AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2015 - 68

LAUNDRY LIST
Details of the restoration
Here's a list of some of the restoration tasks on
Egan's airplane:
* New custom paint scheme
* New interior
* New floorboards
* New interior panels
* All new avionics

This is a project primarily justified by emotions, and one
with which the owner must have an unhealthy obsession.
That's not to say it's all irrational; there is a small bit of logic
to the Twin Bonanza. This is especially true when you compare restoration costs to new choices on the market. But more
than anything, Egan's project was born of a love affair with the
classic, cool, stout twin from Beechcraft.

* New engine control cables
* A dozen new skins
* New flight control surfaces
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

ALTHOUGH it has a
glass panel and a
pristine leather
interior, Dale Egan's
Twin Bonanza is as
comfortable on grass
as it is on pavement.
68 | AOPA PILOT November 2015

THE EMOTIONAL ARGUMENT

It was love at first sight. Egan was a relatively new pilot with
New LED and HID lights
about 600 hours, and Skyhawks and Archers didn't light his
New windows
fire. Milling around a hangar with some friends, he noticed
New wing tips
an old Twin Bonanza in the back-the first he had ever seen.
Removed vacuum pumps
He was completely drawn to the beast lurking in the shadows.
Egan's friends, whom he says were anxious to leave, didn't see
Removed remote avionics boxes
the appeal. Maybe they knew of its geared and supercharged
Removed radar
engines, complex systems, and unremarkable cruise speed-
Installed new landing gear actuator brackets
and considered the underlying statistics uninspiring.
New yokes
But Egan wasn't deterred. He lingered, studying every
New tires
inch. In the years that followed he researched everything he
Overhauled brake master cylinders
could about the T-Bone (one of a few affectionate nicknames).
Installed new gas caps
Although nicely restored examples come on the market
New augmentor tubes
occasionally, Egan decided he wanted a challenge. He settled
New antennas
on a 1961 model that had a few hundred hours on each engine;
Installed Rosen sun visors
the rest of us would have considered it a great fly-away airplane. He immediately turned over the keys to a shop to rip it
apart. It's not that Egan has champagne tastes-he'd just prefer to grow the grapes. With a history of restoring cars, boats, and houses, it's that process of tearing
down and building back up that drives him. He considers restoration an art form. "I like to get in the
mind of the guys who designed it," he says. "And to do that you have to take it apart." The goal was to
use the image of the T-Bone as it was when it came out of the Beech factory as a guide.
To that end, the finished product was the primary goal, and money was a second or third consideration. "About 20 percent into it, we decided we had to go all-in," Egan says. "Sometimes in restorations
you spend more time figuring out what's good enough when everyone knows what is the best. It can



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2015

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