I can't believe I am doing this, but I am putting my share in my beloved Bonanza up for sale.
I have had some much fun in and utility from this airplane - I got my commercial rating in it, did an instrument proficiency check in it, I flew to Oshkosh in 2010, my late father (ex Indian AF pilot) flew it with me to an aerobatic contest, I flew my wife & mother-in-law to my sister-in-law's graduation in Santa Barbara, I got "famoso" on Spanish TV with it and flew tons of friends around the Puget Sound area in this airplane including to the San Juans for kayaking, to Arlington for a fly-in, to Portland to attend a conference.
A perfect storm of circumstances, however is compelling me to cut back a little on my aviation expenses and time. First the happy news - my first born son arrived on January 19th. This was planned for and I would have been able to keep flying N5931S. But the most devastating personal loss was unexpected and sudden. My beloved father - my hero, friend, philosopher and guide passed away on December 6th. I now have responsibilities beyond just my nuclear family - and something had to give.
I may be begging someone in the partnership in a few years to sell his/her share to me.
Some basic facts - the partnership has six people in it. Most of them are long timers. The partnership, Renton Flyers Inc has been around for over 20 years and has had multiple aircraft with pretty much the same people with some additions/deletions. There is a CFI, a Commercial pilot, 4 IFR rated pilots and one doing his IFR in N5931S.
The partnership has endured through a lot - included a Musketeer, a Bonanza write-off and the acquisition of a new one. I joke that I found the perfect partners - old hands (some from the Big Airplane Company, Boeing) who love maintaining the aircraft but only fly it occasionally. In the last two and a half years I have flown 5931S for about 110 hours and the aircraft flew about 180 hours. Of course I was flying my Eagle and getting my seaplane rating during that time too, otherwise the time might have been higher. (The scheduling for all this was done on the web). Having six partners is manageable and reduces the fixed costs a lot!
Attached are a few photographs of the aircraft, just for gratuitous enjoyment.
Some fact and figures are below
ENGINE: Cont IO-520BA 285HP PROP: McCauley 3 Blade
IFR AVIONICS: Two KY-197 Coms, KNS-80 Nav/DME, KN-53 Nav, KMA-20,
KT-76 Transp. Mode C, KR-85 ADF, PS1000 Panel Mount Intercom, Garmin 295 GPS
EQUIPMENT: Dual Yoke, Beech Wing Leveler, JPI EDM 700 Engine Analyzer, Large Baggage Door, Vertical Compass Card, Heated Pitot, Speedslope Windshield, Strobe Lights, Post Lights, Shoulder Harness, Walker Air Oil Separator, Avionics Master, Digital Outside Air Temp.
The aircraft is in annual inspection as we speak. The last few annual inspections - owner(s) assisted have run us about $500. We try to do every 3rd/4th inspection with a Bonanza specialist (such as Avstar in Puyallup) so that there is a thorough inspection of everything.
In the last 5 years - the left wing rear spar has been replaced (there is an interesting mechanic story behind that one), new magnetos have been put in and three new cylinders have been put in. So, we take good care of our baby.
The engine is pretty high time, past it's TBO by over 500 hours. (I will put in the exact figure once I parse the engine log book). But I am a believer in Mike Busch's theory that TBO is a number that has unnecessary costs and risks associated with it. On condition inspection or "reliability centered maintenance" is the way to go. Mike Busch explains it in this article on Avweb. For those of you who are EAA members, check out Mike Busch's article "Is TBO a myth" from the February 2010 Sport Aviation magazine.
We monitor everything very closely - we analyze the log data from the JPI, we have not one but two different oil analyses done so that we can see if anything is heading south. John Deakin has some very interesting views on how one can tell an engine is doing.
My point here is not to convert you to the "run the engine till it dies" school but to suggest that when I bought into the partnership I did not worry to much about the high time engine based on rational thinking. The engine runs book figures and matches the book figures for TAS, fuel flow etc to the T. We verified this when I was doing my Bonanza transition with George Luck (ex-USAF test pilot and retired Chief Test Pilot of Boeing Kansas) according to the BPPP syllabus. I have the hand drawn figures on graph paper from that flight.
So lets talk about money - the fixed fee is $150/month. That covers hangar, insurance and any routine maintenance (including annuals and consumables). The wet cost for per hour flying varies according to the cost of fuel and has been between $95 - $110/hr in the two and a half years I have been flying it.
The hangar is on the South East side of Renton, right by Ace Aviation and access is through a security gate.
This would make an ideal airplane for a Private Pilot who wants to do X-country flying with family, get comfortable flying a high performance complex single which is an iconic airplane and get an IFR rating in their own plane.
I am asking $11,000 for my share. You can contact me at anandeep AT gmail.com or call me 425 891 8519.
If I come into an inheritance anytime soon, I can't promise I'll let you have it though. Alas, that is a remote possibility because I come from solidly middle class stock!
