Flight in the Beechcraft Baron 58TC to Nashville, Tennessee from Clayton, Georgia. - Part 3

Video from the channel Skyline Baron Pilot about Beechcraft, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 27:59. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

Third part of a journey by a couple of pilots aboard a turbocharged Beechcraft Baron 58, from the residential airstrip of Heaven's Landing, in northern Georgia, to Lebanon airport in Tennessee. It's a visual flight (VFR) with radar flight-following service from Atlanta Center. They travel with their dog, which they fit with ear protectors to shield it from the noise. The video covers the whole flight: ground preparation, engine run-up, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, pattern entry and landing.

Before taxiing, the pilot cross-checks the altimeter setting against the field's known elevation, about 2,724 feet, and compares it with the automated weather service reading. The engine run-up is done at 1,500 and 2,000 rpm: propeller cycling, manifold and oil pressure checks, magneto check with a drop of about 100 rpm, warning lights and idle check. She then runs through the engine-failure-on-takeoff procedure aloud, based on speed reached relative to the blue line.

Takeoff is from runway 05, rotating at about 80 knots; the pilots note how the cold air improves engine performance. The climb is bumpy due to mountain turbulence until the air smooths out in cruise at 8,500 feet, where power is reduced, the autopilot is engaged and the cowl flaps are closed to gain a few knots. Radio contact with Atlanta Center is intermittent for much of the flight. As a cloud layer thickens, the crew requests to descend to 4,500 feet, where the air turns bumpy again.

At the destination, with an elevation of 588 feet, the crew overflies the field at 3,000 feet and enters the pattern with a teardrop maneuver onto the left downwind for runway 01, coordinating by radio with an aircraft taking off. Due to the gusts, the approach is flown with a maximum of 15 degrees of flap; the pilot notes that the approach stays stabilized and the aircraft floats a bit before touching down.

The video belongs to a series of trips from a private pilots' channel and has an educational tone: the crew explains the procedures because, as they say, it's what their audience asks for most. It shows the typical use of a light Beechcraft twin in American general aviation, with communications on traffic frequencies at towerless airfields and travel anecdotes, such as the fuel price at the destination, $4.29 per gallon.