Beech Bonanza A35

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Saw one today..in real life. I took my wife, Deb, over to her mom's house for the weekly girl's get together. Of course my mom-in-law insisted that I stay and eat lunch (green beans and baby potatoes with ham and onions and the corn bread that Deb baked last night...oh so good). After eating, I stepped out with my sis-in-law and aunt-in-law for a smoke. Heard a plane coming...and at first I thought it was a Mooney Bravo...sounded just like the Bravo in FS2004. But, it turned out to be a Bonanza A35 being flown by a pilot who had a need to get somewhere quickly because he had the hammer down. That beautiful V-tail was a sight to see. The first time I have seen a real A35....and hope it is not my last.

OBIO
 
I used to see a V-tailed Bonanza alot when I worked at KMSS years ago. There was one that came in just about every weekend. ;) Tho I think it was a C-35 model.

The "butterfly" tailed Bonanzas are no longer made. This is from the Pilotfriend website:

"The 10,000th Bonanza came off the production line in February 1977, but five years later, Beech discontinued production of the V-tail Bonanza to concentrate solely on the straight-tail Bonanza 36. Concerns over the safety of the V-tail design (and the resultant liability) undoubtedly played a major role in that decision. Independent studies found that the V-tail Bonanza had a fatal in-flight failure rate 24 times higher than the straight-tail version; a possible cause is the greater stress placed on the V-tail aircraft's tail and fuselage during pitch and yaw manoeuvres than on the straight-tail version."

And a link to their site..... http://www.pilotfriend.com/aircraft performance/Beech/bonanza.htm
 
Way back in the late 1960's one of the members of the gliding club I belonged to had a share in a Bonanza. He brought it to the club one and got it bogged down on the grass strip. It too a lot of work with spades and a careful towing with a tractor to free it. Once out of the bog, the wheels were locked with mud and the entire machine was a streaky brown instead of pale blue and white.

A couple of us cleaned the thing and were rewarded with a long trip in it. We flew over Stratford on Avon across to Coventry then to north of Birmingham, west across the Welsh border, then south east back to the strip.

At the time it was the most powerful aeroplane I had been in. I was used to gliders, Tiger Moths (still used a tugs in those days) Austers and Cubs. It was the first time I had experienced sustained negative G. A great trip, never to be forgotten.
 
The bonanza is my favorite GA aircraft. I really hope someone can make a good version of it. Carenado says they are going to do some new things that they haven't done before with theirs, so we will see.

I hope it gets 3D gauges! :kilroy:
 
My ex boss used to own one
i flew in it a few times
sadly he died in a plane crash
in his twin baron
just love the bonanza
a couple of friends of mine used to own one also
H
 
Would love to have a good A35 for FS9. I have one by John somebody I think (thought it was by Greg Pepper). Have tried to reskin the plane...but the way it is mapped, the fuselage and wings are so small that getting the panel lines to look right takes too much work to make it worth while.

OBIO
 
I have the one from Carenado. It's a bit dated but still nice. Lot's of good repaints for it to. Pretty cheap now too.
 
There were two styles of tail on the A35. The original tail was smaller and looked better, but the plane had a tendency to develop a wobble during flight. So, the tail was enlarged to eliminate the wobble, but there is some speculation that the enlarged tail created much higher levels of stress on the fuselage during pitch and yaw changes resulting in an in-flight failure rate 24 (I think this number is right....) times higher than the normally tailed A36 Bonanza. This high failure rate is what stopped production of the V-Tailed Bonanza and total concentration on the standard tailed Bonanza.

OBIO
 
I work on Bo's.
All the airworthy v-tails have the AD mandated reinforcment kits installed on the v-tail surfaces. To cure the "tail wag" many 35's have a ventral keel-like strake under the tail.
Nice planes, if you can afford Beech parts!
 
Actually it was the prohibitive cost of responding to the litigation that killed it. While the higher accident rate was true, it was rarely mentioned that the Bonanza was essentially the highest-performance light a/c of it's time and was often flown like many equally well-bankrolled people drove their Porches.. at/over the limit with a feeling of infallibility (why the nickname "V-tail Doctor Killer"??? hmmm..) - of course, the families also had high expectations of 'future earnings' and usually had expensive lawyers on retainer so Bonanza crashes almost always ended in lawsuits and rarely did anyone want to belittle the skills or maturity of the owners (bad for future sales).

Also, by the time the A36 was introduced, Beech(Raytheon) had come to insist that purchasers take 'advanced, high performance training' before delivery. A little knowledge goes a long way...

There is a decent model of the early -35 available:
<center>FS2004 VFD 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza A35
</center> <center>[SIZE=-1] [ Download | View ] [/SIZE]</center>
Name: bbonza35.zip Size: 12,186,663 Date: 02-10-2005 Downloads: 7,360
[SIZE=-1]
bbonza35.gif
FS2004 VFD 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza A35. Created using FSDS2.24 and using default gauges and sounds. Intended to recreat an early v-tail as accurately as possible. Includes 95% animated parts, detailed and animated VC, reflective textures, landing and nav lights, extending VHF antenna, checklist. By John Recker. Flight dynamics by Tom Goodrick.[/SIZE]

There are a couple of panel updates as well. Flies quite nice if you remember it's an EARLY Bonanza.
 
I have that Beech A35 installed and fly it at least once a week. Have spent a fair bit of time trying to get a decent repaint template made for the plane.....earlier today I was working on it and decided that the effort was simply not worth the product. The fuselage is mapped so small that trying to get any level of detail into the paint template is impossible. So, I will stick with the stock skin and be happy.

OBIO
 
Buddy Holly and Richie Valens were both killed in a V-tail.

Regardless of it's safety record, it's the coolest of the Bonanzas. With the possible exception of the T-34 and the Fuji-converted T-34 wannabes.

P.S. I'd really like to see the Twin V mentioned in the FSX Forum built.
 
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