That's one CRAZY BEECH 18!

[maxum96]

That's one CRAZY BEECH 18! according to the title of the video. You be the judge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kU40S13bdk

[Rod Schneider]

Matt Younkin--he does a great airshow act in that -18. I've seen him at Oshkosh several times.

[bomberfan]

I saw him at Airsho 2 years ago and he did a night show, it was simply amazing you could hear the plane and see the lights and smoke but at the end of the act he shut the lights and smoke off and it was like a magic trick, he was just gone!! I just thought it was cool to see someone take a plane you don't normally associate with an act like that and blow some minds. It completely changed the way i look at Beech 18s.

[CAPFlyer]

Matt has been very capably carrying on the legacy his dad started with the Beech. To me the best part is that none of those maneuvers are "extreme" but they look it because of the fact he's flying a twin.

[Pogo]

What mods, if any, does that '18 have? Looks to have a pretty decent roll rate...

[Taigh Ramey]

Here is my long winded reply about why Matt's Beech is special and well suited for what he does. Matt can certainly come in and thump me on the head to straighten me out.

Matt's Beech a C model Beech 18, specifically an ex WWII Army AT-7 Navigator or navigation trainer. The C models were lighter and also had lower gross weights than their later counterparts.

The C model Beech 18's are different than most of the later Beech 18's (D,E,G and H's). I believe that the C models are about as close to what Walter Beech and Ted Wells intended the Beech 18 to be and they are a real delight to fly. Not that the later Twin Beech's are not fun but the early models are much friendlier.

The basic Beech 18, like Matt's unmodified AT-7, was designed for short, unimproved runways or just landing in the rough. remember it was a 1937 design when hard runways were not as plentiful as they are today so taking off and landing slow and with short runs were especially desirable.

The early Twin Beech's had a low stall speed and great handling characteristics in the three point attitude. You can pretty much drag the tail wheel down the runway in a C model if you wanted to.

In cruise the horizontal stabilizer is at an angle to the elevator meaning that the elevator is down a bit which creates drag and makes the cruise or top speed slower. Since everyone wants their aircraft to go faster there were a lot of modifications made to get every fraction of a knot possible and the Beech 18 was no exception.

One way to make the Beech go faster was to change the angle of incidence of the horizontal stabilizer to it and the elevator was more streamlined thus reducing drag. Less drag means more airspeed if all other things are the same. The Beech 18 had three different angle of incidence mods to the horizontal stabilizer over the years all in order to make it go faster. When you change the angle if incidence of the horizontal by raising the leading edge you increase the speed at which the horizontal stab stalls thus you raise the stall speed of the whole aircraft.

In the unmodified C model with the original low AOI of the horizontal the three point attitude was less than the critical angle of attack thus you could drag the tail wheel down the runway if you wanted but more importantly you could land and stall at slower speeds.

With the subsequent raising of the AOI in later models and STC mods that same three point now exceeded the critical angle of attack meaning the three point was actually now a full stall attitude. If you tried to three point the modified aircraft with power off you would now be dropping out of the sky. The more mods the Twin Beech had the higher the stall speed and trickier it became to fly. I think this is why the Beech 18 got a reputation for being a handful.

Flying the unmodified C model aircraft with the lower gross weight, same power as the later aircraft and the lower stall speeds all add up to a great aircraft. I think Matt might also has some cool secret squirrel stuff going on with his engines. Tulsa builds a good 985!

I had a nice conversation with Bobby Younkin a while ago about flying the C's and he said that he could not do the same show with a later Beech 18. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about the differences between the C's and other 18's. Not too many original WWII 18's left flying these days. Only three or so I can think of off the top of my head.

I have had similar conversations with Matt. Nice folk for sure and his act is one that never gets old for me.

Keep 'em Flying!

[Pogo]

Very cool, thanks Taigh! The Twin Beech is an aircraft I've always admired, but never had an opportunity to get to know very well.


Now I want a C-model 18.

[CAPFlyer]

Taigh, thanks for the information. I had heard somewhere (whether via Facebook or my one time getting to hear him talk during AirSho a few years back) that the plane didn't have any real structural or aerodynamic mods but that the engines had been "tweaked" with a different carb, an oil system mod to ensure lubrication during the maneuvers, and bigger generators, but beyond that, it was all just strapping a bunch of lights onto it.

[Taigh Ramey]

That's my impression too. Pretty much a stock C model with some extra engine and systems changes.

I may be biased but the Twin Beech is a pretty amazing aircraft.

[Jack Frost]

That video confirms that the Twin Beech is not the Bugsmasher" that alot of people think it is.

[Kyleb]

I had a nice conversation with Bobby Younkin a while ago about flying the C's and he said that he could not do the same show with a later Beech 18. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about the differences between the C's and other 18's. Not too many original WWII 18's left flying these days. Only three or so I can think of off the top of my head.

Which raises the question - Is there any problem (other than speed) with converting them back to the higher incidence horizontal stab?

[M.P.]

I like that video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... opBZcduCTg

[maxum96]

I like that video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... opBZcduCTg

Duck!!!!!!!

[ripcard]

Matt Younkin at Hamilton Air Show June 2013