3) So they start flight lessons one to two afternoons a week. 4) God, those Bonanzas look fantastic and they can now afford one. 5) With 120 hours under their belt they buy one. They are above average intelligence (see #2) So they will be ok. 6) in a year or so. People from the Civil Air Patrol, like my dad, are soon looking for them. Finding them where they stalled and spun in 2 miles from their destination airport. Or find them about the place they ran into a cold front and iced up.
So, if you want to buy one of these absolutely beautiful and fantastic airplanes. Remember this is much like buying a Ferrari. It takes skill to handle it., So try to wait till you have about 500 hours flying a Piper or a C182 first.
*bloody deathtrap v tail nearly took my life. See g-atsr in UK*
why does he talk like that