This is the story of owning and operating a 1993 Beech Bonanza A36 in the UK and some of its adventures.
Great news. Our Beech Bonanza has now passed its flight test with flying colours (excuse the pun) and is now ready to go back in the air. We are just waiting for the CAA paperwork to be issued which we hope will just take a few days.
Today I got taken to Cornwall in a Piper Seneca but as a passenger in the back seat. The weather for flying was amazing and I got a spectacular view of the Welsh coast from low level. It makes me reliase once again (as if I hadnt already realised) that we are so lucky to be able to fly aeroplanes.
The Seneca is a wonderful machine for all you twin fanciers and can be rented from Pool Aviation in Blackpool. It must be the best Seneca in the UK with every conceivable piece of equipment including a full glass cockpit.
I still prefer the Bonanza A-36though because for significantly less fuel 15 gallons against 24 for the Seneca you can still carry the same amount of people and the Bonanza A-36 is a good 20 knots faster for that fuel burn. Actually the Seneca is a turbo plane so would no doubt be much more effient the higher it gets but my Bonanza makes me happy (or at least I hope it will in a few days!
Last Friday an engineer was scheduled to complete a final flight test of the Bonanza G-FOZZ so that it could be put on the G register.
I understand from Pool Aviation that after much reading of the POH the flight test commenced and was going swimmingly until the pilot tried to raise the gear during a low power run. The gear wouldnt go up and so the pilot decided that there may be a lnading gear problem and declared and emergency and landed the plane safely. The engineers at Pool Aviation were left scratching their heads and wondering what had gone wrong as there had never been a fault before.
Suddenly somebody realised that the landing gear on Bonanza's (or at least on this vinatge A36 Bonanza) will not raise when lower power settings are selected. This is a safety device to stop people raising the gear inadvertently when they are coming into to land.
The engineer was called and agreed that this was a mistake and a new flight test is due to take place today hopefully. If the plane passes the test then there will be some final paperwork to do and then G-FOZZ should be back in the air at long last.
Today Avgas hit 1.06 (pounds) per litre at Blackpool plus VAT of course. I was working out what impact that had on me and I realised that during the last 12 months it had pushed up each hour of flight by over £15. That is a hefty sum to add to an already expensive flight.
I have just been to Blakpool airport and the Bonanza is back together in one piece and has been polished by Pool Aviation and looks fantastic. Tomorrow the FAA guy is coming and hopefully he will issue us with an export CofA. Then the form will go off to the CAA and we can start chasing them to come out and look at issuing a Easa CofA. That will be it then apart from the bill to pay (will I will detail on here).
This monring were repainting the wing walk area as the black stuff was a bit faded and has always not looked as good as it should so hopefully by the end of it my Bonanza wil look really good. I am really looking forward to getting back in it but the worst news is that the plane is hopefully going to be ready sometime next week when I have to go away on holiday. I suppose it is something to look forward to when I get back but another week without flying G-Fozz (as it is now named) will drive me crazy.
