Flying the Beechcraft Bonanza

This weekend I flew in the Beechcraft Bonanza twice. On Friday I did a local area familiarization flight from Renton and on Saturday we went to the Tri-Cities area in Eastern Washington (to Pasco airport). It was Mother's Day weekend, and Amy's mother lives in Kennewick which is one of the Tri-Cities. Pasco airport is the largest airport near where she lives. There is an airport that is closer to her home but it was shorter, and for my first flights in a Bonanza I wanted a long runaway.

I had been preparing to fly the Bo by reading John Eckalbar's book "Flying the Beech Bonanza". I had also been given a manual for the V-35, V-35A and V-35B versions of the Bonanza and a checklist that Kent had prepared.

My first flight (as PIC, I have flown in the right seat of Bonanzas twice before - once about 3 years ago and then when I was considering the partnership) involved the usual pre-flight things. There isn't that much unusual about the pre-flight -except that the cowlings completely open using a screwdriver to turn the quarter turn locking screws. There is a lot more visible this way than in the Cessna's and Pipers I am used to. Another useful thing that Kent advised me of to lower the flaps after switching the battery master on. The Bonanza has two different switches, one is the battery master and the other is the alternator master. They are proper flip switches and not piano keys like in the Cessnas (some Cessnas have split piano keys that serve the same function as the two different switches in the Bonanza).

The start process was the same as most fuel injected engine. The throttle is fully open, mixture is rich and the auxiliary fuel pump switch is flipped on till fuel pressure peaks. Then its master and mags on and the engine is started.

This is when I encountered the vernier throttles. The Bonanzas power controls (throttle, prop & mixture) are operated by rotating them in a vernier action. There is a button on each control that can be depressed for quick action in the conventional way but that is used only a few times in a typical sortie. I used this button when I first started the engine and over-revved the engine. I had to hurriedly pull back on it to make sure we didn't head for the hangars!

The impression from the pilot's seat is one of solidness. The seating position felt very comfortable, and I didn't have to fidget with up/down rotating handles or seatback rotating handles like I have to in the Cessnas. The seat slides back and forth but otherwise the default position fit me like a glove. The rudder pedals feel solid and comfortable as well.

Taxiing was easy and the visibility on the ground was much better than I am used to than even the low wing Piper Arrow. There is lots of window area and the visibility is great. There is nosewheel steering available much like the Cessnas. This was missing in the T-34B that I flew in the Navy Flying Club in Atlanta and taxiing using differential braking was required for the T-34B. The T-34 is based on the Bonanza wing and gear but the lack of nosewheel steering is an interesting difference between the T-34B and the Bonanza.

The runup has all the usual items and I just had to get used to using the vernier on the throttle and mixture. The instrument panel is laid out more logically than the Cessnas in my opinion. One issue is that the circuit breakers and light switches were on the bottom of the panel and the big two pilot yoke hid them. Till I get used to it and know where the switches are, I will have to duck around and look for those breakers and switches.

Takeoff was normal, acceleration pretty brisk with the 285 hp IO-520. One thing I noticed was the tendency of the right wing to lift. I am not sure whether that is a result of the rudder-aileron interconnect and my corrections on line up with the rudder or it was just a cross wind that sprang up.

The Bonanza pilot's handbook calls for liftoff at 71 kts and has a speed which I had not seen in any other handbook. It is a "speed at 50 ft" which is 77kts and is equal to the Vx (best angle of climb) speed. Vy is 96 kts and cruise climb is 107 kts. Kent tends to use mph and I prefer to use knots. The airspeed indicator indicates knots on the inside scale and mph on the outside and the handbook lists speeds in both so it works for both of us.

The climbout looked to be shallow from the cockpit, but even at cruise climb we were climbing at 700 ft/min. The climb is made at 25 in of MP and 2500 rpm. Cruise is at 23 inches and 2300 rpm. The mixture is leaned till we see 15 gph of fuel flow, which reaches the EGT figure for cruise. This is how the partnership runs it engine and since the engine is running strong way past TBO, I am not going to mess with it!

We went out the practice area close to Lake Sammamish. The view out is fantastic. Even though there is less glass area than the Eagle, there isn't the upper wing to block the view. You don't realize what you are missing in a Cessna! Even the view downwards for the pilots (sitting ahead of the wing) is fabulous.

The aircraft handling is superb with light ailerons and elevator (though trim is definitely needed). There is very little rudder pressure needed, though one needs to hold some rudder in climb. I like the ball presentation on the turn and bank indicator. Overall the instruments come nicely to hand.

We tried standard rate turns to the left and right, steep turns for 360 degrees to the left and right. These presented no problems and the lightness of the control forces and the view made them easier to do than in a Cessna in my opinion. We then transitioned to slow flight.

In slow flight the aircraft got skittish at about 65 kts without flaps. Putting any flaps down at all increased the feeling of solidity and the stall occured at about 50 kts indicated. We didn't go into the break but into the stall warning. I don't remember any buffeting or any looseness in the controls with the flaps down, but that may be just me. We did turns in slow flight and the aircraft responded solidly without any signs of sloppy handling.

Once we were done, we set course back to Renton for a few landings. I still have to get used to the speed of the Bonanza which is about 10-15 kts faster than the 182RG. It was showing a 145 kt cruise at 23 square, which with the wind was giving us a 155 kt groundspeed.

I kept my usual 2000 ft on approach, but was having a hard time slowing down. We then dropped the gear and it slowed right down! But I will have to manage the energy much further out than in the draggy Cessnas and the square winged Piper Arrow.

The landings in the Bonanza are much easier than in the Eagle! It basically flys into ground effect and cushions out any flare errors. We did a couple of more landings. I got a little slow on the second one but instead of thumping in like the 182 it landed just fine. I have to still figure out the standard speeds to fly on downwind and when to let down the gear etc, but landings didn't present any problems.

The weekend was Mother's Day weekend and in the interest of flying off my insurance hours and making Amy happy - we decided to fly on Saturday from Renton to Pasco. Amy got a large fresh bouquet of flowers from the Redmond Farmer's market. Kent very kindly consented to fly with us. Our plan was to start from Renton at 1-2pm fly to Pasco (about 150 NM) in a total time of an hour and half, have late lunch/early dinner and then fly back.

The weather was a concern initially. Kent is rated IFR but there was icing forecast and the MEA is 9500 ft to cross the Cascades. The ceilings were 4500 or so. We planned to fly VFR across the Cascades and once over there was no concern as the eastern part of the state was severe clear. We took the safe VFR route over Stampede Pass rather than follow I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass. The valley leading to Stampede Pass is wide, allowing for a quick turnaround at any point. Also there are landing options along the valley. Snoqualmie on the other hand is pretty narrow and there aren't as many landing possibilities. Stampede Pass also has an automated weather station which allows us to get weather AT the pass.

We flew through the pass fine with plenty of visibility and ceilings and turned towards Ellensburg. I had to navigate to waypoint FEBUS which is on V-187 and avoids the Yakima firing range restricted area. The range was hot on the day. Then it was a turn south direct to Pasco. I did have some turbulence and had some Bonanza waggle which was easily damped out by putting pressure on the rudder pedals.

On the approach to Pasco, which was straight in, I again had to have a giant descent rate because I didn't descend and slow down early enough. This airplane is slippery!

But the landing went really well. We went on to Bergstorm Aircraft which is the FBO and flight school at Pasco (which is officially "Tri-cities" airport). Bergstorm rents out a Bonanza S35. We didn't need any fuel since we had only flown an hour and a half.

After a nice dinner we headed back to Renton. The reports were not encouraging, though Stampede Pass was showing a 1500 ft ceiling. The takeoff from Pasco was very nice, the scenery there is very different from the Puget Sound area with a lot more open space and not that many trees.

On the way back I practised using the wing leveler. It is a handy autopilot and will be very useful for holding wings level especially when looking at charts during IFR flight. It also does turns upto standard rate and I practised flying 5931S using just the wing leveler and pressure on the yoke bar (rather than the yoke itself). This way the wing leveller does its' thing without my hands interfering while I corrected any small altitude deviations for a well trimmed aircraft. I love the fact that the aircraft has aileron trim, one of the things I found really annoying was holding the yoke turned to one side or other especially in the Cessna 182RG to hold level flight. In the Bonanza, of course, you can change tanks so that there is approximately equal fuel in each tank, which you couldn't do in the Cessna.

We learned a good lesson about not making assumptions about weather and what it can do. Kent had said that in his experience if the pass is clear then valley beyond almost always has better weather. When we tuned into the ASOS at Stampede it was indicating 7000 ft ceilings with 10 mile visibility. But as we crested the pass, an ominous wall of clouds could be seen which obviously had reduced visibility and extended all the way to the valley floor. We made the right decision to turn around and land at Ellensburg. Again I was way high and fast and had to set up a high descent rate to get into the downwind but the landing was good.

We took a rental car (which is a story in itself) and drove home. That is a first for me! But I don't think this will be the last time this happens.