Beechcraft Bonanza [what's with the V Tail? Is it Safe, is it really a Doctor Killer?]

let's take a look at the beachcraft bonanza in this video i'm going to cover some of the peculiarities about this aircraft one of which is obvious of course take a look at that tail what a distinctive feature but is it safe well stick around because i'm going to be covering safety but that's not the only interesting fact about the beechcraft bonanzas in this video i'm going to give you seven interesting facts about the beechcraft bonanza i'll also cover performance and specs and at the end i'll tell you about some world records set with beechcraft bananas and i'll also tell you what it's going to cost to buy one so let's start by going back to its roots the beechcraft bonanza is an american general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by beach aircraft corporation of wichita kansas the first model the model 35 had that distinctive v-shaped tail so here come the interesting facts and if you know more please add them in the comments fact one this six-seater aircraft is still being produced and has been in continuous production longer than any other aircraft in history fact two following on from that it's one of the most produced aircraft in the world with over 17 000 of them produced and out there in the world fact three it was one of the first post world war ii all-metal light aircraft which was a step up from the other fabric-skinned general aviation aircraft of the time at the end of world war ii the first of two all-metal light aircraft were the model 35 bonanza and the cessna 195. the cessna had a high wing fixed undercarriage in the tail dragger configuration and it had a huge seven-cylinder radial engine in contrast to bonanza with its low wing retractable tricycle undercarriage and opposed six-cylinder engine and streamlined shape made it look more like the sexy world war ii fighter planes of the time and that distinctive v-shaped tail even made it look ahead of its time so it was even relatively fast so there's no surprise why it was so popular fact four the bonanza 35 made use of rudovators which gives it that distinctive v-shaped tail a rudovator is a rudder and an elevator all in one fact five bonanzas have interconnected yoke and rudder pedals and that goes for all variants of the bonanzas not just the retail so all bonanzas share this unusual feature the yoke and rudder pedals are interconnected by a system of springs or bungees if you like which assist in keeping the aircraft coordinated in flight during turns so the pilot can make a coordinated turn using just the yoke during the cruise don't get too lazy though because rudder pressure is still needed at max revs to overcome the engine torque and p factor such as at times like at takeoff and fact six the aircraft bonanza gained a reputation for killing wealthy amateur pilots and game the name forked tale dr killer and this was due to many crashes and fatalities of over confident wealthy amateur pilots and some in-flight breakups in fact the name dr killer has sometimes been used to describe the conventional tale version so is it safe because it doesn't sound it with a reputation like that and the distinctive v-shaped tail is something different there are three main variants of the bonanza family the model 35 bonanza which is the one with the v-shaped tail that was produced between 1947 to 1982 the model 33 or debonair bonanza which had a conventional tail produced from 1960s to 1995 and the one that still produced today the model 36 also of a conventional tale produced from 1968 to present so those of you that are astute will notice that they actually stopped producing the v-shaped tail variant in 1982 so why was this well let's have a look in the late 1980s there were repeated retail structural failures so the united states department of transportation and faa conducted extensive wind tunnel and flight tests and they found that the v-tail did not meet type certification standards under certain conditions and ordered the v-tail to be strengthened which had a positive effect on safety beach in response has long contended that most retail failures involved operations well beyond the aircraft's intended flight envelope most retail failures occurred in poor weather conditions such as when flying into thunderstorms or conditions that brought on the onset of airframe icing a study taken on common single-engine retractable gear aircraft in the united states between 1982 and 1989 and this demonstrated that the bonanza actually had a slightly lower accident rate than other types in the study pilot error was cited for 73 of the cases in the v-shaped tail and 83 of cases for the conventional tail and aircraft-related causes accounted for 15 for the v-tail and 11 for the conventional tail so the conventional tail was a little bit safer by those metrics however there was one contributing factor in those accidents in the 80s and that was because of an unusually high incidence of gear up landing an inverted gear retraction on the ground due to a non-standard gear retraction switch on early models this poor ergonomics helps confuse the gear switch with the flap switch which is not what you want however as with most things there is a silver lining to this the bonanza 35's reputation as a v-shaped tail dr killer has lowered the purchase price of this sleek and unusual looking aircraft and you can argue that if you stick to fair weather conditions and stay within the flight envelope it's actually a relatively safe aircraft which brings us on to fact seven its safety record isn't actually that bad and not as bad as some suspect even for the retail variant but bonanza did stop production under retail and continue to make the conventional tail version which is the bonanza 36 so let's take a look at some specifications let's take a 2011 g36 model so this has a crew of one five passengers it can carry it has a 300 brake horsepower and in the cruise you're going to get 176 knots you'll get 760 nautical miles range out of it and you're looking at a service ceiling of 18 500 feet with a half decent rate of climb of 1230 feet per minute cost wise you're looking around three to four hundred thousand us dollars for a bonanza 36 but for a bonanza 35 you can get one for one to two hundred thousand dollars so a bit cheaper and that is on the used aircraft market looking at some notable flights then in 1949 a bonanza named and let me pronounce this right waikiki beach was the first airplane to fly from honolulu to the continental u.s and later that same year it flew non-stop from honolulu to tito borrow set in a non-stop record of 36 hours the airplane was later donated to the smithsonian air and space museum where it still lives today in july 2014 a world record was set by matt guf miller who was 19 years old and he became the youngest person to fly solo around the world accomplishing that guinness world record in a bonanza a36 with a flight time of 178.8 hours check out his channel where he goes over at his solo flight it's worth a watch so i'll put a link to that in the description below and that basically concludes the video it was a short video on the bonanza if you like this video please hit the like button it really helps the channel out and i've got more videos like this coming out so if you like this then feel free to subscribe until then though i've been pilot mike and safe flying

Channel: Stories of Aviation

Views: 303,862

Keywords: bonanza, v tail, v-tail, beechcraft, bonanza season 2, a36, takeoff, aviation, airplane, michael landon, a36 bonanza, vtail, beechcraft bonanza, flight, plane, flying, airport, aircraft, avgeek, planes, vlog, career in aviation, taking off, general aviation, airplanes, bose aviation, pilot life, pilot, Guthmiller, matt guthmiller, Waikiki Beach

Id: H-9hI2aDCkk

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021