Bryan Wood
Well Known Member
Hello all,
Well it's been a little over a year now since Sherri and I sold the RV and went to the dark side so to speak and purchased a Bonanza. I went cold turkey on VAF for 10 or 11 months to break the addiction, and then a few months ago started checking once a week or so to see what is happening here. This is like a chain smoker that quit somehow just lighting up once a week just for the heck of it. Probably a big mistake.
Anyway, I thought I'd give a pirep on life without an RV in case anybody else is considering going this route. Simply put, I'll probably need to build again at some point because once a person has owned and flown an RV a production plane doesn't seem to work for local flights "To get the juices flowing" per Ken Scott. If I start the Beech we need to be going somewhere because the cost is high to get it off the ground and up to altitude. That wouldn't have been something that I noticed likely if we hadn't had the ability to climb at close to 2,000 fpm at a much lower burn in our RV. The cheap gas in our area is 29 nm from my home field and I need to get up to around 4,000' to clear some foothills to get there. This 29 miles is a 5 gallon trip one way including taxi and runup. So in order for it to make sense to commute for gas the plane needs to have room for 46 gallons to break even at current prices. At this point I get a free ride. So as you can see this makes the Beech a poor choice to noodle around locally in which is something I used to do two or three times a week in the RV.
Once in the air though the Beech is a real joy to fly. While not as light on the controls as an RV it is pretty wonderful by spam can standards. What impresses me with this plane is the autopilot. The autopilot in my RV had every option available including alt. intercept, auto trim, etc., but it never rode like this STEC 50 does in the Beech. I think that being truthful the autopilot was my biggest disappointment with the RV, followed closely to arriving at a fly inn and seeing my paint scheme on another RV. (It's not like I could lay claims to it because the local artist who designed it had done it for a Lancair that was totaled in an accident. I then used it) Back to the autopilot... While it was priced right and had lots of features this STEC ride is far superior. This is probably blashemy in this arena but this is such a big improvement over the one in my RV I can't deny it. Comfort is a trade off because while the plane has leg room and headroom and a tilting pilot seat the entertainment features I had installed in the RV to make the time pass are sorely missed. I've begun to collect bits to do some panel changes to my Beech, but the choices are so pricey and limited compared to the homebuilt worlds offerings that I can't make myself commit to pulling the trigger on hardly anything. There is a huge mental barrier to get past when making a backwards transition from homebuilt to spam can.
Running LOP is really the only option when running a big bore Continental having gotten used to my 0-320 with electronic ignition in the RV. If I run the Bo at full throttle and 2,500 rpm ROP in the 6,500' range the fuel flow is between 16 and 16.5 gph. The plane is relatively fast when doing this, but I feel like a stooge doing it. So I back the prop down to 2,300 and pull to LOP and get the burns down to 12.4 gph. Even this hurt for a while because that was take off FF with the 0-320. We get about 168 knots with this set up with just Sherri and I on board which is good and I'll take it. To be completely honest regarding this I don't think even running LOP there has been a single flight where the fuel burn has not made me reflect to how good I had it with the RV. We can put a lot of ground under us at this speed, but then we could in the RV also.
The overall traveling experience though is really quite nice. Having not had the pleasure to travel in an RV-10 I'd have to say that the comfort, reduced noise level, and smoothness of the engine, especially with a 3 blade prop goes to the Beech. Obviously the RV-10 solves this in the RV lineup if it was indeed an issue to somebody flying a two seater. The ability to carry passengers and/or bags is great also. I did travel to Osh with 135 lbs in the baggage area of my 9A however. But I gotta say that we are enjoying the ability to take friends and our family members that don't fly with us on trips. This has truly transformed the mission and has been a lot of fun. If I was going to own an RV at this point as my primary plane I'd probably try to maintain a share of a 4 seat spam can to fulfil this. I justified the two seats for a long time, now I'd hate to be limited by it. Thankfully Van addressed this for people thinking this way.
So, having loved and lost... Or better stated I'd say that overall I'm happy with the trade and would indeed do it again. I realize though that my mission isn't your mission and I'm not selling this idea here. I'm just saying it was the right move for us. However, it has become apparent to me now that life is to short to be without an RV. I don't want to sell the Beech to have one, I want both which presents quite a challenge. As soon as I figure out which one fits my "New" mission since the RV will not be our primary traveling machine, my dreams of a Super 8 or Rocket don't make a lot of sense. If I thought I could order a tail kit today and not get hit over the head with a 2X4 I'd probably go with an 8 and install an 0-360 with GAMI's, eng. monitor, and constant speed prop. Until I can figure out how to afford to do this and have two airplanes it doesn't make sense to start building. But, this RV thing doesn't make sense if you try to rationalize it anyway. I learned that last time around. I can't believe this is coming forth, but I'm really getting the urge to build again. Oh crud, she's gonna throttle me.
Anyway, it's good to check in and see that everybody is doing well and the passion is still alive out there for this great hobby. Who knows, maybe there is another LOE or two in our future again. I'd like to hear from repeat builders. In my mind enjoying the build will be more of a player the second time around. The first I just wanted to start flying.
I realize that few here are likely to be dazzled by a spam can, but here is the Bonanza. It's old, a 1965 model but we like it.
http://www.beechbums.net/images/P1000451 019.JPG
Well it's been a little over a year now since Sherri and I sold the RV and went to the dark side so to speak and purchased a Bonanza. I went cold turkey on VAF for 10 or 11 months to break the addiction, and then a few months ago started checking once a week or so to see what is happening here. This is like a chain smoker that quit somehow just lighting up once a week just for the heck of it. Probably a big mistake.
Anyway, I thought I'd give a pirep on life without an RV in case anybody else is considering going this route. Simply put, I'll probably need to build again at some point because once a person has owned and flown an RV a production plane doesn't seem to work for local flights "To get the juices flowing" per Ken Scott. If I start the Beech we need to be going somewhere because the cost is high to get it off the ground and up to altitude. That wouldn't have been something that I noticed likely if we hadn't had the ability to climb at close to 2,000 fpm at a much lower burn in our RV. The cheap gas in our area is 29 nm from my home field and I need to get up to around 4,000' to clear some foothills to get there. This 29 miles is a 5 gallon trip one way including taxi and runup. So in order for it to make sense to commute for gas the plane needs to have room for 46 gallons to break even at current prices. At this point I get a free ride. So as you can see this makes the Beech a poor choice to noodle around locally in which is something I used to do two or three times a week in the RV.
Once in the air though the Beech is a real joy to fly. While not as light on the controls as an RV it is pretty wonderful by spam can standards. What impresses me with this plane is the autopilot. The autopilot in my RV had every option available including alt. intercept, auto trim, etc., but it never rode like this STEC 50 does in the Beech. I think that being truthful the autopilot was my biggest disappointment with the RV, followed closely to arriving at a fly inn and seeing my paint scheme on another RV. (It's not like I could lay claims to it because the local artist who designed it had done it for a Lancair that was totaled in an accident. I then used it) Back to the autopilot... While it was priced right and had lots of features this STEC ride is far superior. This is probably blashemy in this arena but this is such a big improvement over the one in my RV I can't deny it. Comfort is a trade off because while the plane has leg room and headroom and a tilting pilot seat the entertainment features I had installed in the RV to make the time pass are sorely missed. I've begun to collect bits to do some panel changes to my Beech, but the choices are so pricey and limited compared to the homebuilt worlds offerings that I can't make myself commit to pulling the trigger on hardly anything. There is a huge mental barrier to get past when making a backwards transition from homebuilt to spam can.
Running LOP is really the only option when running a big bore Continental having gotten used to my 0-320 with electronic ignition in the RV. If I run the Bo at full throttle and 2,500 rpm ROP in the 6,500' range the fuel flow is between 16 and 16.5 gph. The plane is relatively fast when doing this, but I feel like a stooge doing it. So I back the prop down to 2,300 and pull to LOP and get the burns down to 12.4 gph. Even this hurt for a while because that was take off FF with the 0-320. We get about 168 knots with this set up with just Sherri and I on board which is good and I'll take it. To be completely honest regarding this I don't think even running LOP there has been a single flight where the fuel burn has not made me reflect to how good I had it with the RV. We can put a lot of ground under us at this speed, but then we could in the RV also.
The overall traveling experience though is really quite nice. Having not had the pleasure to travel in an RV-10 I'd have to say that the comfort, reduced noise level, and smoothness of the engine, especially with a 3 blade prop goes to the Beech. Obviously the RV-10 solves this in the RV lineup if it was indeed an issue to somebody flying a two seater. The ability to carry passengers and/or bags is great also. I did travel to Osh with 135 lbs in the baggage area of my 9A however. But I gotta say that we are enjoying the ability to take friends and our family members that don't fly with us on trips. This has truly transformed the mission and has been a lot of fun. If I was going to own an RV at this point as my primary plane I'd probably try to maintain a share of a 4 seat spam can to fulfil this. I justified the two seats for a long time, now I'd hate to be limited by it. Thankfully Van addressed this for people thinking this way.
So, having loved and lost... Or better stated I'd say that overall I'm happy with the trade and would indeed do it again. I realize though that my mission isn't your mission and I'm not selling this idea here. I'm just saying it was the right move for us. However, it has become apparent to me now that life is to short to be without an RV. I don't want to sell the Beech to have one, I want both which presents quite a challenge. As soon as I figure out which one fits my "New" mission since the RV will not be our primary traveling machine, my dreams of a Super 8 or Rocket don't make a lot of sense. If I thought I could order a tail kit today and not get hit over the head with a 2X4 I'd probably go with an 8 and install an 0-360 with GAMI's, eng. monitor, and constant speed prop. Until I can figure out how to afford to do this and have two airplanes it doesn't make sense to start building. But, this RV thing doesn't make sense if you try to rationalize it anyway. I learned that last time around. I can't believe this is coming forth, but I'm really getting the urge to build again. Oh crud, she's gonna throttle me.
Anyway, it's good to check in and see that everybody is doing well and the passion is still alive out there for this great hobby. Who knows, maybe there is another LOE or two in our future again. I'd like to hear from repeat builders. In my mind enjoying the build will be more of a player the second time around. The first I just wanted to start flying.
I realize that few here are likely to be dazzled by a spam can, but here is the Bonanza. It's old, a 1965 model but we like it.
http://www.beechbums.net/images/P1000451 019.JPG
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