First flight today of an airplane found here

About a year and a half ago I was searching this forum and found a T-34B for sale. I made a deal and trucked it home where we rebuilt the engine, painted it inside and out, replaced 90% of the control surfaces, performed the AMOC on the wing, rebuilt the prop, replaced the canopy glass and 100's of other small items.

Finally got it in the air today

Picture is from about a month ago before it was totally done.
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Since so much was new and the wings were off and modified, and all of the stabilizers and control surfaces were replaced the first thing I did was get it into ground affect about 5 to 10 feet off the ground to make sure it was OK.

After a taxi back I just did one circuit to bring it back and ck for leaks etc. The one circuit was rather short due to a faulty CHT gauge that was showing just a needle width below red line. So we think we found that and will try another flight by the end of the week. Planned is a half hour over the field to check the engine and fuel flows etc. Then a longer flight for the rest of the engine break in. And finally a series of stalls and control cks.

I have owned a T-34 (up to 3 at a time) since 1987 so I really believe in them. This is the first 260HP model and it shows compared to the 300HP engine. The lack of the extra 40 HP is very noticeable.
This particular airplane feels very solid and the controls felt very good. I only did one circuit but I did not have to touch the trim wheel at all.

The B model has extra dihedral and you can tell, the ailerons are a little harder to break out and it rides much better in turbulence. Takes a few seconds to remember to use the brakes to turn since the B model has a castering nose wheel. I plan to spend a lot of effort to make sure the fuel system is operating properly. I much prefer the A model fuel system.

All of the work was done at my hanger by employees I have to take care of my aircraft. The paint work was done by a local guy while it was apart. Jud Nogle and GAMI provided the required wing AMOC.



Plan is to spend a lot of time flying formation with my A model in the near future.

 

T-34 is much lighter with the same horsepower, 300 for the A model. The seating position gives a much better feel for what you are flying. The controls are lighter and since it is aerobatic with a stick more aggressive inputs are no problem.

Empty weight is about 2250 pounds and gross is 2,900 pounds.

The T-34 does a lot of thing very well, 165 to 175 kts true airspeed, decent aerobatic performance, and it is very good for formation flying. It is extremely easy to fly.

But it is a Beech product so I think there is a similar feel to all of the Beech products, whether it is a T-34, A-36, or even a B-18 or King Air.