I think everybody will find “his” plane after a while. For me it’s the Beech Bonanza F33A. @Aviathor I know what you mean! I tried many planes, have flown the Arrow III for 8 years, and was absolutley happy with it. But then I bought the Bonanza, without flying it before and on the first flight I knew: this bird was build for me. Since 2,5 years know I was flying with her, now more then 500 hours and I never regret, that I have decided to buy her. She is perfect on ground, stable and fast in flight, can be flown full flaps on a minimum of 54 kts (we tried in the familiarisation training), so adding up a security margin a short field landing or take off is much easier then in a Cirrus, due to my experience. And not to forget: the useful load.
I agree that the F33A, or any Bonanza for that matter, is the nicest handling of all the IFR tourers of this class. Actually I always wanted one … for many years. And it lands beautifully. (I also think that the SR22 is very good for short field take-offs)
For the 54 knots it probably has to be pretty light, right?
For the 54 knots it probably has to be pretty light, right?
Tank 1/2 full, but 3 people with about 85 kilo each and one 21 kg labrador, no lugage on board. But it was the limit on the low speed side, 53 kts and we stalled but very smooth and with no problems to recover. And with 56 kts we have already flown some carefull turns.
Ok … :-) Did the guy (and the dog) on the backseat like that?
Impressive! But the F33A is well known to handle that nice (I heard that one has to be a bit careful with the CG, right?)
Well, since we are talking generally about planes we have flown…
PA38 Tomahawk
A totally shagged specimen (AOC holding UK FTO so to be expected 
) with 2cm of water on the floor and a litre (not kidding) of H2O in the fuel tanks after a night’s rain. Trim was useless. Lively but no fun to fly for any distance. Rapid wing drop in a stall – lethal if you got a stall below 500ft. Recommended to someone who you don’t like.
C152
Easy plane to fly, easy to land (little ground effect). Very safe in new hands.
PA28-161/181
Easy to fly, needs right speed to land (10kt too fast and you glide another 300m). Light ailerons. Very safe in new hands. The -181 had a reasonable amount of power.
TBM850
Easy to fly, stable, very solid feel. Obviously slightly heavy controls. If you can fly a TB20 you can fly this one right away (with systems training) basically safely.
SR22
Good handling. Flies very similar to the TB20. Didn’t like the spring-loaded sidestick; results in a sore wrist unless autopilot used most of the time (confirmed to me by many owners).
Cessna 400
Good handling, similar to the SR22 but much more precise, with a very direct feel to the stick. A real pilot’s plane, very quick and beautifully built.
DA42
Good handling. Flies similar to the TB20 but slower roll rate and more susceptible to turbulence. Centre stick not ideal for a tourer (needs a cut-out kneeboard).
RV8
Great handling, the most responsive controls I recall but still easy to fly around. Build quality clearly builder-dependent!
TB20
Great to fly, my all time favourite. Heavy ailerons but very precise; two fingers is enough for most flying. Relatively light in pitch. Very stable. 1800+hrs in mine now.
as i am only vfr i give u my few cents
i have been flying c150, 172 182 Archer Arrow 4 TB10 and F33A
182 is great for short take off massive payload long range MOGAS possible easy to fly absolute great airplane
the arrow i found a bit on the slow side (non turbo) and in need for long take off runways when hot but also long range was nice
TB10 i only did about 25hrs i liked a lot the 2 doors handling was easy but i was a bit unhappy with the cruise speed for traveling longer distance so thats why i sold it again
got since 6 month now a F33A I must say best handling I ever had so far unreal stable and a beauty to land and also great cruise speed cabin space is OK best ever seen build quality for me (never had anything very new so maybe my compare is not correct towards any newish plane) my wish for the F33A to make it perfect would be
a bit more fuel in the tanks (300ltr would be great) i know tip tanks exist but i been told that they are a bit of an hassle to have them “legal” on a EASA reg (but this might be old wives tales) payload is ok but CG could be better as this limits a bit (again tip tankswould help a bit) and I am missing the 2 doors ( in the meantime I am very happy with the massive baggage door that helps me to load my sometime bulky loads)
so I guess there is maybe only a Saratoga or Beech 36 for me to try as for me a composite plane is a no option for me (but that is a other story)
So i carry on learning and discovering further about the F33A and keep on dreaming about the next one hahaha (Malibu and Extra 400 will remain out of my finacial reach!)
Adam, I know you skipped, for the time being, the Shrike in your Twin Commander fleet, but despite this I wonder whether Mr R Hoover would agree with you on the Aerostar, and not vote for the Twin Commander instead.
He might! Hoover certainly flew the Commander like no one else, but although not unpleasant in any way, they’re much more lumbering and stable. Which is good. But the Aerostar just feels like a race car.
One of the most fun things in the Aerostar was the descents on IFR flight plans coming back to LA. Because of the mountains around the city, ATC always had to keep you high and then descend you last minute. With the high Vne of the Aerostar, when you got the late descents, you just pushed the nose over without reducing throttle. Just took the speed. In no time, you’d be right up against redline and screaming down at 260kts. My home airport was pretty close to the mountains, so inevitably, I’d be at 6000ft above it. The procedure was to take you out to PDZ VOR and then turn you back for the approach, but if WX was fine I always cancelled right above it and then just descended to pattern altitude from there. Those were the most fun approaches ever when you came back at night and there was almost no traffic, because you could really trash her around when you carried that much speed and needed to lose 4600ft quickly. I used to just bank her into a 60 degree turns in a high and wide pattern. It was so much fun. I do miss that.
Flyer59 wrote:
Did the guy (and the dog) on the backseat like that?
Impressive! But the F33A is well known to handle that nice (I heard that one has to be a bit careful with the CG, right?)
No problems with the dog, next flight she went straight ahead towards the plane. :-)
On the same day I was also once the guy in the backseat. To be honest, I did’t like it to much, but it was okay.
CG is an issue, but can be handled. I.e. we removed the 5th seat, and installed TKs and the heavier IO 550 moved it a little bit forward. Having 4 Persons on board, you should take care while landing to move the backseats in the most forward position. Like the frontseats they can be moved horizontal too, and this has a recognisable impact on the CG.
1. Klemm 35, great(est) aircraft. Even for touring with nice luggage capacity(for its class).
2. Piper Cub, not so much the handling but the whole experience is always great.
3. Cessna Caravan, great aircraft that can haul a lot of stuff in and out of tiny strips.
Dogs in airplanes?
No problem. And just wait for the face of the ramp checker if you introduce him to your legal assistant
