Agree with Bombay about the lack on control harmony. Very very heavy to control in roll. Many comments about the strip gauges .... agree with those too. Crap. Weird-o-rama push button circuit breakers. Yecch.
I liked kiwiblue's point about the 'brick' - like behaviour with the power off. We've all heard about ham-fisted pilots stalling and spinning in when they cock up turning onto finals. With the gear and flaps down this aircraft BITES at the stall. OK OK others do too, but not nearly as nastily as the TB20. Leaves very little room for error.
Let's face it, 145KIAS or so in a TB20 compared to 130+ KIAS in a PA-28-236 (for example) which has much more benign handling & no retractable hassles, only amounts to a few minutes over a typical GA trip.
Well it aint the first aircraft to have somewhat unbalanced control forces. Two others that come to mind are very popular and practical. Just don't call it a circuit basher - good stable IFR platform!!
Push button switches - they work fine.
Gauges - Agreed. Hard to read & unreliable. Very, very expensive to replace.
Flying brick?? - Hasn't anyone ever flown a PA32/PA32R, Mooney, Metro or anything else with a higher wing loading???
Stalling!! - As with any aircraft, only to be done very close to, or very far from the ground!!!
145kts?? - Don't know about that........the two that I travelled in regularly managed a 155ktas........can't remember what it indicated.
Headroom - Grossly inadequate!! At 5'10" I had to lay the seat back like some punk in his pimped Commodore ridin down Lygon.
Landings - Not a problem at all as I recall as the aircraft had a trailing-link undercarriage configuration. They handled my punishment and regular trips to a grass strip well.
In summary, an OK, if different aircraft that got along well, perhaps a bit thirsty, but could carry adequate fuel for a 3/4 filled cabin. Its higher wing loading make it less suited to early training, better suited to IFR & CPL related
training and touring, rather than circuits!
Not my first choice due to unashamed Beechcraft bias, that'll be a Bonanza for a long time!!
