Beautiful plane. My dad owned and flew a Piper Comanche for a lot of years. Good memories flying with him. He loved the Bonanza also. He said it can have issues in strong crosswinds due to the V-tail but that may have just been an old pilots'/wives' tale that he perpetuated.

Wow! Really nice

Very nice! I too an jealous!

If it's not too personal, can you share what something like that goes for? I hope to do the same thing one day - my own plane.

thanks - and congratulations!

quote:

Originally posted by 1KPerDay:

Beautiful plane. My dad owned and flew a Piper Comanche for a lot of years. Good memories flying with him. He loved the Bonanza also. He said it can have issues in strong crosswinds due to the V-tail but that may have just been an old pilots'/wives' tale that he perpetuated.

Crosswind? No more problems than any other comparable airplane.

Per the POH (Pilots' Operating Handbook), which is "the Bible" for operating the airplane, the demonstrated crosswind component is 17 knots (approximately 19.6 mph).

This figure is not a limitation, it is a record of the maximum crosswind that was encountered during certification test. If the weather does not provide anything higher, that's the number that is published.

When Dr. Dan, SigMonkey, and I, flew to NC for an open house at Jeff Yarchin's place, there was some pretty significant weather on the return trip. For the landing at Our Little Airport we had reported crosswinds of 23 knots at 80° to the runway, so about a 22.5 kt crosswind component. The v-tail handled that with no problem. Not sure that I'd want to try that in, for example, a Cessna 172 (which has a conventional tail configuration).

Dang, I figured you bought one of those little gadgets for your desk- you know, the...uhhh...little desk things.

Never mind.

Congrats on your new wings. Their is a Bonanza expert at KFNL if you would like his info, let me know. Fly safe.

Congratulations.

I would like to ask probably a dumb question to the plane crowd assembled but what function or purpose do the end of the wings serve in that teardrop/tank like shape?

I always have wondered if those serve a purpose.

Thanks for the education.

HK Ag

Congrats and enjoy !!! God Bless !!!

quote:

Originally posted by HK Ag:

I would like to ask probably a dumb question to the plane crowd assembled but what function or purpose do the end of the wings serve in that teardrop/tank like shape?

I always have wondered if those serve a purpose.

Third party aftermarket add-on. The main fuel tanks in this model are in the wing, 40 gallons on each side.

The tip tanks are auxiliary tanks, the ones shown in on aileron's plane hold 20 gallons each, so they increase the fuel capacity by 50%.

My v-tail did not have these, so I had 80 gallons total. At high speed cruise, I burned 15.5 gallons per hour, so planning to land with at least a 45 minute reserve on board, I had enough fuel for a four hour flight.

With another 40 gallons from tip tanks, that would have stretched my range to six and a half hours (plus reserve). I need to get out and pee before that.

Here's a photo of mine, very similar, but without the auxiliary wing tip fuel tanks:

^^^^^^^ Thank you V-Tail

Tip tank fuel tanks, I'll be.

My initial thought was fuel but then over thought it to say, "there is no way that fuel could be all the way out there".

Thanks again.

HK Ag

cool

99% of my flight time is in high wing Cessnas, only have a couple hours in a Piper for my sum total low wing flying.
Definitely would be interesting to get some time in a Beech.

Congratulations! I just love it when someone gets what they have wanted for a very long time, enjoy it.

... that is a great looker ... flies as well as it looks ... this type is likely a well kept secret ...

I don't a thing about airplanes, but congratulations on a huge purchase! I can only imagine the thrill of flying your own plane!

quote:

Originally posted by HK Ag:

Tip tank fuel tanks, I'll be.

My initial thought was fuel but then over thought it to say, "there is no way that fuel could be all the way out there".

The tip tanks in the Bonanza are auxiliary range-extending tanks.

Cessna took a different approach with the 310 series, where the wing-tip tanks are the main tanks -- in fact, they were the only tanks in many of the early production models. The next step was auxiliary tanks in the wings, where most light airplanes have the main tanks.

It's been a while since I flew a 310, but if memory is correct, the tip tanks on the model that I flew held 50 gallons on each side, with the in-wing aux tanks holding another 20 gallons on each side, for a total of 140 gallons.

Here's a 310:

That’s a great looking airplane Aileron. Enjoy

Was reading this thread again & remembered the S35 (IIRC) that you'd tried to buy

quote:

Originally posted by mojojojo:
Very nice! I too an jealous!

If it's not too personal, can you share what something like that goes for? I hope to do the same thing one day - my own plane.

thanks - and congratulations!

An older (50's) V-tail can be bought for under $100K. It's possible to spend $300K or maybe a bit more for a perfect and restored V-tail from the late 70's or early 80's. Mine was somewhere towards the middle. Used airplanes, like used cars, are stupid expensive right now. I probably paid too much, but time will tell how good of condition it really is in. I figure I'm spending my kid's inheritance...and you can't take it with you.