Sunarise, she come in de mornin'...

[Paul K]

...spreadin' all de skirts all aroueoooweeooooweeeoooowwwwwnd...



Over the South Australian outback in the early morning, my new toy en route from Yalata Mission to Adelaide.




( Carenado's V35B Bonanza over FTX AU )

[cstorey]

Ah , it brings back memories . I shared a V35B Bonanza ( G - APVW) with a friend in the seventies, and we toured Europe in it. It was , however, in truth not the nicest aeroplane I've ever flown , because it tended both to porpoise and fishtail, and thus was not very pleasant to fly in on instruments . It was, however, very reliable and quite fast , spacious and economical

[Garry Russell]

Nice shot...spoilt a bit by the incorrect registration (belongs to a Piper Cub).

[Paul K]

Ah , it brings back memories . I shared a V35B Bonanza ( G - APVW) with a friend in the seventies, and we toured Europe in it. It was , however, in truth not the nicest aeroplane I've ever flown , because it tended both to porpoise and fishtail, and thus was not very pleasant to fly in on instruments . It was, however, very reliable and quite fast , spacious and economical

In that case, may I pick your brains on the handling characteristics, because we were wondering about them on another forum I frequent. Given the tail configuration, what was elevator and rudder authority like ? My impression is that the former would be reasonably okay, while the latter much reduced...is that about right ? Also, I am told they were 'unforgiving' in a bad landing...could you comment on that ? Very interested to know.

Garry, yes...I wonder why that reg was used.

Here's a few more shots...







Note in the second shot, the yoke has been toggled off - a very useful feature I think.

[cstorey]

Paul : it is now about 30 years since I flew it, but as I recall the handling was in fact very docile , with these characteristics:

1.Ailerons were reasonably effective but heavy(ish) and the roll rate was relatively slow

2.Elevator control always seemed reasonable, and although perhaps it did not have quite the authority of some light aircraft, it never gave us any problems. Certainly, there was not the feeling that in particular an Ercoupe had , of running out of elevator authority during the flare . Indeed, I recall once overdoing it and,even though I am reasonably tall, losing sight of the runway ( at StrathAllan) as a result and getting 2 or 3 feet off piste!

3.Rudder control was not an outstanding feature, but again, did not give overt problems. I cannot now remember what the crosswind limit was, but obviously one had to use a bit more care than with a conventional rudder, and in a strong crosswind the wing down method at the flare was preferable to the kicking it straight method , because large and sudden applications of rudder tended to affect attitude as well yaw . Also , the rudder was not very effective at picking a wing up during turbulence

4. I don't remember it being difficult to land . It was more successful if a "large aircraft" technique was employed of flying it on well above the stall warning level was used. IIRC we used 80 mph all the way down to the flare .Indeed, its whole feel was that of a larger aircraft

5.As I stated initially , its least attractive feature was that any turbulence tended to set off a (slight) porpoising and weaving motion which took quite a long time to decay , and which the autopilot ( which on our aircraft was rather primitive ) was not very good at dealing with, although it did not tend to drop out . In VMC this was merely annoying, but in IMC it made it rather tiring to fly because I always elected to hand fly it in turbulent IMC .

6.I do not recall there being big trim changes with flap or gear operation


I hope this helps . It was an interesting aeroplane, and its low drag characteristics gave it good performance and economy , but at the price of less positive control than later aircraft

Chris

[Paul K]

It helps enormously Chris, thanks very much for taking the time.

I'll try to see how much your real-world experiences of its handling characteristics are mirrored in the Carenado flight dynamics ( not very, I suspect ). I don't suppose you ever flew the conventionally-tailed F33 Bonanza did you ? Carenado do that as well, and I raised the question as to whether the differing configurations were apparent in how each model flew. The general response was inconclusive. Anyway, what you have said at least gives me something to gauge the V35B by.

Chris, may I have your permission to paste your observations at my virtual squadron forum ? There is a bit of interest in the Bonanza at the moment, including a real world pilot who lives down under, and I think he would be interested in what you have to say.

[cstorey]

Paul : sadly I have never flown a Bonanza with the conventional tail so I cannot offer a comparison . Feel free to re-post my observations, or indeed if anyone wants to e mail me they are free to do so . Incidentally, our a/c is now G-NEWT and is owned by Air Marshal Sir John Allison . If anyone is in touch with him, he will give you an up to date and highly informed view of the comparative capabilities, as he is also a display pilot at the Shuttleworth Collection

Chris

[Paul K]

Here you go Chris. I was looking for Bonanza paint schemes to inspire my attempts repainting the Carenado one, and came across your aircraft in its current registration.