Beechcraft Bonanza V-Tail - Love, Hate and Faulty Gear 

I have a 1957 H-35 Bonanza. It's got the old "shotgun" panel where stuff is all over the place. Beech put the landing gear switch where Cessna puts the flap switch. So everyone learns to fly in a Cessna 150. I was taught by a Canadian bush pilot (my primary instructor) to raise the flaps as soon as you touch down, so that the wing makes less lift and the brakes are more responsive. This could cause real trouble in an old Bonanza as you think you're hitting the flap switch but you actually retract the gear. So far I've not done a "gear-up", but I do the GUMP check at least four times on every landing! (Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop)

It was called 'The Doctor Killer' because it was the nicest, fastest single engine plane that a rich, new pilot could buy. The doctors who bought it had a 'God Complex' which lead them to exceed their abilities and fly too fast and in bad weather conditions. And, if you exceeded the G limits pulling out of a dive and over stressed the tail, it would fold up.

My Father and his best friend flew a 1977 V35B N4FH around the world from Addison Texas. A second Bonanza flew with them and they hold the speed record for two planes around the world in formation.

The S and V35 are my favorites too.

Great video! The S35 and V35 are great airplanes for those who can afford the acquisition and fuel costs, but I would encourage those with less financial liquidity to consider the “e-series” Bonanzas (1947-1956) if they still long to join the V-tail club. 75% of the capability at 1/3 the cost.

Thank you for debunking the idea that Bonanza is a killer. Most Bonanza crashes were due to incorrect procedures on the part of the pilot.

The ergonomics of the Bonanza were not completely rectified in 1962. While they separated the gear and flap levers, they put them in positions opposite to those found in other aircraft. It is therefore very easy to accidentally raise the gear while you are adjusting the flaps if your hand goes to the wrong switch. This was later changed a couple of decades later so now some Bonanzas have the gear on the left and the flaps on the right while others have the flaps on the left and the gear on the right. I’m a member of a club that owns a Bonanza and we had a 20,000 hour airline pilot raise the gear during a touch and go thinking his hand was on the flap control. The AC elegantly settled on its belly. We now forbid touch and goes in the airplane and train to not raise flaps until you are clear of the runway. The engine controls are also located below the control column that penetrates the dashboard in the center of the dash. Though corrected on later models, in most Bonanzas the line of sight to the engine controls is interrupted by a lot of control column structure, and it is imperative to learn the engine control placement by feel. It is very easy to pull the wrong knob. We had a pilot accidentally pull the mixture to cut off, thinking it was the power or propeller knob. He made an of field landing as a result. I did the same thing in early training with an instructor who allowed me to nearly kill the engine before pointing out that my hand was on the wrong knob. The airplane has a high climb speed, a low rate of climb at altitude, and a resulting shallow climb angle. We fly in the west, and flatlanders flying Bonanzas in the mountains often try to out climb terrain, often with out success. The long and short of the airplane is that it’s not as forgiving as many aircraft and has a lot of ways that it can bite you. I refer to it as a needlessly complex complex airplane. It handles and performs well and will practically land itself, but you have to be much more careful in this airplane than you do in other aircraft types to avoid mistakes.

Did you know the wing on the Bonanza was used on darn near every Beechcraft airplane built. Queen Air, King Air, Barons, T-34 and more used the wing airfoil, it was that good. Unlike Cessna, Beech changed very little in the aircraft design since 1947. Look how many 210 major changes there were over the years. I have a friend with a Navion that shakes his head and askes "how can this thing go this fast?" . I have a D model that has the same 225 Continental as the Navion and it goes 50mph faster. It's 1740 pounds and is supposed to gross at 2720#. I can get 185-190 mph and stall dirty at 54mph. It's really quite the performer on 225hp.

Hate? Never, love always, as for faulty gear I know a few 35-s still flying. They lived this long with good reason.

A yaw dampener is available for the V tail bonanza. A fine airplane by any standard. They are great airplanes and fly to this day. The prop was electric and featured a low and high pitch and a automatic mode. Left in the auto mode it worked by going between low/high according to load conditions. These are still in use to this day and work just fine. Fine for take off and course for cruise. Not a fully adjustable prop but was years ahead of its time.

The Cessna 195 was a 5 seater and the early bonanzas were 4 seaters.

The Bonanza was known as a doctor killer for the following reasons. 1) A new doctor suddenly has money that he/she never had before. 2) He/she is very smart and flight lessons would be a breeze compared to medical school. 3) So they start flight lessons one to two afternoons a week. 4) God, those Bonanzas look fantastic and they can now afford one. 5) With 120 hours under their belt they buy one. They are above average intelligence (see #2) So they will be ok. 6) in a year or so. People from the Civil Air Patrol, like my dad, are soon looking for them. Finding them where they stalled and spun in 2 miles from their destination airport. Or find them about the place they ran into a cold front and iced up. So, if you want to buy one of these absolutely beautiful and fantastic airplanes. Remember this is much like buying a Ferrari. It takes skill to handle it., So try to wait till you have about 500 hours flying a Piper or a C182 first.

I own Bonanza 1958 j35 N514K very cool plane to fly

Dad had a partnership in his first Bonanza and then purchased his own later on. I helped with a gear test on a couple of occasions. The gear would come up, but not come down. My task was to crawl into the back seats and operate the emergency hand crank. Once unlocked, the gear came down on its own by gravity. It turned out the electrically driven cable operated gear had a faulty cable. A new cable fixed things up. Great plane, but you had to pay attention as it was very clean and could quickly exceed its safe design speed in a dive and end up ripping off the tail.

The Bonanza and the Cessna 195 both came out in 1947. The Cessna 195, while absolutely beautiful. Looked like it was right out of 1936. The Bonanza looked like it was right out of 1964. It was way ahead of it's time. The 195 had an old style radial engine. While the Bonanza had a modern new style flat in line engine. The 195 was a big tail dragger that sat with its nose way up in the air. Making it hard to see forward around that fat engine. To taxi the pilot would have to do S-turns down the taxiway to see where they were going. They also had to learn not to ground loop their plane. The Bonanza had tricycle gear that was easy to taxi, take off and land with. Plus it was a smaller plane. Easier to handle and to hanger. I cannot think of anyplace that the 195 had an advantage over the Bonanza. Also, the Germans in WWII played around with the V-tail too. They even created v-tail prototype of the BF-109.

@2:12 The early Bonanzas did not seat 6.

Nothing wrong with the gear if maintained.

Less intersection drag.

*bloody deathtrap v tail nearly took my life. See g-atsr in UK*

my dad hade one i'd fly it in the right seat all the time with him by the way he bought it from a DR. LOL. wonderful aircraft