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At 06:19 PM 3/17/2005, A J DeMarzo wrote: >Yea, it took them 30 years of production to figure out no one liked it. >Those 11,000 V units were quite a run! If I recall correctly, it actually took about 30 years for them to figure out that the first design of the spars left something to be desired. And a bit longer for them to figure out the combination of pilot error and tail design which was leading to a history of what looked to be inexplicable airframe failures. There were some tough times for the V-tail in the 80's, which is probably what led to Beech's decision to go with a more standard tail. Thankfully, most of that seems to be sorted out. Now if they can just get the T34 mess resolved, even more of these wonderful birds will be back in the air. >Yaw damper manufacturers love the >folks who can't fly with their feet on the pedals. Ooops, that's us >Ercoupers!!! Our Ercoupes seem to wag their tails a bit in turbulence as well. I don't really think that most pilots are going to be successful in damping out the Bonanza 'wag' with their feet. They'll probably make it worse. My friend Frank's V-tail has the damper and it works pretty nice. >I'm one that thinks a real Bonanza has a V tail. The Debbies and subsequent >Stretch Debbies were so named "Bonanza" by the marketing department in >order to save dollars. A Debonair and the 36's are Bonanzas with those >funny tails. Ah, a purist. Well, to each his own. I think my friend's 33 with a Bonanza engine and upgraded (to Bonanza standards) interior is pretty nifty and I'm jealous of it. My first Bonanza 'stick time' was an A36, and it's the one that converted me to a believer in the marque. Talk about a painting yourself into a marketing corner. A guy comes into our airport with a twin Bonanza. Man it sounds nifty with those barking augmenter tubes and the geared engines! And the 3-across-the-front seating with the throw-over to the co-pilot in the middle is just a hoot. But then they stuck two engines on the single Bonanza fuselage, and had what should have been the twin Bonanza, but the T-Bone had taken that name, so they had to come up first with 'Travel Air' (which hadn't just been used before it had been USED BY THE COMPETITION and talk about a godawful tail) and then Baron. It's a good thing they're all such nice airplanes. Greg ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
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