Anyone here flown a Beech18 ?

[727C47]

i'm a former DC3 freightdog, my hat was and is always doffed to the Twinbeech guys,who had the more demanding airplane,and did it all single pilot. Godspeed !

 

[FreightPup]

Bootleggin' again here. Yeah, 727gm, you're right. I've got a fair amount of time in piston Beeches and "3's". If you flew a Westwind like those... look out! Trouble lurks on the horizon for sure. They're different creatures. We used to line up, get the RPM matched up, then advance to takeoff power during the roll - on the left engine alone. As the tail would start to become light, THEN, we'd start in with the right engine, eventually sorta' matching them up at takeoff power. At our weights, it was the only way to get them off the ground without torquing into the dirt off the left side of the asphalt. The tail end was HEAVY. Yes, the gross on most of them was 11,230. We typically flew them between 11,000-14,000#, in the days prior to deregulation... but I'll never admit to that in person.

N38L(SNB-5>TC-45J/WW-III) *Never flew it.
N202GW(E18S/WW-III) *The favorite @ Great Western Airlines. We had N8794 (A C-45 'ATE'), N10VT, 12VT (Dee Howard), N11AB (Dee Howard & ATE... so we called it "Abortion"), N201GW, N202GW, N521GP, N342T (Hamilton).
N5653D(E18S/WW-III) *Flew it @ Stage
N909GP(E18S/WW-III) *Flew it @ Check-Air & Mountain Air Cargo (As well as N153GP)
N961GP(G18S/WW-III). *Flew it @ Stage

They're interesting beasts, for sure. We called them "Whirlwinds" or "NBF's". The latter acronym stood for: Needle-Nose Bug Fu--ers! Like anything, once you get used to their quirks, and learn to respect it for what it is, they're pretty cool. Scary at times (especially the early ones), but cool.

 

[414Flyer]

There was one that ran between Duluth and I think MSP on a freight run in 2000. Beautiful green one, not a turbine conversion. One day saw it there in duluth, resting on the fuselage on the ramp. Some kind of gear problem on landing, not sure if it was mechanical or pilot induced

 

[FreightPup]

Oh yeah, Angel King, I thought of another one we had at SMB... N436A. It was a Hamilton Westwind III. There's probably even more, but they'll only come as the cobbwebs are slowly dusted away. We had 3 at Mountain Air Cargo: N909GP, N153GP and N924J. We also had a Volpar Turboliner: N704M. This was back some 25 years ago, though. We had over 20 piston Beeches there at Mountain, in the heyday.

We had about 20 'pistons' at Hankins, 25 at SEMO, about 35 at Great Western and over 40 straight Beeches at Stage, during the peak of U.S. Mail and air freight flying... before deregulation brought on the Convairs. It was a different time of aviating. Beeches and the pilots that flew them, were almost as common as Cessna's and Cirrus' are today. It's less common to be a Caravan pilot today than it was to fly a Twin Beech in the '70's. The U.S. Postal Service built the model of the entire air-taxi mail system around the Twin Beech. There were so many surplus ships (besides the Supers), they could cruise near 200 mph, haul the proper load, were easy to load with a completely flat, unobstructed floor and could be flown by only one pilot in virtually any kind of weather. The could take a lickin' and keep on tickin'... and they did - sorta'. It's hard to believe, but they're finally almost completely gone commercially. Some of the major players having just stopped flying them in the last couple years, either by going out of business altogether, or by switching to Caravans. I guess I better dust off my duff and do something about that. If it were only that easy...

 

[AngelKing]

I remember the Mountain Air 18's from the old Purolator days in Columbus Ohio.



Ak

 

[FreightPup]

Bummin off my friend's account here, yet again. Hey AK, who were you working for during the Purolator days? I was flying Purolator into Columbus for Mountain Air Cargo/Sunbird Airlines during that time, in our brand new Beech C-99's. Me and a couple of the guys started the Thursday night flightline BBQ's out there. Did you get in on that at all? Perhaps we've met at some point. Those were fun times! We used to BS on 129.75 & 123.45, all night long. I was there some in the first half of 1981, and almost all of 1983. In the summer of '81, I went up to Washington State with Methow's first Twin Beech and helped them get going, getting the first several on line. Also, flew for Airpac Airlines, in Seattle, during most of that time. Came back to Mountain in Jan. '83, flying the BHM-HSV-BNA-CMH run mostly, then flew the MEM-BNA-CMH run, before heading off to Oklahoma City to fly YS-11's for Trans Cancel (Central) Airlines, in late '83.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sunbird-Airlines/Beech-99/0909287/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Tran...o_nr=6&prev_id=0725442&next_id=0353723&size=L

 

[Waldom]

Thanks, 727gm, for the correction reference the Westwind IV (N231LJ). Too many brain cells lost and gray hairs aquired on my part. I also did not know the the "pre-Hamilton" history of the conversions.

Sorry to learn of N38L's recent runway "excursion". Hope it flys again and does not become another corroding wreck in the Caribbean weeds. That airplane was the nicest flying Westwind III I had flown.

Sorry to report the demise of N38L along with two crew from Monarch Air. According to NTSB records, the airplane went down in the ocean seven miles northwest of Nassau on a flight from Florida on 14 December.

 

[727gm]

Sad News....

Good ol' N38L was a favorite.

By the way, here's a Be-18 crash with a happier outcome, although not for the airplane. Tough old birds.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...vives-horrific-plane-crash-busy-motorway.html

 

[Otter]

D18s

It was a good time remembering the Beach 18 through this string of posts. My only 18 times was in a S on EDO floats. In my humble opinion it was a great performer on water and fun at the same time, though the updraft carburator had a tendency (read always) to get carb ice when on the water.

Since they were not amphibs...you always had carb ice. That said a mod was completed by some chap up in Canada and the intakes had hoses and mounts made to move the intake to the 10 & 2 on the engine cowlings if memory serves. Getting the intake up and away from the water and spray solved that issue for the most part.

 

[Waldom]

As the carbs are flying ice-makers on the landplanes, I can imagine the the problem with the sealane version. I remember carburetor temperature guages (if they were functioning) being a handy thing to have on those airplanes. The Simmons fuel injection mod was one cure for that problem.

I have seen that "10 and 2" inlet induction system on a couple of airplanes, although I haven't flown them.

The seaplane must have been challenging to load cargo in. I would think the low wing was a problem at a lot of docks.

 

[dustrpilot]

I have around 500 hours in a t/w 18. It was a ok airplane to fly, but at the worst flying job, no, worst job I ever had.
I was a ex rEAL pilot when I flew it. I picked up one night at the MEM Fedex hub and got a ride to the plane in the crew bus. I caught a lot friendly jokes about my ride, but I did get the satisfaction of telling them I " knew I could fly theirs, but I'd bet they couldn't even taxi mine".