Page 24 - Volume 11 Number 5

The cabin could accommodate up to four occupants (including the pilot), and a single door, located on the right side, was standard (a left-side door was optional). The large windshield afforded generous visibility, as did two windows on each side of the cabin. The fixed, trailing-beam tricycle landing gear used stacks of rubber discs to absorb taxi, takeoff and landing loads. The prototype airplane (registered N948B) incorporated a full-swiveling nosewheel located aft of the engine compartment.
First flight of the prototype occurred on October 23, 1961, with engineering test pilot S.C. Tuttle at the controls. The flight test program continued with few changes being made to the Model 23. Of these, the most significant modification was relocation of the nose landing gear farther forward, which improved ground handling characteristics, and the addition of nosewheel steering through the rudder pedals.
The FAA issued Beech Aircraft Approved Type Certificate A1CE for the Musketeer on February 20, 1962. As certificated, then Model 23 had a maximum gross weight of 2,300 pounds and a maximum speed of 144 mph. The price remained at $13,300 with standard equipment, which included a single VHF com/nav radio and complete instrumentation for IFR flight. The initial
production batch of Musketeers were delivered to dealers and distributors beginning in October 1962 (for the 1963 model year), from the Wichita factory. Management’s optimistic figure of 1,000 units was not achieved, but Beechcrafters did manufacture 553 airplanes before production shifted to the Model A23.
Responding to comments from pilots, flight instructors, dealers and distributors, the engineering department made a series of upgrades that improved performance, comfort and appearance of the entry-level Beechcraft. The Model A23 “Musketeer II” was introduced in June 1964 and featured a third cabin window, 165-horsepower, fuel-injected Lycoming engine and a series of minor, but important, refinements to the cabin and exterior paint design. All of which increased the airplane’s customer appeal. Those improvements, however, came at a cost – a standard Model A23 was priced at $14,250, and 346 were built for the 1964 model year.
As a four-place private and business aircraft, the A23 served the mission well but it was not suited to the role imposed upon it to teach student pilots how to fly. To resolve that issue, in 1965 Beech Aircraft offered an economy version of the new Model A23- 19 known as the “Sport III,” powered by a Lycoming 150-horsepower, carbureted O-320-E2C engine turning
D Landing the C23 Sundowner
uring my eight years working for Beech Aircraft into a normal flare. Toss in a strong crosswind and the Corporation, this author served as a flight situation only worsened. If the pilot tried to force the instructor in the company’s Beech Flying Club aircraft onto the runway, the potential existed for a
located at Beech Field in Wichita, Kansas. The primary training airplane flown by club members at that time was the Model C23 Sundowner.
Although the C23 possessed Beechcraft quality and decent performance, in my opinion it was not well suited to the task of training student pilots to land the airplane with full flaps. For flight training, the airplane was almost always flown with only the CFI and the student on board, and usually with fuel tanks only half filled. Under these conditions the Sundowner’s center of gravity was well forward but still within limitations. Full fuel tanks would have aggravated that condition.
To offset the forward CG and make landing easier, bags of lead shot or sand were secured in the baggage compartment behind the rear seats (observing structural limits of the baggage floor), and acted as ballast, shifting the CG farther aft. Regardless of whether the Sundowner was flown with or without the ballast, it was essential that the student learned to fly the airplane “by the book.”
On short final, if indicated airspeed (IAS) was too high, flaps were fully extended and the aircraft out of trim longitudinally, it was difficult to transition the airplane
propeller strike and damage to the nose gear. Worst case scenario was that the nose gear would touchdown first, possibly leading to the airplane “wheelbarrowing” down the runway. If the final approach was not stabilized, I taught students to immediately initiate a go-around and make another approach.
By contrast, if the student flew the airplane “by the numbers” at the proper IAS (flaps extended) and trimmed accordingly, the C23 would transition to the flare and land on the main gear first.1 It was an easy aircraft to land if configured correctly in accordance with the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH). It just took good airmanship, training and practice.
On the positive side, the C23 had a generous cabin, excellent outside visibility, was not too noisy and the two cabin doors made entry/egress easy. It was not a fast airplane, but was speedy enough for most private pilots on cross-country flights. There are hundreds of Model 19-, 23- and 24-series Beechcrafts for sale on the used airplane market, representing an affordable alternative to much more numerous Cessna and Piper aircraft in their class.
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MAY 2017