What type are you on?

[Cheechako]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheechako
Current: Boeing 737-4/7/8/9

Past:

Turbine Beech 18

Helio Courier H-295

Two interesting airplanes. When I was doing freight in the Lear, we were often in Ypsilanti and Kalitta had his turbine Beechs there.

What was the WORST thing about the turbine -18?

One of my buddies flew helo-couriers. Cracked two of them up and they made him safety officer. Nice machine.

I flew the Hamilton Westwind version of the turbine Beech 18. There were only a few ever converted. They hung PT-6-20s, and kept the tailwheel. I removed the throttle quadrant cover to lube up the power levers only to discover they just "saws-all'd" the fifteen other levers that used to be up there! Great airplane to fly. . . strong crosswinds always made me a little nervous, I would say that was the WORST thing. Never ground-looped one, though. I attempted to three-point the thing an two occasions, one was actually pretty good, the other sent me porpoising down the runway!! We never flew them loaded up. All we had was a refrigeration machine, auger unit, and 100 lb. box of sterile fruit flies.

There's a ton of information on these airplanes here: http://www.flyinghigher.net/beech/kkfleet.html

The Helio I flew was one of the few with a tricycle gear. Looked funny with the tail sticking waaaaay up in back. Fun airplane- wish I could have gotten more time and played around a bit more.

 

[Orange Anchor]

Nothing like trimming the engines to start, and hoping you don't catch them on fire.

The "Trim-O-the-Day" with a full throttle takeoff.

At least cruise planning was easy.

The guy that did our training said MidPac was looking at stretching it and putting Allisons on it to make it the plane it could have been.

...something like the temp + 50 equaled the trim number? You could hear the old Dart speed up. We still had the water/methanol which the operators dumped after they left PI.

 

[Orange Anchor]

Is it me, or is the Spill Valve a dumb concept. I still don't think I ever figured out when you were supposed to open or close them.

turboprops confused me. Prop.. or jet.. NOT in between!

 

[t-cart]

Cheechako, Thanks for posting that picture. That is a great looking airplane. Just my opinion but I never cared too much for the nose wheeled -18"s. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Polar742]

Anything with an original design of a Janitrol heater to heat the tail for anti-ice is suspect. What other tprop used a mechanical supercharger to provide compressed air for cabin use?

Ours had boots.
And Water/Meth.

 

[derg]

Anything with an original design of a Janitrol heater to heat the tail for anti-ice is suspect.

That's scary.

That darned Janitrol scared the heck out of me in the Seminole. Mmm, that carbon monoxide just brought out the glistening white of the snow-covered prairie of "Cessna North".

(Riddle PRC joke)

 

[kellwolf]

That's scary.

That darned Janitrol scared the heck out of me in the Seminole. Mmm, that carbon monoxide just brought out the glistening white of the snow-covered prairie of "Cessna North".

(Riddle PRC joke)

Not to mention the fact that they hardly every worked....in the winter in TEXAS. If we got one with a working heater, we were like "Awesome! I don't need five layers of clothes at 6000 ft at night!" Then we'd turn it on to one of two settings: off or melt your shoes. After about 30 minutes, you'd start feeling light headed and just turn it off to be safe. I wouldn't want to trust me anti-ice to that system.

Heard a story once about one of our instructors failed to do a proper pre-flight check of the switches. Someone had left the heater on overnight, so the burn can (or whatever) filled with fuel vapors. Hit the master switch and BOOOM.

 

[dashdriver]

Well to make ends meet, I fly the Dash 8 for Mesa. Other types flown have been PA28-181, PA 28-201, PA44, C172, C152, C182, C210. Its not impressive, but I intend to add quite a few to the growing list.

 

[WacoFan]

Cheechako, Thanks for posting that picture. That is a great looking airplane. Just my opinion but I never cared too much for the nose wheeled -18"s. Thanks for sharing this.

Never card for the nose-wheel '18's either...

I wonder if we could get an old '18 (with the R-985's of course) and make any money as a freight operation? There have to be enough old ops manuals for that airplane that it would potentially ease the 135 paperwork. Let's do this - it would be fun.

 

[Olduser]

Anything with an original design of a Janitrol heater to heat the tail for anti-ice is suspect. What other tprop used a mechanical supercharger to provide compressed air for cabin use?

The A90 King Air (and maybe the B90 too, not sure) used a supercharger for pressurization.

 

[ppragman]

Never card for the nose-wheel '18's either...

I wonder if we could get an old '18 (with the R-985's of course) and make any money as a freight operation? There have to be enough old ops manuals for that airplane that it would potentially ease the 135 paperwork. Let's do this - it would be fun.

I'd be down, the problem is getting parts, and maintaining the damn things. Find us an angel investor and we'll rally the hell out of them.

 

[WacoFan]

I'd be down, the problem is getting parts, and maintaining the damn things. Find us an angel investor and we'll rally the hell out of them.

Excellent!

I also think insurance would be a major expense. Wonder what an underwriter would do if I called and asked to do my initial multi-engine training on a taiwheel Beech 18? Do you think he would laugh at me or get mad for me wasting his time. I think even people with loads of tw time have a hard time insuring on those.

 

[ctab5060X]

Never card for the nose-wheel '18's either...

Beech did not intend for that airplane to ne a nose-wheel bird. And people wonder why they have a tendency to put the tail on the ground during loading and unloading sometimesanic:

I wonder if we could get an old '18 (with the R-985's of course) and make any money as a freight operation? There have to be enough old ops manuals for that airplane that it would potentially ease the 135 paperwork. Let's do this - it would be fun.

Springdale Air used to. Little airplane called the Caravan kinda killed off the last of the -18s.

I'd be down, the problem is getting parts, and maintaining the damn things. Find us an angel investor and we'll rally the hell out of them.

Parts are not a problem. It is considered and antique, so parts are out there. Even the really hard to find ones that have to be custom made only take a week or two. Maintaining them is no big problem either. Flew one for almost 6 years and it was in the shop less than the Aztecs were. Seemed the big Beech was predictable. Changed oil every 50 hrs, 100 hr inspections, annual inspections were all "routine".

I think even people with loads of tw time have a hard time insuring on those.

Depends on the insurance underwriter. I think I was only required to have about 5 in type with the CP before I was covered. He was told he was covered, go fly the thing and had about 2 in type. Of course, we knew the underwriter really well

 

[WacoFan]

Hey CTAB -

I will buy you two beers if you create a thread titled "Flying Freight in the Beech 18" and pretty much give a pilot report about its characteristics, etc.

 

[ctab5060X]

Hey CTAB -

I will buy you two beers if you create a thread titled "Flying Freight in the Beech 18" and pretty much give a pilot report about its characteristics, etc.

hehe

I truly wish I had the chance to fly freight in one. That would have been awesome.:rawk:

Instead I flew the Beech 18 for mosquito control. I'm the guy who flew over your house 500 ft high at 2 am and woke up the baby with a pair of R-985s

I'll put that report on the ever growing list of things to do. Just for you.

 

[Cessnaflyer]

It is a good trainer. We always kid up here about how slow they are but I've always thought they flew well. I'll always have a place for em.

Yeah I have about 450 hours in these and I still miss them. It was so nice to not have to sit on your student during a lesson.

 

[ctab5060X]

And just to keep in "form" with the thread itself...

Aeronca Champ
Champion Citabria (my personal baby)
Aero Commander 500B and 500S
Air Tractor 301
Beech 18
Cessna 150, 152, 172, 182, 210, and Caravan
Falcon 10
Piper 140, Arrow, Aztec, and Lance
CRJ 200

 

[t-cart]

hehe

I truly wish I had the chance to fly freight in one. That would have been awesome.:rawk:

Instead I flew the Beech 18 for mosquito control. I'm the guy who flew over your house 500 ft high at 2 am and woke up the baby with a pair of R-985s

I'll put that report on the ever growing list of things to do. Just for you.

I want to read about the gig too since I'm going to stick my toe in the water.

 

[WacoFan]

hehe

I truly wish I had the chance to fly freight in one. That would have been awesome.:rawk:

Instead I flew the Beech 18 for mosquito control. I'm the guy who flew over your house 500 ft high at 2 am and woke up the baby with a pair of R-985s

I'll put that report on the ever growing list of things to do. Just for you.

Can't wait for this! Tell us about the beast.

 

[ctab5060X]

Can't wait for this! Tell us about the beast.

Nah, it wasn't a beast. We had another nickname for it. Stated with a 'b', ended with an 'h'. Put the 'it' in Beech, so to speak. Gave it that name early on (like the first day the company had the airplane).

Working on the "report" off and on... trying to figure out how I want to say some things about the airplane. Figured since I also did a bit of unusual work with it, I would include a bit about spraying mosquitoes as well. Not exactly sure where to post the finished writing either.

Got a 4 day starting tomorrow early, but I have a couple of long layovers, so expect it sometime late next week at the earliest.