February 2006 - American Bonanza Society

It was a successful trip, but more open water than I evercare to see again in a single-engine airplane. Our longest overwaterleg was from South Caicos to St. Thomas. It was twoand a half hours with no land in sight.Safely back at Beech, and after the check pilot report waspublished (September 1966 Flying), Jack Funsch, one of mycontemporaries (and a former naval officer) asked me whatmade me believe we could all have gotten out of the airplaneif we had gone down at sea. Would we have been able to getthe life raft out before the airplane sank? Would it have inflated?He had a long litany of "what ifs" that ended with, "Didyou really expect someone to see that little yellow dot (liferaft) in that big ocean and rescue you?"Demonstrations to distributors, dealers and retailprospects began in earnest soon after my return to Beech.Although by now we had six different models of the Bonanzain production, our schedules for the next four years wereheavy with V35TC and then later V35ATC demonstrations.The distributors were of course working their airplanes,but especially after the production rate of the turbochargedBonanza fell to two airplanes per month, we felt a special obligationto sell and maintain that rate. We were under no illusionsas to the TBO on our demonstrators. With all those shortup-and-down demonstration flights, the engines and the turbosystems were bound to be taking a lot of punishment.We got new demonstrators about every 200 hours, so weexpected no problems. The harsh treatment of the engines wasjust a cost of doing business.Alan Wharry, one of my assistants, did have the startlingexperience of landing, shutting down, walking away and thenhaving someone stop him to tell him his airplane was on fire.Smoke was pouring from the cowling. It was coming from theturbocharger.An internal seal had failed and oil was burning. The firewas safely contained inside the turbocharger. Still, it didn'tleave the best impression on a prospect! 1 have other storiesbut I'll spare you all but one.One day we borrowed a turbocharged 210 from theCessna factOlY to see how the two airplanes compared. Theywere about equal on takeoff and initial climbout. But as westarted reaching altitude, the 210 Centurion began slowlypuLling ahead. I called a stop to the flight comparison and wereturned to Beech Field. It was obvious to me the turbochargedBonanza 1 was flying had either a serious leak in the inductionair system or the exhaust system or both.It also occurred to me that AiResearch may have unintentionallysupplied us with a certificated but inferior system.Cessna only had to deal with Continental Motors in their program.We, on the other hand, were primarily involved withAiResearch since they were responsible for certification.Beech was not in the strongest position to influence eitherContinental Motors or AiResearch, or their cooperation withone another.1 transferred to our Program Management Division inJune 1969, so my successor (Jerry Warner) inherited this possiblyunsolved problem. To my knowledge, it was neverlooked into further since production of the V35BTC endedduring the first part of 1970.Beech did not produce turbocharged Bonanzas again until1979 when the A36TC was introduced. This time a new-generationimproved TSIO-520-UB engine was used and theentire package was purchased from Continental Motors.Certification was a joint venture between Beech andContinental.Larry Ball began his 40 years 01 8eechcraft as a Bonanza service rep, held 13different positions in sales and administration and retired as a v.P. of IndianaBeechcraff. He authored four books about Beech aircraft; of( con be purchasedthrough Ihe AB5 Company 510re.1967 PRIVATE PILOT V35Te REVtEWPrivale Pilal reviewed the then·new V35TC in 1967, ftying the first TurboBonanza with lorry Boll and marveling at its fine appOintments at a bose price of537,750. The unidentified author was impressed at the AiReseorch turbocharger'sability to hold 32.5 inches of manifold pressure to 16,000 feet through use of onautomatic wostegote, and discussed oxygen requirements at length while applaudingBeech's foctory·instolled 0' system. He quoted lorry Boil's description of the-bootstrapping" phenomenon and highlighted the -Magic Hand" automatic georextensionsystem.The test flight hit 224 mph in cruise at 21.000 feet. The author concluded:-Hereis a fine, efficient. completely appointed 'time saver' that's comfortable and fun to flY:ABS member Greg Throop of Spokane, WA sent us a copy of the article and thisnote: -My father bought [a V35TC] in 1967. It was his fourth Bonanza. My fatherprobably couldn·t resist ... offer all, density altitude was the some in 1967 as it istoday. I still have N360T. [It has] only 1400 IT and it's just as sleek and fast as theday my father bought it." -@-Page 9452 www.bonanza .org ABS February 2006