The Beechcraft Bonanza was born after the war, in 1946, as many wartime pilots were ready to start families, and the aviation companies of old believed many would continue flying their own planes. Beechcraft had built two models pre-war, the Model 17 or Staggerwing and the Model 18 or Twin Beech. These were taildraggers, powered by Pratt & Whitney R-985 'Wasp Jr.' engines, and were the most popular executive transports of the age, the latter produced until 1970. However, with the surplus metal from after the war, and a boost in engines, and workforce, Beechcraft and Cessna set out to create their own version, of a modern transport single. Cessna's approach was the classic Cessna 190 and 195 (the latter being most famous). Taking on the classic radial engine theme, the 195 was an all-metal monoplane, and a high wing, powered by a Jacobs radial engine. Beechcraft's approach was much different. Unlike the Staggerwing, which was a biplane, made of a wooden frame and fabric covering, they went for a low-wing, tricycle gear aircraft, powered not by a radial, but by a flat-6 engine, the Continental E-185-1. Its design featured an all-metal fuselage, with a newly introduced V-tail, and retractable gear, as opposed to Cessna's fixed gear.
This body length was also used on a twin, the Beechcraft Baron 55, introduced in 1960. It featured seating for six however, and was powered by two IO-470s. Another short-body model of Baron was the Baron 56TC, a Baron 58 powered by two Lycoming TIO-540 engines, as an operational engine testbed for the Beechcraft Duke; the 56 was produced in limited numbers, and few exist today, the Duke however, proved much more popular, as it was pressurized.
The V-tailed Bonanza was the first to hold the Bonanza name, followed by the Model 33, which was initially called a 'Debonair' until 1968. The third was the Model 36, a long-bodied Bonanza, with a fuselage equivalent to the Baron 58, with club seating for six.
The choice to make the Beechcraft Bonanza was inevitable for Carenado; one of the most iconic single-engined monoplanes must have been brought into FSX, nobody else had done it. The Bonanza is one of my personal favorites. It's a low-wing, which is good for IFR flying (since spotting traffic is easier than the Cessna 210), it has a great cockpit arrangement, and is very similar with the Baron, yet doesn't have two big engines to fuss with; did I mention it's pretty fast too? I prefer the straight-tail F33A, but this has a classic look. Also note, this product comes with a tip-tank version; the Bonanza was never produced with tip-tanks, yet many people have converted to the STC for added range. The tip-tanks are free weight, as they are self-lifting, thus they add range and fuel, without hurting its payload.
The Bonanza has an unmistakable look; if you have the eye for planes, you'll never miss one. The Bonanza was built with Beechcraft's renowned quality, and the quick, smart reaction of every system, and of course, its great flight characteristics. The Beechcraft gear system has always been one of my favorites, how the gear goes up all at once, in a quick, smooth fashion, all in unison (with a cool sound). Some interesting trivia: the 33/35 Bonanzas had 12-volt batteries, and their gear goes up in exactly eight seconds, the Barons had 24-volt batteries, and go up in four. Carenado did a good job in choosing, and creating this plane.
The Beechcraft cockpit is a comfortable space. It's not super-big, but has enough legroom. It's efficiently designed, and there's a lot of space with this design that other singles of its class can't offer. The distinctive instrument panel that Beechcraft uses is done well here, as their Baron and F33A were. The textures are nice, the best of Carenado's non-HD series. The gauges are all well chosen, and it looks just like it should, worth the money. The cockpit is a standard six-pack arrangement we're all used to, so a transition is easy; the Garmin GNS 430 GPS system is a great one for easy navigating.
As I've mentioned before, the Bonanza, especially the v-tailed variant, is an iconic design, and Carenado's work on replicating this is done well. The entire aircraft looks great; a carbon-copy of the real V35B. Although this isn't Carenado's newest, and most sought HD-series, it served the purpose, with an array of liveries to choose from, mostly American, with a couple international ones. The polished aluminum livery is one of the best Carenado has put out from 'the box' (if you could say that). The gear animations are spot-on, and mimic the real Beechcraft range of motion perfectly. This is one product you won't regret, inside or out!
If you own other Carenado products, or normal gauged airplanes, you will instantly be accustomed to the 'six-pack' layout of the gauges, plus an easy to use Garmin GNS430 GPS. These Beechcraft small GA planes (Baron, Bonanza) are known in real-life for their little amount of adverse yaw, so not much rudder is required during turns, but adding it does make things smoother. The v-tail design, due to its ruddervator setup, doesn't perform as well in crosswinds, because rudder authority is lost to elevator authority in the same surface. So don't do extreme crosswind stuff, there isn't as good control; this is modeled well in the product. This aircraft is normally-aspirated (meaning that it isn't turbo/supercharged), so it loses horsepower and manifold pressure as you gain altitude, as any normally aspirated aircraft would, so this plane doesn't perform as well at higher altitudes, but better than its twin counterpart. Easy to fly, fast, lands in a good distance, perfect high-performance single, but check out Carenado's Bonanza F33A too!
The sound set features accurate and believable sound from a real Bonanza V35B, powered by a single Continental IO-420. The gear retraction sounds just like the Beechcraft, and lasts the eight seconds it should.
I have found that this product, like the rest of my Carenado fleet, is a very well executed model. It has good textures inside and out, realistic flight dynamics, sounds, engine performance; and I'm impressed with its crosswind performance, it doesn't behave as well as the F33A (again, a straight-tailed version), and that is great, they did their homework! I like Carenado planes, they make the GA aircraft well, and are set at a good price. Their customer support is great, and they are friendly.
Nice Standard definition textures, easy to use autopilot; avionics, realistic performance, flight dynamics on-par, good animations
Tends to screech a bit too much on landings
Orbx's FTX: Northern Rocky Mountains, FTX: Pacific Northwest, Orbx Cushman Meadows, Orbx Orcas Island, REX 2.0. Also shown is the Carenado F33A, for comparison reasons.
To clarify (as I said in the intro) the Bonanza F33A started in 1960 as what was called a 'Debonair' which was a straight-tailed version of the Bonanza. It soon, in 1968 was called a Bonanza, model 33. The F33A is the direct counterpart to the V35B in the Beechcraft line, and were produced until 1982 when Beechcraft ceased production of all aircraft, except for corporate aircraft. The F33A performs better than the V35B in many ways, so you should check it out. The V35B looks cooler though! I mention it only because you can't talk about one without the other!
Peter Carlson
petersnoopy@sbcglobal.net
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