What Twin

[Geronimo4497]

Bah forget all those little girly man twins...this is the REAL DEAL:
The pasta plane.....


Oh yeah, a 180 hp Apache is nice for building time. Parts are readily available, and its like flying a big cub, and not cramped like a Baron or Travel Scare

 

[mattpilot]

baron cramped? I thought i was in heaven the first time i flew it. There was actually a few inches of space between left & right seat.

 

[EatSleepFly]

BE-56TC

short body baron, duke engines.

Scott

Wouldn't a Duke w/ Baron engines be a better choice?

I thought Duke's were big maintenance hogs because of the engines (are they geared, by the way?).

They look nice though.

If I were buying a twin, and money was not a huge factor, I'd definitely go for something Beechcraft.

 

[bigD]

Wouldn't a Duke w/ Baron engines be a better choice?

I thought Duke's were big maintenance hogs because of the engines (are they geared, by the way?).

They look nice though.

If I were buying a twin, and money was not a huge factor, I'd definitely go for something Beechcraft.

The Duke engines aren't geared, but they are supposedly a weak point. I too love how the Duke looks.

 

[Lead Sled]

Wouldn't a Duke w/ Baron engines be a better choice?

I thought Duke's were big maintenance hogs because of the engines (are they geared, by the way?).

They look nice though.

If I were buying a twin, and money was not a huge factor, I'd definitely go for something Beechcraft.

I've flown a couple different 56TCs and have several hundred hours in them. What a hot-rod! A straight 55 was just as fast up to about 8,000' or so, but after that there was no contest. I understand that there are STC'd mods to fix the cam problem with the big Lycomings. (They were not geared.) We never had any problems with the engines; however, ours had the early ni-cad batteries which were a real pain.

To give you some idea of how the airplane performed, the original airframe was basicially the old Beech Travel Air which uses 180 hp Lycs on each wing for a total of 360 hp. The 56TC had 380 hp on each wing! The story goes that Beech used a 55 Baron as a flying test bed for the Duke engine installation. When one of the company executives flew the airplane he had to have one and they ended up building a few.

When I was checked out in the airplane we topped off the tanks, had 4 people on board, and put sandbags in the baggage compartment to bring us up to maximum gross takeoff weight. At that weight, the airplane had about a 500 fpm rate of climb with gear down, full flaps, and a wind-milling engine. It was the closest thing to piston-powered jet performance you'll ever see. The checkpilot had me shut one down in flight and we still were able to true out at around 185 kts. It was faster on one engine than our Aztec was on two.

Oh well, it was fun to fly, but I'd hate to have to pay the fuel bill for it now.

'Sled

 

[EatSleepFly]

When I was checked out in the airplane we topped off the tanks, had 4 people on board, and put sandbags in the baggage compartment to bring us up to maximum gross takeoff weight. At that weight, the airplane had about a 500 fpm rate of climb with gear down, full flaps, and a wind-milling engine. It was the closest thing to piston-powered jet performance you'll ever see. The checkpilot had me shut one down in flight and we still were able to true out at around 185 kts. It was faster on one engine than our Aztec was on two.

Oh well, it was fun to fly, but I'd hate to have to pay the fuel bill for it now.

'Sled

Man, that's impressive!

Thanks for the info, Lead Sled.

 

[ReverseSensing]

Good to see the usual consensus prevail here.

 

[Grumman guy]

Seneca's Suck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


There is no better G/A light twin than a Baron....Period!

 

[bigD]

Yeah, but the Baron wasn't on the guy's list! Although if you're looking for Baron handling without all the performance, the Travel Air is as close as you'll get.

I love the way Beechcraft planes handle, but I think the Twin Co is the better performer on less money per hour.

 

[BD King]

Champion Lancer. Yeah. One with JATO. Bet nobody asks what the hell a Lancer was.


www.bdkingpress.com