The Rebuilding of N494B

The Resurrection of N494B

This is how she came to rest on the runway. I did end up shutting down Yolo County airport for a while. However, a large group of large skydivers helped me move it off the runway and into the grass.
And here it is in the grass posed with the failed biological flight control system.
The next day we got it onto its mains (the nose gear was jammed in the well by the doors) and into the tiedown area. This picture demonstrates how NOT to move a Bonanza in this state. That chain is attached to the engine hoist point. We got away without mangling the plane because it was very low on fuel and we tossed all of our heavy tools into the baggage compartment.

Damage
As the gear were safely tucked into their wells, there was no damage during the accident to the landing grear at all. As far as the airframe is concerned a good majority of the damage was in the flaps, which had their inboard trailing edges pretty much ground off. The belly skin underneath the front seat was toast as well as the nose gear doors.

The engine was probably fine, but it had 700 hours (TBO on the E series engine is only 1200) and so I had it overhauled. I also had it converted to an E-225 (an extra 40 HP) and an alternator conversion put on it.

The prop checked out OK, except for the blades (of course). I finally found new blades and had the prop overhauled by Sullivan propeller in Hayward, CA. In hind sight, I should have investigated finding a Beech prop and having it put on. There is now a recurrent AD on this prop which is somewhat painful to deal with.

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Here myself and a buddy are removing the engine and the prop. This was early on in the rebuild process and we were doing it on the tarmac (hangars were unavailable). The engine sat in my garage for about a year before being rebuilt by Call West Aero in San Carlos, CA.

With the engine out, it was necessary to keep some weight in the nose in order to work on the rest of the airframe. I had a bunch of bricks around the house that were pressed into service. Airport wags at this point were refering to my "Beechcraft wheelbarrow"

This is a picture from the bottom of the plane looking up at the bottom of the instrument panel. Thats the throttle, prop and mixture controls just above center of the picture.

Thats Tom Mitchel, the A & P who helped me with all of the airframe repairs. At this point, we have repaired all of the structural members and are fitting in a new belly skin.

Oh, my look at all those clecos!

While doing the repairs on the rest of the plane we discovered that the large fitting that the ruddervators attached to was corroded and cracking. For some reason I find this picture to be the saddest of all the rebuild photos that I have.

Here myself and a buddy are removing the engine and the prop. This was early on in the rebuild process and we were doing it on the tarmac (hangars were unavailable). The engine sat in my garage for about a year before being rebuilt by Call West Aero in San Carlos, CA.
With the engine out, it was necessary to keep some weight in the nose in order to work on the rest of the airframe. I had a bunch of bricks around the house that were pressed into service. Airport wags at this point were refering to my "Beechcraft wheelbarrow"
This is a picture from the bottom of the plane looking up at the bottom of the instrument panel. Thats the throttle, prop and mixture controls just above center of the picture.
Thats Tom Mitchel, the A & P who helped me with all of the airframe repairs. At this point, we have repaired all of the structural members and are fitting in a new belly skin.
Oh, my look at all those clecos!
While doing the repairs on the rest of the plane we discovered that the large fitting that the ruddervators attached to was corroded and cracking. For some reason I find this picture to be the saddest of all the rebuild photos that I have.