What's wrong with a Duke?

[planejanes]

What is so bad about buying and owning a Beech Duke? Let's hear it from the trenches...

 

[328jetdriver]

I heard they were mx pigs from a guy who owned one. He loved it though. I think they look pretty sharp personally.

 

[boeingav8r]

Well, I should probably research this a little more, but I'll tell you what I know. My wife used to work for an aircraft engine manufacturer and she sold engines to aircraft owners, operators, fbo's, etc...The Duke has Lycoming engines and the factory dosent' even produce them anymore. If you're at or approaching TBO, you have to wait until a reman is available. Don't take this as gospel and I'm sure somebody will want to argue with me on this one, but I've been told that one engine costs more than the actual aircraft does. Parts are extremely expensive for this engine and aircraft.

I dont' think it has anything to do with the way it flies..in fact, I've heard it's a joy to fly and in my opinion, it's a beautiful airplane.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

no expirience flying the duke but heard nothing but complaints from the owners.

Perfomance wise........sounds gooooooood. but out of the two airports ive been based, the duke owners hate there planes, and can't get rid of them.

The cost per hour on the duke isn't worth its performance.

 

[Floyd94]

Dook sucks and probably wont make it past the first round of the tourney! You agree with this statement "prodigal"?

 

[TrumanSparks]

I flew a Duke in a previous job, about 6 years ago. I can say without a doubt that is my least favorite plane. On take off the engines are turning at about 2900 RPM with 41.5 in of manifold and they are turning little bitty props. I said a little prayer when I released the brakes, asking God to not let an engine quit before 1000 ft AGL. I think a firewall forward overhaul will run in the somewere around $50K. per engine.

If a person were just going to be flying himself, or 1-2 pax then its ok, but if you want to haul 4-5 pax with bags, then get a 421C.

It handles like a Barron and has decent cruise speed, 220kts.

 

[bobbysamd]

Dukes

I always thought that Dukes were great-looking airplanes. From what little I knew about them I understood that they carried little useful load and could be touchy to load.

 

[MYFpilot]

I had a former student buy a Duke, and he let me fly it a couple of times. Scarry on the climb-out, but not too bad in cruise. He explained to me that the engines don't actually produce thrust to make the airplane go forward. Instead they blow $$$$$$$$$$$$ out the back inorder to propel the plane forward. He had this theory that on any given day, at any given airport, at any given FBO, you'd probably find a Duke in the maintenance hanger. But hey, it is a sexy looking airplane...


Just to prove the theory:

 

[WrightAvia]

who do you know, wants to buy a duke?

If you really, really, really want to know about the DUKE or any other plane for that matter...try this out...

http://www.aviation-consumer.com/airplanereviews/

their guides are right on the money as far as main costs, model changes and things to look for. I owned a turbocharged Cessna 300 series with a couple of partners for several years and everything they said in that guide was right on. I did read the guide on the duke and it basically said that if you can buy one for 60,000 bucks that you are going to be putting a ton of money in it to get it up to speed. One other comment that I "think" was made in the guide, was that the beechcraft people let the marketing department design the airplane (hence the nice lines) and then the engineering department was then told to make it fly.

Then there was a nice looking DUKE based at Shawano WI, that was kept in a really nice hanger. The plane was being used as a corporate bird and was being flown by hired pilots. This particular DUKE was in Green Bay at Executive Air, with it's cowlings off all the time. It eventually was sold and the owner now uses his hanger to store seadoo's, boats and snowmobiles in it. I sense a customer that left aviation with a bad taste in their mouths.

There was duke in the big hanger over at the old great lakes airline hanger in Spencer IA. It was cherry...but I bet the owner paid alot more than 60 grand to buy it...and it was in really good shape $$$$$ so maybe this guy was a proud owner...but maybe he enjoys paying to keep his toy in tip top shape. That would be a guy to try to talk to.

Then there was the DUKE that wisconsin aviation was selling to a retired airline pilot. I don't know any of the details on how it ended up. But I was left with the impression that it was not pretty for the buyer after he bought it. I didn't know much about the bird before it was being sold...and the future buyer was there to check on it during it's pre buy inspection and tried pumping me for information on it. I really couldn't help the guy out...so nothing really to tell about this particular duke.

In summation...if you know someone that really really really, has to buy a DUKE do two things for that person...tell him/her to get ahold of these guys and at least buy the buyers guide on the duke.....

http://www.aviation-consumer.com/airplanereviews/

worth every penny...I guarantee you!

then have them go to www.landings.com and look up all the registered owners of dukes in the states near where you live...it's easy to do and you get the address of the owner and write them a nice letter saying you would like to get to gether and chat with them on how they like their plane...tell them in the letter that you are looking to buy one and be very polite about it and I bet several owners would be willing to share their experiences.

Having suffered through turbocharged piston twin ownership...that's what I'd advise. At the very least.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Flattening of the camshafts was a problem, don't know that if that problem has finally been resolved. That "making metal" would cause all sorts of other engine problems.

The aircraft is a ground hog and feeds on either runway concrete or asphalt.

It is a maintenance pig and loves to be slopped mass quantities of greenbacks

Aircraft is also pretty thirsty, and drinks long and hard from the 100LL pump.

For all this the cabin is not that big.

Looks: You either love it or hate it. Me, I hate it. Looks like someone walked up to the back of it and gave it a swift kick in the tail. The nose is appropriately more the snout of the ground hog that it is, poisied in perpetude to snort up all that runway.

You want a pressurized recep twin? Get a least a C-340, you'll be much happier than futzing around with the Duke that also as the Beechcraft Expensive Parts Surcharge attached.

 

[RockyMnt1]

Beach Duke

Just finished the first trip to/from Sarasota in the thing after being grounded for 1 year and 17 days. The Firewall Forward $35K each reman engines were eating the camshaft lobes and lifters after 230 hours. I am now flying the very first Duke with the Firewall Forward camshaft STC and the campshafts are doing great (book value fuel flows and TITs).

Steady 40 gal/hr 220 kt cruise. The cockpit is very comfortable for me although it takes some contorsion to get to the cockpit seats. I do agree that any more than 2 (if they are the large size) in the back is crowded. Very comfortable with the KLN-94, wx radar, and presurization.

 

[LXApilot]

Dukearelli

As far as the ol' Dukearelli goes... my Dad owned and operated one in his charter outfit when I was a kid in Atlanta. I don't remember much about it but he still does talk a lot about it. From what he has told me; the problem was with the high-altitude, high-airspeed wing... it was a pig on takeoff performance. And the engines put out so much torque that the airplane would surge/yaw back and forth on takeoff and at slower airspeeds. They were pressurized however, and were a great regional piston twin. However, he does say it lacked true range/payload performance and was weight restricted on longer trips.