A New Way of Flight Training… - American Bonanza Society

www.bonanza.org
In March 2005 we flew to Cornelia Fort Airpark in
Nashville, Tennessee, to have the conversion done.
Two weeks later we were heading west to Colorado
with fresh IO-550s, new 3-blade (AD free) Hartzell props,
and big grins. The performance improvement of the
300 HP engines essentially gives sea-level performance of
the stock B55 Baron at my 5000-foot MSL home airport.
Similar improvements are seen in service ceiling, rate
of climb, and single-engine performance. The power
loading for this Colemill Baron is 8.5 pounds/HP at max
gross weight. For comparison, the power loading for
a stock A36 Bonanza is 12.6 pounds/HP, and a P-51D
Mustang is 8.1 pounds/HP. I know that I have flown solo
in N52KM at weights around 4000 pounds with actual
power loading under 7 pounds / HP. That makes for a
lively and “uplifting” flight!
The original (1998) avionics in N52KM were very
good, including an IFR certified GPS, KFC 200 autopilot,
and weather radar. However, the past decade has
been an awesome time of avionics improvements. We
made regular upgrades to the Baron that resulted in
the mostly glass panel that you see in the pictures. The
only round gauges remaining are the required standby
instruments and my old favorite, the Shadin Digidata.
This fuel computer and air data system is a very useful
tool and besides, it’s fun to read out your Mach number,
usually around 0.30.
The installation of the Garmin G500 PFD/MFD in
December 2009 gave me a digital interface to the KFC
200 autopilot for a silky smooth GPSS capability. The
solid state AHRS (Attitude/Heading Reference System)
in the G500 allowed the elimination of the KI 256 attitude
indicator (“iron gyro”) and its maintenance issues.
For someone like me who had been flying steam gauges
for over 40 years, it takes some serious training to become
comfortable with the Garmin PFD (tip of the hat
to BPPP). But having made that leap, I am very happy
with the outcome.
And did I
mention
that Mary is
also a pilot and
only slightly
less airplaneenthusiastic
than I am
12 AMERICAN BONANZA SOCIETY JANUARY 2012