Beechcraft Bonanza - technical info required for a novel

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Hi,
I was directed to this website by a fellow writer who says you are all 'very nice' here.

When I wrote Mystery at Ocean Drive (a teen action adventure set in South Africa) in 1995 I went to the airfield and a pilot allowed me to sit in the pilot's seat of a Beechcraft Bonzana while he explained all the controls. When I wrote the scene where the MC runs out of fuel and the wheels won't come down I sent it to the pilot to check whether I had all the details correct. I still have his letter confirming the technical info is correct. BUT, when I put it on the page 99 test I've had two people say I don't know what I'm talking about.
Have things changed since 1995?

This is the scene:

Jason watched Tessa setting the approach flaps and re-setting the power, pitch and mixture controls, recognising some of the procedure from his model flying. They began their descent. She throttled back until the rev counter entered the green arc area. They were down to 500 feet. The fuel needles were now steady on empty. He tried not to think about what would happen if the engine cut. They were almost there. The fence at the edge of the airfield flashed into view. Tessa selected full flap for the landing. They passed over the fence at 100 feet. She cut the throttle. Suddenly a warning horn screamed.
"The undercarriage," cried Tessa.
Jason saw the red light directly in front of him. He snapped the switch. Nothing happened. The horn continued to scream. "It's stuck." He could see the faces of the crowd. "Pull up. Do another circuit," he yelled.
"No time. No fuel. Try it again," shouted Tessa.
They were over the runway. If she didn't pull up they would overshoot. He tried the switch again. Nothing. He tried again. This time, to his relief, the three green lights appeared telling him that the wheels had dropped.
Almost immediately, he felt the slight bump as they touched the tarmac. But they were going too fast, heading off the tarred runway onto the grassed area. The grass seemed to slow them and the plane came to a stop a few metres before the bush, the engine still running.

Is this technical info correct?
This is the link to the e-book on Amazon:
Mystery at Ocean Drive http://amzn.to/e1qwWe

Many thanks in anticipation

 

[poadeleted20]

Jason watched Tessa setting the approach flaps and re-setting the power, pitch and mixture controls, recognising some of the procedure from his model flying. They began their descent. She throttled back until the rev counter entered the green arc area. They were down to 500 feet.

First, "rev counter" is a British term. Americans would say tachometer or "tach." However, they're in South Africa, so the British term would be used -- in your case, correctly. However, a) the "rev counter" would almost certainly already be in the "green arc" (normal operating range) during the approach, and b) Tessa would probably be using the manifold pressure gauge, not the tach/rev counter for power measurement in that airplane. Approaching 500 feet above the runway, she'd probably throttle back to put the MP at the bottom of the green arc.

The fuel needles were now steady on empty. He tried not to think about what would happen if the engine cut. They were almost there. The fence at the edge of the airfield flashed into view. Tessa selected full flap for the landing. They passed over the fence at 100 feet. She cut the throttle. Suddenly a warning horn screamed.

"The undercarriage," cried Tessa.
Jason saw the red light directly in front of him.

No "red light" for gear on the Bonanza. What Jason would see is the white/amber light showing the gear is up still illuminated as it had been since the gear was raised after takeoff, and the three green "down" lights (one for each gear) would be dark. Also, the gear lights are not "directly in front of" the passenger. Just drop the "red light" sentence.

BTW, good on noting that the gear horn won't sound until the throttle is reduced past a certain point.

He snapped the switch.

You don't exactly "snap the switch" -- it's too big to be "snapped." I think he'd more likely "grab the gear handle and put it down."

Nothing happened. The horn continued to scream. "It's stuck." He could see the faces of the crowd. "Pull up. Do another circuit," he yelled.

Again, good use of the British term "circuit" instead of the American term "pattern."

"No time. No fuel. Try it again," shouted Tessa.

They were over the runway. If she didn't pull up they would overshoot. He tried the switch again. Nothing. He tried again. This time, to his relief, the three green lights appeared telling him that the wheels had dropped.

No direct technical error, but it's not likely that simply recycling the gear handle would solve the problem. Of course, it's not likely that the events in any "action/adventure" novel would be occurring, anyway.

Almost immediately, he felt the slight bump as they touched the tarmac. But they were going too fast, heading off the tarred runway onto the grassed area. The grass seemed to slow them and the plane came to a stop a few metres before the bush, the engine still running.

Not sure if they'd say "tarred runway" or tarmac in South Africa.

Is this technical info correct?

Pretty close, as noted.

 

[hiflier]

1. I don’t know about every Bonanza, but mine has a red light which is lit when the gear is in transit.
2. He notices the red light, so the switch was put in the down position. What did he do, raise the gear switch at 100 feet then put it back down twice? Not much time for all of that, You’d be descending at around 600 fpm which would give you 10 seconds plus what you could get out of the flare to get the gear down. Even with a 24 volt system I think it would take at least 8 seconds for the gear to extend and lock down.
3. Pull up or overshoot with the throttle at idle and full flaps on short final? Not likely.
4. I agree that recycling the gear handle is really unlikely to work. Check the circuit breaker.

 

[gismo]

Hi,
I was directed to this website by a fellow writer who says you are all 'very nice' here.

When I wrote Mystery at Ocean Drive (a teen action adventure set in South Africa) in 1995 I went to the airfield and a pilot allowed me to sit in the pilot's seat of a Beechcraft Bonzana while he explained all the controls. When I wrote the scene where the MC runs out of fuel and the wheels won't come down I sent it to the pilot to check whether I had all the details correct. I still have his letter confirming the technical info is correct. BUT, when I put it on the page 99 test I've had two people say I don't know what I'm talking about.
Have things changed since 1995?

This is the scene:

Jason watched Tessa setting the approach flaps and re-setting the power, pitch and mixture controls, recognising some of the procedure from his model flying. They began their descent. She throttled back until the rev counter entered the green arc area. They were down to 500 feet. The fuel needles were now steady on empty. He tried not to think about what would happen if the engine cut. They were almost there. The fence at the edge of the airfield flashed into view. Tessa selected full flap for the landing. They passed over the fence at 100 feet. She cut the throttle. Suddenly a warning horn screamed.
"The undercarriage," cried Tessa.
Jason saw the red light directly in front of him. He snapped the switch. Nothing happened. The horn continued to scream. "It's stuck." He could see the faces of the crowd. "Pull up. Do another circuit," he yelled.
"No time. No fuel. Try it again," shouted Tessa.
They were over the runway. If she didn't pull up they would overshoot. He tried the switch again. Nothing. He tried again. This time, to his relief, the three green lights appeared telling him that the wheels had dropped.
Almost immediately, he felt the slight bump as they touched the tarmac. But they were going too fast, heading off the tarred runway onto the grassed area. The grass seemed to slow them and the plane came to a stop a few metres before the bush, the engine still running.

Is this technical info correct?
This is the link to the e-book on Amazon:
Mystery at Ocean Drive http://amzn.to/e1qwWe

Many thanks in anticipation

I have several comments, the first of which is that if you want Bonanza technical information a better forum is the 10,000+ member BeechTalk.com There are several Bonanza pilots on this forum but the concentration is much higher there (plus there's probably a lot more members who would buy your book just because it involves a Bonanza).

Second, there are some issues with your landing scenario.

Any prudent pilot would normally lower the gear before starting down the approach (gear down to go down is the mantra) and it's nearly impossible to miss the fact that the extra drag of the gear is missing on approach (full flaps does mask this somewhat). That said, in a very distracting situation it is possible to forget to extend the gear and in many cases even completely miss the fact that the horn is beeping away but in that case the result is inevitably an inadvertent gear up landing which is expensive to repair but not terribly dangerous.

The gear horn is supposed to activate when the throttle is reduced enough to allow a normal descent for landing at the appropriate speed so it should have activated before the pilot closed the throttle completely over the runway. By the way it goes "Beep, beep, beep..." and sounds like an electric bicycle horn.

Recycling the landing gear selector (switch) multiple times is extremely unlikely to result in a successful extension if it failed to operate on the first attempt. In addition, depending on the model year the landing gear will take anywhere from 4 to 12 seconds to extend in addition to the many seconds between your crew first noticing that the gear is up. And at normal approach speed the airplane would cover 1000-2000 ft during that time.

If I were in the situation you seem to be describing (nearly out of fuel, over the runway, gear won't extend), I'd just land the plane on it's belly. This is virtually as safe as a normal landing but it does damage the plane significantly (bent prop, abraded flaps etc).

Finally there's some weird terminology in your text. The "rev counter" is normally called a tachometer or "tach" for short. The green arc on the tach is where the pointer would normally be until the pilot reduced power on approach to descend to the runway at which point the RPM would drop below the bottom of the green arc (that's when the gear horn should sound if the gear was left up). You have the pilot "resetting the power, pitch, and mixture" controls at the start of the approach. I suspect that by "pitch" you meant the propeller control which affects prop pitch indirectly but that control is never referred to as a "pitch control" because that term normally applies to the airplane's elevator which controls the pitch of the airframe. In addition, the "power" control would be called the "throttle" and the group of those three (throttle, prop, mixture) all affect engine power and are generally referred to as a group called the "engine controls".

 

[John Collins]

The Bonanza in various forms has been in production since 1947 or 65 years. During this time the gear switch and indicators along with the flap switch have changed many times. Prior to 1962, the panel had a row of switches laid out along the bottom of the panel in a piano style key configuration. In 1962, the panel was changed to a more modern style and the gear switch was changed to an ivory colored switch in the shape of a wheel. To activate this switch, you pulled on the wheel to clear the up/down detent and then moved it to the other position. The detent was to prevent inadvertent activation of the switch. The gear switch was located on the right hand sub panel, a nonstandard location. The gear indication consisted of two lamps, a green gear down lamp and a red gear up lamp. In 1970, the gear lamps were changed to three green lights that indicated that each gear was in the down position and a single in transit light that was lit when the gear were moving from the down or up position to the other position. Around 1979, the flap switch was changed from a continuous position switch to one that had an approach flap detent and a full flap detent. Lights were added to indicate that the flap switch had arrived at one of the two positions, approach, or down and an intransit indication. In 1984, the gear and flap switches were located in industry standard positions with the gear switch on the left and the flap switch on the right.

I have attached a few pictures of several of the various aircraft panels.

 

[TMetzinger]

The Bonanza in various forms has been in production since 1947 or 65 years. During this time the gear switch and indicators along with the flap switch have changed many times. Prior to 1962, the panel had a row of switches laid out along the bottom of the panel in a piano style key configuration. In 1962, the panel was changed to a more modern style and the gear switch was changed to an ivory colored switch in the shape of a wheel. To activate this switch, you pulled on the wheel to clear the up/down detent and then moved it to the other position. The detent was to prevent inadvertent activation of the switch. The gear switch was located on the right hand sub panel, a nonstandard location. The gear indication consisted of two lamps, a green gear down lamp and a red gear up lamp. In 1970, the gear lamps were changed to three green lights that indicated that each gear was in the down position and a single in transit light that was lit when the gear were moving from the down or up position to the other position. Around 1979, the flap switch was changed from a continuous position switch to one that had an approach flap detent and a full flap detent. Lights were added to indicate that the flap switch had arrived at one of the two positions, approach, or down and an intransit indication. In 1984, the gear and flap switches were located in industry standard positions with the gear switch on the left and the flap switch on the right.

I have attached a few pictures of several of the various aircraft panels.

View attachment 24068

View attachment 24069

View attachment 24070

I vote this the best response. Depending on the vintage of the airplane the gear system has had many different positions and configurations. So you can be describing the Bonanza you know entirely correctly, and somebody else will note that it's "wrong", because his Bonanza is different.

Shame on your adventurers for running out of fuel and time on final approach.

 

[poadeleted20]

Finally there's some weird terminology in your text. The "rev counter" is normally called a tachometer or "tach" for short.

They're in South Africa, where they learned to fly from the Brits, who do often call it a "rev counter." Much the same for the other terms unfamiliar to Yanks.

 

[John Collins]

Jason watched Tessa setting the approach flaps and re-setting the power, pitch and mixture controls, recognising some of the procedure from his model flying. They began their descent. She throttled back until the rev counter entered the green arc area.

In a Bonanza, the RPM will remain fairly constant in in the descent as the throttle is brought back, for example it might drop from 2300 RPM to 1800 RPM if the throttle is fully retarded and the aircraft is at an approach speed. At higher speeds, the RPM may not drop at all. The manifold pressure gage is the primary indication of power that the pilot relies on. A more typical scenario would be that the pilot would set the power by reducing it to 12 to 15 inches of manifold pressure. In other words, the pilot doesn't reduce the power to an RPM reading, but to a manifold pressure.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Many thanks for all these wonderful responses. You've all been very kind. I'm quite befuddled by the amount of information.

I think I should have mentioned that both Tessa and Jason are teenagers. Tessa's mother is a flying instructor, but Tessa has only previously flown a Cessna, and that with her mother sitting beside her. The couple steal the plane from outside a hangar during an air race so that the authorities will take them seriously when they report that one of the planes in the race is carrying a cargo of drugs (very Hardy Boys style). It is only when they are in the air that they realise the plane has no fuel. Tessa's skills as a pilot are very limited, so she won't be doing everything technically correct. The story is set in South Africa, so British terminology will be used.

I said earlier in the chapter that they were 'orbiting' the airport and was told that this is incorrect, as you can only orbit in space, so I will have to change that sentence.

I wanted to incorporate enough information to make it believable without it becoming too technical. My intended readership is basically teen/young adult. The pilot who allowed me to sit in the plane while he explained the procedure did verify that what I had described was technically correct for the story, but I have now lost touch with him. Perhaps I should not mention the actual make of the plane. Would this make the scene correct so that no one can nitpick, or is there something that you all agree on would not be possible?

Many thanks

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I'd wager if you put it out there, you'd likely be able to get a ride with a Bo owner depending on your location....and all would become clear.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Come-on dudes, give the author credit for not having the airplane go out of control just because it ran out of gas. And having the pilot save it about 1 foot off the ground only by putting his/her/its forearms behind the yoke and pulling with all of his/her/it's strength.

 

[nddons]

Hi,
I was directed to this website by a fellow writer who says you are all 'very nice' here.

When I wrote Mystery at Ocean Drive (a teen action adventure set in South Africa) in 1995 I went to the airfield and a pilot allowed me to sit in the pilot's seat of a Beechcraft Bonzana while he explained all the controls. When I wrote the scene where the MC runs out of fuel and the wheels won't come down I sent it to the pilot to check whether I had all the details correct. I still have his letter confirming the technical info is correct. BUT, when I put it on the page 99 test I've had two people say I don't know what I'm talking about.
Have things changed since 1995?

This is the scene:

Jason watched Tessa setting the approach flaps and re-setting the power, pitch and mixture controls, recognising some of the procedure from his model flying. They began their descent. She throttled back until the rev counter entered the green arc area. They were down to 500 feet. The fuel needles were now steady on empty. He tried not to think about what would happen if the engine cut. They were almost there. The fence at the edge of the airfield flashed into view. Tessa selected full flap for the landing. They passed over the fence at 100 feet. She cut the throttle. Suddenly a warning horn screamed.
"The undercarriage," cried Tessa.
Jason saw the red light directly in front of him. He snapped the switch. Nothing happened. The horn continued to scream. "It's stuck." He could see the faces of the crowd. "Pull up. Do another circuit," he yelled.
"No time. No fuel. Try it again," shouted Tessa.
They were over the runway. If she didn't pull up they would overshoot. He tried the switch again. Nothing. He tried again. This time, to his relief, the three green lights appeared telling him that the wheels had dropped.
Almost immediately, he felt the slight bump as they touched the tarmac. But they were going too fast, heading off the tarred runway onto the grassed area. The grass seemed to slow them and the plane came to a stop a few metres before the bush, the engine still running.

Is this technical info correct?
This is the link to the e-book on Amazon:
Mystery at Ocean Drive http://amzn.to/e1qwWe

Many thanks in anticipation

Jan, I don't know much about Bo's, but I appreciate your effort in getting your book to be factually accurate. Good luck to you.

 

[SCCutler]

Is there any way that you could work into the story the essential fact that, simply by virtue of flying the Bonanza, the pilot became smarter, better-looking and irresistibly attractive?

Just sayin'!

---

Joking aside, good luck with the book!

 

[denverpilot]

Is there any way that you could work into the story the essential fact that, simply by virtue of flying the Bonanza, the pilot became smarter, better-looking and irresistibly attractive?

No, no... that's reserved for the RV drivers these days. Any of us flying "Certificated Junk" are not cool anymore. Just ask 'em.

 

[gismo]

They're in South Africa, where they learned to fly from the Brits, who do often call it a "rev counter." Much the same for the other terms unfamiliar to Yanks.

I missed that part about South Africa. Do the Brits call elevators "flippers" too?

 

[Neal Howard]

No, no... that's reserved for the RV drivers these days. Any of us flying "Certificated Junk" are not cool anymore. Just ask 'em.

Roger that one!


j/k

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Thanks so much for all the wonderful replies. I feel quite befuddled.

I think I should point out that both Jason and Tessa are teenagers. Tessa's mother is a flying instructor and Tessa has been taught to fly, but only in a Cessna and with her mother beside her. The couple steal the plane to escape Tessa's kidnappers and to alert the authorities about drug smuggling during an air race, so her flying skills are limited (very Hardy Boys)

If I leave out the make of the plane and just call it a small plane would that make the scene correct so that no one could complain about technical mistakes?

Many thanks
Jan

 

[SCCutler]

I personally don't feel as though you've made much in the way of mistakes; certainly not enough to change the content.

 

[gismo]

Thanks so much for all the wonderful replies. I feel quite befuddled.

I think I should point out that both Jason and Tessa are teenagers. Tessa's mother is a flying instructor and Tessa has been taught to fly, but only in a Cessna and with her mother beside her. The couple steal the plane to escape Tessa's kidnappers and to alert the authorities about drug smuggling during an air race, so her flying skills are limited (very Hardy Boys)

If I leave out the make of the plane and just call it a small plane would that make the scene correct so that no one could complain about technical mistakes?

Many thanks
Jan

If you're going to introduce technical problems (e.g. landing gear malfunctions) you should probably stick with an airplane the teenagers are familiar with. Even somewhat experienced and licensed pilots are't likely to make a great landing (i.e. one after which the plane can be used again) on their own in a significantly different airplane from what they've been flying and they certainly aren't likely to successfully deal with a major problem.

For example, most single engine Cessnas (high wing) have a "both" position on the fuel selector so the pilot doesn't need to manage the fuel usage or worry about running one tank dry when the other has fuel. A Bonanza (like most low wing airplanes) has two or more tanks (the one I owned had five) and can only feed the engine from one tank at a time making it necessary to regularly switch tanks during any flight that lasts more than half an hour. An inexperienced pilot who has only flown Cessnas might easily mess that up. You might even be able to use that in your landing emergency scenario. Have the engine stop (it won't stop turning just won't be making as much noise and no power) when the airplane is on final approach. The likely sequence would be the plane slowing down and descending to steeply to make the runway, followed by the pilot panicking and almost stalling (going too slow for the wing to hold the plane up), then the copilot finally realizes that they need to switch tanks and after the pilot does that the engine comes back to life just in time to let them reach the runway instead of crashing into the trees, buildings, big fence, etc. between them and the runway. That's a lot more realistic than the gear not extending at first and then working on the third try.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Thanks.
The person who commented on the Page 99 test (you put page 99 of your book up with no other info and people say if they will turn the page/read the book) said:

I fly, and when the needles are on zero, the engine shuts off. Every time. And full flaps will slow you even more, which is NOT what you want when you are trying to make it to the runway. There is no warning horn when you run out of fuel – engines stop so you don;t need to be warned – you know. And why would there be a red light and it not turn off? Needs some research work to be believable. Not good

And the second one said:
Any pilot will recognise a lack of knowledge of flying in the description of the landing procedure – so a wheel–up landing is quite believable!
He obviously didn't read the sentence that said the wheels dropped.

Unfortunately you can't reply to these comments to defend your facts, so other people will assume the commenters are correct. . I will review the scene and perhaps do a bit of a re-write and post it here for comment (if that's ok)

 

[N801BH]

Thanks.
The person who commented on the Page 99 test (you put page 99 of your book up with no other info and people say if they will turn the page/read the book) said:

I fly, and when the needles are on zero, the engine shuts off. Every time. And full flaps will slow you even more, which is NOT what you want when you are trying to make it to the runway. There is no warning horn when you run out of fuel – engines stop so you don;t need to be warned – you know. And why would there be a red light and it not turn off? Needs some research work to be believable. Not good

And the second one said:
Any pilot will recognise a lack of knowledge of flying in the description of the landing procedure – so a wheel–up landing is quite believable!
He obviously didn't read the sentence that said the wheels dropped.

Unfortunately you can't reply to these comments to defend your facts, so other people will assume the commenters are correct. . I will review the scene and perhaps do a bit of a re-write and post it here for comment (if that's ok)

I don't ( recognise) your issue ...

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Thanks all for your help.

Just to let you know that Mystery at Ocean Drive is FREE on Kindle Select 19 - 20th January. It's a YA action adventure (Hardy Boys style)

Here is the blurb.

When 17 yr old Jason Hunter sets out to discover the identity of the mystery girl at Ocean Drive he and his friends find themselves caught up in a risky intrigue.

Jason is delivering newspapers on his motorbike when a Mercedes sweeps out of a driveway in front of him. He loses control of his scrambler and almost ends up under the car’s wheels. An attractive teenage girl leaps out to ask if he is hurt, but before Jason can reply the girl is bundled back into the Mercedes and driven off.

Jason’s instincts warn him that the girl is in trouble.

The following day he sees her in an upstairs window, but when he asks to speak to her he is told that there is no young girl living there. Why?

Jason is not about to give up and he enlists the help of his friends, Mark and David. Together they make a daring attempt to learn the girl’s identity, but just as it seems to be working, things go horribly wrong...
Has Jason’s intriguing mystery now put all three boys in danger?

MYSTERY AT OCEAN DRIVE was a runner-up in the Citizen/Pan MacMillan 2010 YA novel award.

 

[Matthew]

Good on you for paying attention to this level of detail. And I can understand your feeling of confusion on all the info you've gotten. Heck, ask any number of pilots a simple question and you'll get that many different answers!

Good luck and thanks for checking in!

 

[AdamZ]

Come-on dudes, give the author credit for not having the airplane go out of control just because it ran out of gas. And having the pilot save it about 1 foot off the ground only by putting his/her/its forearms behind the yoke and pulling with all of his/her/it's strength.

Well put

Jan, I don't know much about Bo's, but I appreciate your effort in getting your book to be factually accurate. Good luck to you.

I agree!! Bravo!

Is there any way that you could work into the story the essential fact that, simply by virtue of flying the Bonanza, the pilot became smarter, better-looking and irresistibly attractive?

Just sayin'!

---

Joking aside, good luck with the book!

Jeez what the hell did you look like before you got the Bo?

I personally don't feel as though you've made much in the way of mistakes; certainly not enough to change the content.

I agree. Best of luck on the book sales. And good on you for caring enough to try to get it as accurate as possible.

 

[SCCutler]

Jeez what the hell did you look like before you the Bo?

It wasn't pretty!

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Thanks for the comments. I eventually decided to leave in the detail - but not mention the name of the plane!

 

[gismo]

I read the story over lunch and found it quite entertaining. Thanks for making it available for free.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I read the story over lunch and found it quite entertaining. Thanks for making it available for free.

Thanks. Lovely to hear that you enjoyed the story

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I'll probably be doing another freebie for Something to Read on the Plane next month. I'll try to remember to post it here. This is the link to the Kindle version -
http://amzn.to/cJ5MAy
It's also available in paperback and I was hoping an airline might make use of it for advertising purposes - but no luck in SA as yet.

Blurb
Something to Read on the Plane is a light-hearted variety of ‘back page’ humorous articles, short stories ranging from hypochondria to murder, plus a quiz, agony aunt column, limericks and a collection of malapropisms to keep passengers amused.

For your reading comfort we have used a decent-sized font and made the book pocket-sized, and for those who only read books with pictures we have included a few illustrative drawings (except for the kindle version as the HTML conversion threw up its hands and didn’t want to know)
REVIEWS
"Should be compulsory reading to keep incorrigible chatterers quiet" - Frequent Flyer.
"Could also be used to ram down their throats" - Flight Attendant.
"The stories about me are hugely exaggerated" - Author's Spouse.
"Shredded drafts of this book line my litter tray. Royalties from this book will go towards proper deodorized litter and reduce complaints about the smell" - Family Cat
"What a relief that will be" - Family Dog

 

[Anthony]

I think leaving in the name of the plane shows your attention to detail. It is information like that that helps keep it interesting. I'd put it back in if I were you.

 

[gismo]

I think leaving in the name of the plane shows your attention to detail. It is information like that that helps keep it interesting. I'd put it back in if I were you.

Might be a little late for that.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I think leaving in the name of the plane shows your attention to detail. It is information like that that helps keep it interesting. I'd put it back in if I were you.

Thanks for your interest.
The name was causing all the controversy because of the different models of the Bonanza. I've just said it was a Beechcraft. Some readers can be quite rude with one going as far as to say he wouldn't read the book because I obviously have little knowledge of planes and don't know what I'm talking about! This was particularly upsetting as I had taken the trouble to go to the airfield and interview the pilot and sit in the plane and then have the chapter checked by the pilot.
One reader said there was too much detail. You can't win

 

[Anthony]

Thanks for your interest.
The name was causing all the controversy because of the different models of the Bonanza. I've just said it was a Beechcraft. Some readers can be quite rude with one going as far as to say he wouldn't read the book because I obviously have little knowledge of planes and don't know what I'm talking about! This was particularly upsetting as I had taken the trouble to go to the airfield and interview the pilot and sit in the plane and then have the chapter checked by the pilot.
One reader said there was too much detail. You can't win

I totally understand Jan. For me personally I really enjoy reading detail about the type of implement being used whether its planes, cars, guns, golf clubs, etc. I like the intricacy of knowing, like when Tom Clancy describes some of the weapons systems in his novels. But, I know it is hard to satisfy everyone.

Good luck with the book!

 

[John221us]

Thanks for the free book. I read it last night and enjoyed it.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Just popped back to mention that Something to Read on the Plane is now FREE for 16-17 May (e-book).

http://amzn.to/cJ5MAy

It's also available as a paperback

 

[denverpilot]

Thanks!

 

[gprellwitz]

Just popped back to mention that Something to Read on the Plane is now FREE for 16-17 May (e-book).

http://amzn.to/cJ5MAy

It's also available as a paperback

Thanks! We're heading to Philadelphia Friday via Beech Bonanza. Maybe I'll read it en route if my wife flies that leg!

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

You're welcome.
Hope you'll enjoy it. The humour is very much British humour.

If anyone knows of an airport bookshop that would like to stock the paperback version I'd be pleased to have a contact name. My main paperback sales are at the Durban (King Shaka) Cape Town and Jo'burg (OR Tambo) airports.

 

[Gubbins]

The airport in Durban is called King Shaka now? That's a great name! Tshabalala Mtwatwa International would have been less elegant.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

King Shaka is the new international airport at La Mercy to the north of Durban. The old Louis Botha/Durban International is now closed and being used to store cars. There is talk of it becoming a new port. At least King Shaka is easy to pronounce (although one does tend to inadvertently call it uShaka, which is the marine world on the beachfront) unlike the new street names. Gale Street is now Magwaza Maphalala Street and NMR avenue is now Masabalala Yengwa Avenue, which is a nightmare if you're calling the emergency services.