After selling his trusty Piper Warrior, Galen King set out to find his next airplane—a capable IFR traveler with some speed and comfort. His search led him from Mooneys to Bonanzas, and eventually to Kansas, where an A36 and its former Beechcraft engineer-owner made a lasting impression. The story of one pilot’s hunt for the perfect airplane—and the satisfying flight home.
Oh how I concentrated as the flight progressed, identifying those check points, talking to flight following, receiving timely handoffs from one sector to the next and being the best student pilot I could be. Then at the appropriate time, I dialed in, as instructed by approach control, the correct four digits in the correct sequence, hit ident in the transponder and eventually found myself in the traffic pattern with regional jets!
I was loaded with my precious passengers, sitting at the end of the grass, holding the brakes as I brought the power up, airplane shaking and rattling in the classic way of the short field takeoff procedure. The Cessna 206 lurched ahead on brake release and we bounced our way forward. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the fence post marker pass.