Sometimes I get writing prompts that I can’t get to in a timely manner. But the idea is still good, so it goes into the Big Stack of Blog Ideas (which usually isn’t as big as I’d prefer). Such is the case with a challenge from Airplane Geeks Episode #565 to explain the aircraft you’d most want to fly, and why.
Which, first off, is a remarkably difficult question to try and choose a single aircraft. Do you finally live out your fighter pilot dreams and go tearing through Star Wars Canyon in a Viper, an F-5E, or a Mirage 2000? What about going high and fast in an SR-71, or even an X-15? What about going old school, with a P-51 Mustang, a Spitfire, or a P-61 Black Widow?
There’s aircraft in civil aviation that stir the soul too, from the classic Beech Staggerwing or a Waco biplane to slick little modern rocket ships like the Harmon F1 or the Velocity XL.
And that’s not even getting into so many other delightful categories, such as WW 1 era biplanes and replicas, classic commercial transports, all kinds of seaplanes, and a sundry of weird prototypes and also-rans that would be a delight to take up just to experience what might have been.
There’s just so many aircraft, and so little time (or money, for that matter). What it really comes down to for me is this: when I close my eyes and dream that I’m at the controls of something, what is it? What am I doing with it?
After that, the answer’s simple. I’m in a four- or maybe six-place retractable piston aircraft, suitable for cross-country flight. It’s something that MLGB and I can use to go visit our kids once they’ve left the nest, and maybe pick up a grandchild or two. Any of the kids who need to be building flight hours would find useful time in the left seat of this aircraft. It’s low wing, and looks good. Maybe it looks a little bit distinctive, because I like that sort of thing.
It’s a Model 35 Beechcraft Bonanza.
You know, with fairly nice models from the ‘60s showing up on Trade-A-Plane for around $100k, that’s almost affordable in the next fifteen years or so…