421dog
flew a Duke for a while… never again
I didn’t much like the Duke either, probably because I’d been spoiled on 404s and 421s. The A56TC came into my life briefly sometime after the Cessnas and before the Duke. What a rocket ship compared to the usual GA field it was! Despite being unpressurised the A56TC was great fun to fly. IIRC there was no requirement to reduce MAP as you went up so, on survey ops, we used to pre-breathe before takeoff then rattle straight on up to FL250 and above.
Gota tip your hat to the Nav running the show down the back, with no GPS, a drift sight and a Wild RC10 camera to contend with! If the job required a lens change, that was done in the fly too. All very taxing physically, unpressurised up in the flight levels.
Heard a rumour that the RFDS negotiated with Beechcraft to stretch the -55 series to accommodate a stretcher patient, which resulted in the lovely B58. Can anyone confirm this, please?
Back to the thread topic
Beech Queenair,
I missed out on flying the Queenair, but I’m told it’s as pleasant to fly was the C90 - which is high praise indeed.