What I did last Saturday-

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by 304065

Well, that depends on whether it's straight or V-tail and your proximity to turbulence!

One of my first airplane rides ever was from Falcon Field to the Grand Canyon in an old V-tail. In the way-back. I could have used a caging knob for my eyeballs.

Great photos and story!

Both of the short-cabin Bonanzas, V-tail and straight -tail, will wiggle in turbulence. The V-tail wiggles a bit more, but they are very similar. Not much is felt in the front seats, as you're sitting on the pivot point. The rear seaters, however, are continually tossed to and fro.

If I have any back seat passengers in rough air, simply resting one foot on a rudder pedal knocks out 90% of the wiggle. Might loose a knot or two in airspeed, but that sure beats cleaning up a used lunch off the carpets. So far (knock, knock), nobody has had to use the barf bags kept in the seat pockets.

[widgeon13]

My son has a V tail, they were known as the "doctor killers".

[t6dpilot]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

My son has a V tail, they were known as the "doctor killers".

Forked tail doctor killer, sir. For all you Beech fans out there, you need to visit Tullahoma, TN in mid October for the annual Beech Party. Used to be the site of the just the Staggerwing Club and Fly-In for many years. Then expanded to include the Twin Beech and expanded the museum as well. More recently, the Bonanza and T-Bones have been included to make it a total Beech Museum and annual Fly-In. You need to check it out - nice clean, low key fun.

Been going off and on since I was a kid. My most fun moment...? Flying the cocktail hour entertainment - low passes...

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by t6dpilot

For all you Beech fans out there, you need to visit Tullahoma, TN in mid October for the annual Beech Party. Used to be the site of the just the Staggerwing Club and Fly-In for many years.

Pretty sure that is where Tony Barnum's P&W 985 powered '38 yellow Staggerwing has been living for at least the last ten years on display (last I heard he had donated or loaned it to the museum). Tony is a local famous (infamous? ) long time airplane guy... I used to keep my airplanes at his grass strip near Waterville Ohio (R.I.P. Rocky Ridge Airport ). He only flew it a handful of times in the several years I was there, but each time he did, he would barely use 1/2 of his 1800' grass strip.

Tony had a very colorful history in aviation. He was a navy pilot early in life IIRC and he is loaded with stories like recovering a Mallard from a jungle and flying it home across the Pacific with 55 gallon jury rigged auxillary fuel tanks (he has owned nearly half of all Mallards at one point or another). Ski flying in a Cub in a blizzard to save a woman who was in labor. Flipping a PBY in a river. Buying and flying home an old open cockpit New Standard bi-plane cross country in the winter.

[t6dpilot]

Cool story Tim. Yeah, that Staggerwing is still there I think - althought they did recently sell one of the long time museum residents to someone who restored it. Now that I think of it, that may have been the one. I had presented a program to the museum board (of which I am an honored trustee), to fly and display three airplanes to help generate interest in the museum. IIRC, this was the Staggerwing that I recommended we use (in addition to a Twin Beech and a very historic Model 35 Bonanza). The idea never went forward, but that sure is a nice Staggerwing. The B model Staggerwing is the toughest taildragger I have ever flown...

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by t6dpilot

Cool story Tim. Yeah, that Staggerwing is still there I think - althought they did recently sell one of the long time museum residents to someone who restored it. Now that I think of it, that may have been the one. I had presented a program to the museum board (of which I am an honored trustee), to fly and display three airplanes to help generate interest in the museum. IIRC, this was the Staggerwing that I recommended we use (in addition to a Twin Beech and a very historic Model 35 Bonanza). The idea never went forward, but that sure is a nice Staggerwing. The B model Staggerwing is the toughest taildragger I have ever flown...

The last time I knew of him flying it locally, he was flying it along with another NW Ohio guy in a T6 (Jerry Deaton) to an airshow in Kalamazoo Michigan. When he lowered the gear, the T6 pilot confirmed that his tail wheel did not retract..... Tony thought it over and then wheel landed the beast while dragging brake to keep the tail off the pavement. Once slowed up a bit while keeping the tail up, he manuevered onto grass then gently lowered the tail causing very minimal damage only to the gear door.

While most experienced taildragger pilots can envision maybe trying something like this in a cub or Citabria type plane, he did this with a gorgeous 450hp beast that he probably only had flown once or twice in the prior 12 months.