This is the story of owning and operating a 1993 Beech Bonanza A36 in the UK and some of its adventures and flights.
Yesterday I made my worst landing ever in the Bonanza A36 at Exeter to attend a football game. I learned a bit about how much crosswind the Bonanza can handle and also how much crosswind I didn't want to handle again!
We I set off to Exeter the weather was great, if a little windy at this end and after a FL100 jaunt we descended into Exeter on the ILS and as we got down to 2000ft it became apparent that the forecast decrease in the crosswind had not materialised. I ended up on finals with a 1 mile wind check of 18kt directly across the bows. The Bonanza recommended crosswind limit is 17 knots. I thought I would give it a go because it was a long runway. I applied my best crosswind technique and managed to position myself over the runway about 30ft up and drifting one way then the next. I finally chopped the power and slammed the sturdy rears onto the tarmac with a thud. This was not my finest piloting hour. The landing was utterly crap!
After landing we got a windcheck at gusting 23kt's so I guess in fact we were substantially exceeding the recommended limits.
The match was great and the return flight was uneventful but I learned from this that the recommended limits are just that. If a skilled test pilot suggests that then I should knock an amount of it and make that my limit. I also learned that I didn't enjoy that landing.
The landing fee was an outrageous £51.03 including non existent handling. The only thing they handled was the bill! That said they were very pleasant.
