Cherokee 6 (260HP) Vs Bonanza A36 Which one is better?

Maybe relevant, but certainly true: A Cherokee 6 owner relishes in the room and useful load he has. He hauls kids, dogs, skis and shotguns while raising a family. As soon as the kids move out, he trades the Cherokee 6 for something else. An A36 owner does much the same while raising a family, but keeps the Bonanza when the kids move out.
 
EvilEagle said:
That's not full fuel for me; that's 6 hours of fuel (your original post). I did a 6 hour flight from Denver to New Orleans and landed with 35 gallons (basically just me and gas in it for that one so I got better gas mileage).

My fuel burn is 13.5 gph at 165 ktas and my useful is 1482lbs. I can carry 110 gallons if I'm tankering gas - rarely need that for 1-hop.
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Wow, that is impressive. Is there an extra tank of something to get up to 110 gallons? The numbers that I saw for the A36 fuel capacity was 74 gallons which is why I mentioned 6 hours and you simply cannot fly for 6 hours on 74 gallons.

https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-fact-sheets/beechcraft-bonanza
 
k9medic said:
Wow, that is impressive. Is there an extra tank of something to get up to 110 gallons? The numbers that I saw for the A36 fuel capacity was 74 gallons which is why I mentioned 6 hours and you simply cannot fly for 6 hours on 74 gallons.

https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-fact-sheets/beechcraft-bonanza
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You'll see many bonanzas upgraded with tip tanks. Dshannon first made tips able to hold an extra 30 gallons and now the ones they make hold an extra 40 gallons. I have the 30 gallon tips (15 per side) on my F33A. This gives it 104 usable. I have gone from NJ to Fort Lauderdale, FL non stop a few times now and land with usually 2 hours of fuel left over! Being able to have that kind of range really makes a huge speed difference in a long trip where a fuel stop would normally be required in another aircraft. Also the ability to tanker cheap fuel.
 
k9medic said:
Holy crap! That’s awesome.
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While it's awesome, it does come at a price. I have owned both. The trade-offs for the tip tanks are:

+
- additional fuel/range
- additional useful load (yes, with some of the installs you get a gross weight increase that is not limited to fuel)

drawbacks
- a fair amount of money that is not in your pocket
- a loss in agility around the roll axis. Particularly with the tanks full, the plane is much less pleasant to fly.
- depending on the type tank, a need to stick to some pre-planning on fuel usage.
 
oh and then there's that capex difference between six-260 and an A36. But in POA we always whistle past the graveyard....
 
hindsight2020 said:
oh and then there's that capex difference between six-260 and an A36. But in POA we always whistle past the graveyard....
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LOL, I wondered if that would ever be mentioned.

Bought my 6/260 for $55,000. Annuals have run just shy of $2000 over the past 2 years.

Looks like the cheapest A36 is about $135,000. That's a lot of 100ll
 
Definitely paying a premium to get a 36 in the hangar vs a 260. Lots of money saved, but as long as you don't wad it up, likely plenty of resale value when you are done with it as well.

Mine has 15 gal tips - 110 total. In level flight I can get my main tanks completely dry (as in I can put about 40.5 gals in one when I land) so the 74 useable is lawyer speak. Of course I never plan for that unusable gas to be useable (but it always is).
 
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