BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 May 2011, 19:46

My name is Paul Lancaster, I'm a CFI at Lufthansa Airline Training Center Arizona (ATCA). We fly the F33A, and I also fly the F33C aerobatic model Bonanza. I enjoy flying the Bonanza and I'm hoping to learn from this site.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 May 2011, 20:09

Welcome, Paul!

I have owned an F33A for almost 5 years and have ~25 hours in an F33C, too. Great machines.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 May 2011, 20:22

Thanks Drew.
The amazing thing is that most of these F33As have near or over 20,000 hours on them. They really are built like tanks. ATCA has a program to look at the planes with non-destructive methods including x-ray and eddy-current tests. So far they have come through fine.

The F33C we have has MANY fewer hours. It has somewhere near 5000 hours, but those are some pretty tough hours. Each student gets two upset recovery flights in it, where we do nose high and nose low recoveries, cross-controlled and full-aft yoke stalls, and accelerated stalls. It is a very honest aircraft.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 May 2011, 22:02

Welcome Paul!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 May 2011, 07:15

Welcome Paul, good to know about the 20,000 hours and still going strong, that should mean mine still has at least 18,300 hours left in the tank so to speak. :thumbup:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 May 2011, 07:32

Hi, Paul. Good to have you here.

Just curious -- what's the tail number of the F33C you fly there?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 May 2011, 07:54

Paul,

Welcome to BeechTalk.

We have two of the Yellow/Blue former Lufthansa trainers based in Knoxville. My mechanic is a very long term Bonanza guy. He is very impressed with the condition of those two airframes...both being up close to 20k hours.

I have said for many years that Beechcraft G33's (Not the old G33, but F33A's equipped with Garmin G1000 stuff.) would seriously compete with Cirrus SR22/Cessna Corvalis aircraft in sales. It is a shame Raytheon discontinued them and Hawker Beechcraft has never chosen to build them.

I wonder how many Lufthansa would have to order. ??? :shrug:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 May 2011, 10:36

Tom,
Our F33C is N851K. It has the back seat removed and we fly it only for the upset recovery flights, which are about 1.2 hours each. I usually put 35 gallons in it, unless I'm flying with a very large student, when I might have to drop it to 30 gallons to stay below 2800 lbs. by the time we get to our acro area.

Here is a photo: http://www.c-photography.de/view.php?pId=253

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 May 2011, 11:48

Max,
We are actually evaluating the Cirrus SR20 now as a replacement for the F33A. I'm not sure how many planes we would have to buy to replace the fleet, but we have about 27 F33As now.
I also fly the GROB G120A with our German Military Transport pilots (most will go on to fly the C-160 Transall, plus a few German Navy guys who will end up in the P-3 Orion). One of the proposals for the German military is to refit the Bonanzas with full EFIS like Garmin, so they would end up as "G33s". The military will still require a complex, high-performance aircraft with four seats to do intrument/commercial training due to the Luftfahrt Bundesamt (LBA, or our FAA equivalent) certification standards. Our Lufthansa students are now under a "Multi-pilot License" or MPL program and don't need the complex/high-performance aircraft requirement.
The best part of the "G33" mod would be they would add air conditioning. :thumbup:

Right now the F33As are all without AC, which is tough when it hits 110 here in Phoenix. :oops:

Hello from Goodyear, AZ