Alchemy
Well-Known Member
I got checked out in the Baron today! My flight school operates a 1962 B55....I was expecting it to be a difficult airplane to fly, but much to my surprise, it handles like a dream.
The Baron is much easier to handle than the only other twin I've flown, the piper PA34-200 Seneca. Landings in the Baron feel like the runway is coated in vaseline, taxiing feels more precise, you have better visibility because you ride higher.
The pilot who was checking me out told me I'd never want to go back to the seneca after flying the baron....he was right. We flew to an uncontrolled airport 20 NM away to do some touch and goes...seems like it only took us 6-7 minutes to get there. Everything went well in the pattern, except it took me a few tries to figure out the flap control (no detents, you hold the flap control down continuosly to extend the flaps, and you have to look outside for the black indicator lines on the flaps themselves to put them at the appropriate value).
It was also tricky to have the flap control on the left side of the throttle quadrant and the gear on the right side (opposite most configurations). Because of this, I accidentally forgot to raise the flaps during one touch and gos. This caused some momentary confusion as the airplane lifted off much closer to VMC than I would've liked. My checkpilot didn't catch this either (or at least didn't say anything), but I figured it out once we got to 50 AGL and raised the flaps. The Baron is also equipped with electric cowl flaps....another item which takes some getting used to. Hard to break the habit of feeling around the floor for the cowl flap handles. Before today, I was not used to doing touch and goes in a twin, but since we had a long runway, the airport wasn't very conducive to taxi-arounds, and the checkpilot ok'd it, we opted to go for it today.
Speaking of control configuration differences, the throttle and prop levers are reversed in this airplane. By that I mean the prop controls are the first two levers on the left side of the throttle quadrant and the throttles are in the middle. This is really not hard to get used to, since the shapes of the handles lets you know right away what your hand is on.
After the touch and goes, we maneuvered away from the airport and pulled the throttle to idle on the left (critical) engine. As soon as I put in full power on the right engine, the airplane began climbing at 300-400 fpm. This was a pleasant surprise coming from the underpowered piper twin.
On the way back in, we clocked a 200 knot groundspeed at 1500 AGL....my personal fastest. On the landing we had an 80 degree crosswind at 9 knots, but the baron was still a sinch to grease.
Overall I love this plane, and wish I would've started flying it sooner. It is much more forgiving than I expected it to be (see taking off with full flaps) considering the performance it offers.
The Baron is much easier to handle than the only other twin I've flown, the piper PA34-200 Seneca. Landings in the Baron feel like the runway is coated in vaseline, taxiing feels more precise, you have better visibility because you ride higher.
The pilot who was checking me out told me I'd never want to go back to the seneca after flying the baron....he was right. We flew to an uncontrolled airport 20 NM away to do some touch and goes...seems like it only took us 6-7 minutes to get there. Everything went well in the pattern, except it took me a few tries to figure out the flap control (no detents, you hold the flap control down continuosly to extend the flaps, and you have to look outside for the black indicator lines on the flaps themselves to put them at the appropriate value).
It was also tricky to have the flap control on the left side of the throttle quadrant and the gear on the right side (opposite most configurations). Because of this, I accidentally forgot to raise the flaps during one touch and gos. This caused some momentary confusion as the airplane lifted off much closer to VMC than I would've liked. My checkpilot didn't catch this either (or at least didn't say anything), but I figured it out once we got to 50 AGL and raised the flaps. The Baron is also equipped with electric cowl flaps....another item which takes some getting used to. Hard to break the habit of feeling around the floor for the cowl flap handles. Before today, I was not used to doing touch and goes in a twin, but since we had a long runway, the airport wasn't very conducive to taxi-arounds, and the checkpilot ok'd it, we opted to go for it today.
Speaking of control configuration differences, the throttle and prop levers are reversed in this airplane. By that I mean the prop controls are the first two levers on the left side of the throttle quadrant and the throttles are in the middle. This is really not hard to get used to, since the shapes of the handles lets you know right away what your hand is on.
After the touch and goes, we maneuvered away from the airport and pulled the throttle to idle on the left (critical) engine. As soon as I put in full power on the right engine, the airplane began climbing at 300-400 fpm. This was a pleasant surprise coming from the underpowered piper twin.
On the way back in, we clocked a 200 knot groundspeed at 1500 AGL....my personal fastest. On the landing we had an 80 degree crosswind at 9 knots, but the baron was still a sinch to grease.
Overall I love this plane, and wish I would've started flying it sooner. It is much more forgiving than I expected it to be (see taking off with full flaps) considering the performance it offers.
