Speedbrakes for a Bonanza: Opinions?

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:23:39 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:


"Frank Stutzman" wrote in message
...
Matt Barrow wrote:

What's your cruise speed? :~)

Well, the earliest Bonanzas are not the fastest of the Bonanza fleet by
any stretch. Probably pretty good for their time (1949 in my case),
though.

To answer your question, though, depends upon wether the FEDS are
listening or not. I am restricted by an AD on the ruddervators that gives
me a Vno of 125 KIAS and I would never violate that. Nope, never, not me!
Before the AD came out I would usually figure my cruise speed was about
140 KIAS. Still pretty pokey for a Bonanza, but not bad considering that
every newer Bonanza that was faster was also burning a lot more fuel than
my 10 gph.

There is a method of compliance to remove the AD. I havn't bothered,
though. Most of my flying is either down low and slow or up high and
fast. At about 14,000 feet full throttle gives me right at 125 knots
indicated.


--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

Pretty good for that era and the age of your bird. A 157kt gear speed would
be frivolous.

100MPH gear speed


Peter, though, is flying a TN V35 and will probably cruise about 180-195, so
his request for info about speed brakes is very legitimate. It's not hard at
all to lose 25-40 kts prior to dumping the gear and letting that bleed off
the rest of excess speed.

At altitude, maybe. And you don't want to rip the doors off or damage
the gear in other ways (unless you must, of course) by lowering the
gear while going too fast. May not go down all the way, may not be
able to retract, then the insurance company owns the plane.