Buying a Bonanza A36TC sight unseen and flying it 2200 miles home!

Well guys, we've done it again with another sight unseen Bonanza purchase. Finally broke our F33A streak with the six-seater turbocharged version of the Bonanza. We're here at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport where this airplane just underwent an extensive annual and today's mission is flying her back to Scottsdale. Over 1,800 miles in one day. This is gonna be a lot of flying. Without further ado, introducing to the channel our new 1979 A36TC. And right on cue, there's the fuel truck filling her up before we hit the skies. While he's filling up, Owen and Jay are gonna finish up the pre-flight. Christian, we have two pilots on this mission. Finally, Owen will have a little relief on this 14-hour day of flying. It's a beautiful thing. This is one of the longest cross-countries I think we've ever done. A bunch of these planes come from the East Coast. This one, all the way down to the tip of Florida, gonna be a long haul. We're probably not going to cheat over the Gulf of Mexico or anything. Yeah, Owen, we could just fly right over the Gulf and save like two hours, no? Nice try, nice try. Yeah, okay, probably not a good idea on a plane that you just bought sight unseen. But overall, the plane is in really good shape. I'm confident it will carry us safely across the whole country. Hopefully no issues arise. It went on a one-hour test flight after they did a bunch of work to it, and all was well, so fingers crossed. This is a long trip, though. Multiple fuel stops. This will be probably our most expensive fuel stop. We have planned our stops at cheaper fuel locations thanks to Forklift. Yeah, our first stop is gonna be in Alabama, where fuel is only $4.50 a gallon. Right now, we have to pay $8 a gallon. But we're just getting a little splash to get us to Alabama, where we're gonna load up the tip tanks, stock up on the cheap fuel, which will take us all the way to Texas, where we'll get some more cheap fuel, and then we'll be able to make it to Arizona, because this plane has incredibly long range thanks to the tip tanks here. This is Deja Vu, it's a 04 Sierra that had the 20-gallon Osborne tip tanks. These are the 15-gallon Deshanin tip tanks, so 10 less gallons, but they still have the cool factor. They still have the increased range, the increased max gross takeoff weight. Again, grab your popcorn, grab your drinks, sit down, park up for 30 minutes, because this video is going to be a good one. Don't skip ahead. You're gonna enjoy this. It's always a good time buying and revealing a new airplane, especially one that we have to fly home from a very far distance, and you guys get to see the master Owen at work. He loves Bonanzas. How many hours in Bonanzas do you have? At least 1,000. Oh my God, he says at least 1,000. What do you gotta do differently with the turbo? Well, you gotta treat it with care, especially when it comes to pulling out power in the descent. Just do it nice and easy to not shot-pull the turbos. These planes are so sentimental to me. I mean, I did my commercial, my instrument, in a turbocharged Bonanza. In fact, the tail number on that plane was 772 Mike Delta, so having 772 Mike, it's like, that's an interesting person. It's gonna be easy for you on the radio, so you're used to it. But you can't beat Bonanzas, and I'm very excited to add another one to the fleet today. Oh, heck yeah, and this is a good one. With the TSI 0520 up there, we got a lot of power, 300 horsepower. Like he said, you gotta do a couple things differently with the turbocharger on there, but a nice mod that this one has that most don't is the intercooler. I'll put in a little clip here. You can see it on the side. A lot of people swear by them, say you can't fly a turbocharged Bonanza without them. I think it makes a big difference in the temps, so we should get better performance, especially on a hot day like this in Florida. We'll see, but obviously you wanna keep the cylinders as cool as possible, and to do that, we're gonna be adding a lot of fuel, so this thing is going to eat through a lot of fuel. But hey, our last trip like this was in the Citation, so anything compared to the Citation is basically like a Prius, so we're good. All right, fuel truck's done, we're topped off. Let's go to Alabama, huh? Yeah, oh my gosh, first leg, what, about three hours? Jay, the second pilot here, so if Owen decides to parachute out of the plane, it's on you. I woke up feeling like Trevor Jacobs this morning. Oh my gosh. So you have a little SR-22T time, right? Yeah. But a lot of G-1000 flying for you, so it's been a while since you've been in six-pack stuff? Yeah, it's been a while. I have probably my first 100 hours of flight time was in a six-pack, probably GA-20 and 172. I'm gonna go up front here for the first leg because it's the shortest one, and I just wanna film all the action on our first takeoff. Here's the back, take a look. So guys, it's an A36, finally! We have six seats, well, five right now, the six is going in later. I've wanted an A36 so bad because we're really tall, and fitting in the back of the F-33 is not bad, but being six foot six, it's a whole lot nicer. Just kick up your legs on the rear seats of the A36, so we have one now. This is exciting. Comment down below your thoughts, obviously, and drop a like if you haven't already. Oh! Baby, fired right up, let's hit the skies! Bonanza 772 Mike, we have whiskey. We're VFR northwest bound to 799 Juliet at 10,500 B-36, slang call. Bonanza, flight following 779 Romeo, be sure you're going to 299 Romeo, say your altitude, and if I said anything incorrect, you'll start correcting. Yeah, you're close, it's Bonanza 772 Mike, and the destination is 799 Juliet, and then 10-5 B-36, slang call. Number 772 Mike, on departure, maintain VFR. Departure frequency is 119.7, squawk 6074. Okay, VFR 1976074, 772 Mike. 6074. Number 772 Mike, readback correct, contact ground for taxi. Thank you. Ground, Bonanza 772 Mike, echo one and echo with whiskey for the run-up. November 772 Mike, turn left on echo, use the run-up here for runway niner. Bonanza 772 Mike, run-up complete. November 772 Mike, runway 27, taxi via alpha, hold short of taxiway Bravo. 27 via alpha, short of Bravo, 72 Mike. Right on course, runway 27, cleared for takeoff. Right turn on course, cleared for takeoff, 27, 72 Mike. Alright boys, here we go. Easy does it. Let the turbo kick in. There she goes. There it is. Look at that, everything comes right up to the red. Perfect. Executive power 63, Papa Foxtrot, hold it short of. Nice shallow climb. 120, 130 knots, we climb. I smile every time we take off a new plane. Wow, look at those planes down there. Oh, the poor planes sitting in this humid environment. Oh my God. We're getting this one to safety of Arizona, dry and warm. Okay, yep, tips are coming up. Alright, so I'm going to bring it back to 34 and 26. Departure, Bonanza 772 Mike, right of 900, climb to 10-5. 772 Mike, radar contact, continue via far climb out of below 3,500 for now. Right out of below 3,500. What autopilot do we have on? KFC 200, it's a really good autopilot actually. Up and down function, which is super nice. November 72 Mike, contact departure, 126.05. 26.05, 72 Mike, we'll see you. Hi, Derek, Ray, how's the traffic at the site? Nice, how's it going? Departure, Bonanza 772 Mike, right of 1,700, restricted 35. Bonanza 772 Mike, climbing approach, rider out of below 6,500 for now. Out of below 6,500, 72 Mike. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to feet above the middle of Florida. We're about to head over to Disney World. That's exciting. How's everything going, Owen? She's running great, I have no complaints. I'm really impressed. She climbed right up to 10-5, she's running smooth. All the temperatures are perfect. Could not ask for it to do any better. I'm really surprised about the temperatures. Like the TSIO 520 engine, if you read on the forums, people are constantly complaining about really high temps and it was not a cool day leaving Florida. So I was anticipating really high cylinder attempts, but to our surprise, they were like shockingly cool. Like not even close to like the 380 number you're supposed to stay below. Yeah, nice and cool. If you keep that air speed up, keep the airflow going with the big intercooler, she did just fine. I wonder how much that intercooler has to play into that. That is not a cheap mod. Who knows, maybe that makes all the difference. So we're lucky to have it. Temps are great. We're running 100 degrees Richard Peak at 10-5, 21.5 gallons per hour it's showing. And we are running at a higher than normal power setting. Oh yes, that's important to note because we're breaking in a new cylinder. Oh yeah, we got to talk about all the things that Bill did. By the way, shout out to Bill at Atlantic Beach. They did a great job with this plane. Like some of our past planes, we bought it just out of annual, so it had expired. It was not airworthy at that time. We had to get an annual done and it was not a cheap annual. So we did spend a little more than we were anticipating our most expensive annual ever. But it's worth it to have a dialed in plane like this. So the biggest line item on that invoice was repairing one of the cylinders. Cylinder number one, all the way at the back. So of course it gets the least cooling. Unfortunately it was low compression and some of the valves were screwed up. So got that replaced, good to go. And now of course we have to break it in, which Owen can explain how you do that. Yeah, so we're running at a higher power setting than usual, roughly 75%. So in this case, 31 inches, 2400 RPM, 100 degrees, one rigid peak, which is giving us roughly 21 and a half gallons per hour. So we'll do that over the course of this trip. By the time we get to Arizona, it should be completely broken in. Yep, it's just one of them, not all six. It had six new cylinders, like 400 something hours ago, all new valves and lifters. So it's had good maintenance and really didn't need much in the engine department. I mean, there's just a lot of like little things, nothing major. Overall, this thing is solid. How's it back there? How's your little table going, Jay? Oh, it's wonderful. You know, you have four flights set up. We have our water bottles. Christian, without this missing seat, Christian has a lot of extra leg room. So six foot four, he's in first class back here. Look at that, that's amazing. We got to fly with five seats from now on. It's perfect for you guys. And then we also have the extended baggage pod, Ono is saying, so you don't normally get that much room back there. That's huge. Usually that's just a wall and there's maybe a shelf on the top, just like in the F-33, but that's the extended baggage pod, super nice. We can fit all of our bags back there. Oh, we got the girls. Don't forget the Girl Scout cookies, yeah. All the room for our snacks. We got the snacks, of course. Beautiful weather ahead of us. No storms, no sketchiness. Should be really smooth sailing. I can't believe this, South Florida, man, it's a beautiful, clear day. Every time I fly here, it's thunderstorms and buildups. This is perfect. Right, no bumps. Love it. Yeah, not a single bump. Smooth as glass, you can't beat this. Of course, we're all happy and excited now. Check in with us in 10 hours. We'll probably be like, oh, get us out of here, but we're loving it so far. So fun to be in an A-36 that we own. So what's this? Now our third Bonanza. We're on a roll with these Bonanzas, man. I'm a 7-7-2-Mike, contact Orlando approach 124.8. 24-8, we'll see you, 7-2-Mike. Approach, Bonanza 7-7-2-Mike, 10-5. 7-7-2-Mike, Orlando approach, good morning, Orlando, 7-3-0-1-7. 1-7. Of course, we got the blueberry Bonanza, 6-2-Julia-Romeo, our baby, with the full glass panel, very different from this. Panel is still very respectful, 430W, GTX 345, transponder, KFC 200, autopilot. You know, your basic engine monitors, fuel burn. This plane's not trying to be 6-2-Julia-Romeo. We don't need it like that. It can be 6-2-Julia-Romeo. Right, yeah, but this is still very respectful as it is. So we're not sure what we want to do with it. It was a good deal, we had to jump on it. We wanted to try out an A36, and we'll see how long we keep it or what we do with it, but it doesn't need a whole lot mechanically, obviously with that huge manual that was just done. Turnkey. A couple little paint touch-ups. It'd be tempting to have Ron redo the interior. It would look amazing, but these seats are in really good condition. In fact, the rear seats just came out of storage, and they're hardly used, so it's like, why redo it all if it doesn't need to be done? So we'll probably leave it. I also want to comment, I think it's cool how each of our Bonanza projects, we've dabbled in a little bit different each one. So we started with the F-33 with the turbo normalizer and the Osborne tip tanks. Then we went to a normally aspirated F-33 with no tip tanks that we were fully furnished with in the last panel. Now we're here with a turbocharged A36 with the Shannon tip tanks. Or maybe a Baron. I don't know, that's the beauty of planes. Like, there's so many different makes and models. We can never catch them all. Just like cars, we always go after the next car, next car, next car. So same with planes. So we'll see what comes next. So I hope you guys are enjoying all these new plane reveals. We got another one still on the way. I think there's another plane that you guys don't know about yet. So we just find a lot. I think there's at least two that we haven't. Oh, two, yeah. I don't know. You guys know us. There's always something new. So subscribe so you don't miss future content. About an hour later now, guys, everything is still going great. But we're trying to calculate our true airspeed because no surprise, we have another huge headwind in front of us going west across the country. We're going 153 knots over the ground. And Owen just inputted our temperature. Showing about 15 degrees at 10-5 pressure altitude, but close enough. Showing 180, I believe. 180. I was expecting more like 170 true airspeed. Charlie, I4 translation received and appreciating to squawk N17U. Of course, we don't have the fancy Dynon Avidon glass to tell us our exact wind, headwind and all that, true airspeed. But maybe let's say 175 with a 25-knot. Good morning, Bonanza 1033 Whiskey level 8000. Higher power. And of course, where this plane really shines is up high. Holy smokes. You can, you go up 25,000 feet. I think in the high teens is the sweet spot for this plane if you had some oxygen, which we do have built-in oxygen, but obviously not going to do that for this leg because the winds are even stronger up there, so it'd be pointless. But up high, I think you could get it over 200 knots. A little over 200, you know, best case, but that would really be ripping. So maybe we'll test that. Antelusia traffic, Bonanza 772 Mike, five mile final 29, Antelusia. All right, welcome to a bumpy Alabama, guys. Here we are. See if I remember how to land a Bonanza, huh? We're not in the Gulf Stream anymore. Be flaring at 50 feet. Can you do the call-outs for Owen? 500. Runway dead ahead. All right, short final gear is down, three green flaps full, clear to land. She doesn't want to settle down. There she goes. All right, guys, first leg complete. What are your final thoughts back there at first leg? It's very nice. I could do this all the way to Scottsdale. Good, because you're going to have to finish. I think Jay's going to be up here next. I'm taking that comfy seat in the back, do some editing on the little table. And yeah, we're going to get some Chick-fil-A. Fuel up with the tips because it's cheap fuel and I'm getting every last drop. All righty. Stop number one. Bam. All righty, Bonanza's into position. Here we go. $4.60 a gallon. Shout out to this airport. We got the crew car to go grab some food, nice bathrooms, and cheap fuel. 4% back on the JR Garage black card, so we're saving an additional good chunk of change with the cash back. Okay, the million dollar question, how much fuel will fit in the tip tanks? They're rated for 15 gallons and we're already a little over that. We're about to top it off. You know, we're curious. The Osbournes, you could fit about 22 in the 20 gallon tip. This one, 15.2. So they're a lot closer to what's rated. So good to know in case we ever need every last little drop. Wow, look at that. We got company. That is sick. Look at that. Cool, firewall's clear. So I think one thing that'll surprise you compared to flying the 172 is that the climb out angle is shallow. I noticed that, yeah. You'll think we're level, but we're climbing at 500 feet per minute. And then at cruise, it looks like we're descending, but we're not. So constant correction and here we go. How much right rudder are you putting? Not much. There comes that turbo. Okay, everything's in the car. Cool, yeah. So we have now departed Onalusha, Alabama and we are en route to Sherman, Texas. So we will see you guys there. It's 532 miles an hour. Middle of the flight here, 65 knot headwind. 65 knots. If only this was a tailwind. Why every time that we buy an airplane, are we going West across the Southern part of the United States? Every single time. The winds are always terrible and this is probably the worst yet. 63 knots in a small little piston plane. Over the ground, what, 105? 105, no altitude is better. 10-5, 8-5, 6-5, it's all blowing. So just gotta ride it out. Yeah. So now this changes the vlog a little bit. We were hoping to get to Arizona by tonight, but it's gonna be impossible, especially with one of our stops having to be Taos. So sixth seat for this plane is in Taos. We gotta go pick it up. It's a long story. Don't even ask me about it, but Taos is an extremely high elevation, lots of mountainous terrain around. So not good to do in the pitch black. So we're gonna do it tomorrow morning instead. So it's not one day, it's gonna be two days, but still pretty good. We just transferred the tip tank fuel, right, Jay? Yeah, tip tank fuels. We just shut off the pumps. Unlike the Osborne's, it seems like we have to do that manually with these guys. Yeah, through the windows, we can see that everything worked fine. 15 gallons extra each tank. We'll take it. And I checked the logs. We get a 200 pound max gross weight increase with the tip. So that's really nice. Add the benefit. So you get all that weight in fuel for free, basically. So, and that's up, so. Oh, we are back. We are two miles east, right about to fly over Sherman Municipal. We're gonna enter a fly overhead in our left traffic runway 34. What was the wind zone? Strong. 11 gusting 22. So it should be a decent crosswind landing. Here we are flying right over the field. Sherman traffic, Bonanza 772 Mike, left downwind runway 34, turning left base runway 34, Sherman. Here we got gear down three green, flaps are full. I'm gonna wait on the prop, but I'm definitely gonna get that full forward in case we need to go around. Perfect. Start to work it up right about now. All right, right rudder left aileron. Want that left wheel to touch first. Oh, there we go. Boom. Beautiful. Heck yeah. Sporty. Keep that aileron into the wind. Just let her roll. The cheap fuel is ours. I'm gonna give this engine a minute to cool down. Yeah, that was- Short taxi. Bam. That's why Owen's worth his weight in gold. Killed that. Made it look easy. That was a handful. It just sunk there at the last second, but- Yeah, no, that was perfect. Hey, I've been here before. Really? Yeah. I stopped here in a Bonanza like two years ago. I remember because I remember seeing those oil rigs right at the taxiway. Oh, sure enough. I have totally stopped here. Fuel stop was a success here in Sherman, Texas. Next stop, Amarillo, where we got some really cheap fuel and our hotel waiting for us. So that's the plan. And then tomorrow morning, we'll hit it bright and early over to Taos and the vlog will continue. Let's go. ♪♪♪ Check that out. Nice little King Air there. All right. Owen, Jay, you ready? Good morning. Day two. They can't even see you. It's so dark outside. Holy smokes. We are up early. Pre-flight and then we'll get on out of here. There she is. 772 Mike. How you doing, baby girl? You're doing great. Let's have another successful day. Nice start. ♪♪♪