Ladies and gentlemen I would like to introduce you to my personal go fast machine “BLACK BETTY”. Betty is a 1960 BE-65 Beech Queen Air and is to quote the classic song about Shaft, “She’s a bad mother, shut your mouth! Hey, just talken bout Betty. I’ve had Betty for three years now and just lover her to death. She’s legal for nine passengers, small ones, but I only have six seats and that’s just about right for comfortable flying with reasonable baggage space. The Queen Air is a great IFR platform with de-ice boots and alcohol props and windshield making her an ideal all weather plane to take long trips in. You don’t see many Queen Airs flying these days, although a company in Minnesota has a fleet of them they use to bring in cargo from small airports for Fed Ex. Betty started life in the U.S. ARMY before doing a stint in a sheriffs dept before being bought and refurbished by a Texas businessman who put new paint and interior on/in her before losing his medical and selling her to me. It is a BIG job waxing the girl but it paid off last year at Oshkosh when she won Outstanding Beech Multi-Engine in the Contemporary class.
I spent today helping, sort of, my mechanic with the annual inspection and while we’ve not found all that much that needed fixing we did notice that one the engine driven fuel pumps is leaking and needs to be overhauled. Translation for those non-aircraft owners out there…$$$$. She should be done and back in the air by April Fools day. How fitting.
