This past week, the Beechcraft Museum in Tennessee hosted its annual Beech Party fly in event. All sorts of Beech aircraft, from all over the country flew in for several days of seminars, fellowship, fly-bys and of course, cocktails.
A couple of buddies of mine flew up there in different Bonanza’s and we met up at KTHA.
The 3 hour flight up from Florida was smooth and clear, but there was a cold front with clouds and rain moving into central Tennessee. I was on top of an overcast and about to ask for an approach to runway 24.
After asking ATC for lower altitudes, I finally spotted a hole in the undercast and requested IFR cancellation.
At the event, there were many examples of the Model 17 Staggerwings from the 1930’s and Beech 18’s from the 1940s. There was also ever iteration of Beech Bonanzas of course, from 1947 to the present day.
Here is a photo of a rare Starship. Beech made only 53 copies of these, but decided they could not support the aircraft. They repurchased all but a few. This is one of three still flying.
This is the inside of the original museum. It contains one of a kind aircraft, starting with a water cooled Travel Air made in 1929. The original Model 17 Staggerwing, Serial number 1 is also in the museum.
The flight home to Florida was behind a strong cold front. I had a 20kt tail wind with a ground speed of 196 kts. TAS. The flight back to Florida took only 2.5 hours of flight time.
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