Beech Bonanza vs Piper Saratoga

Sheesh, where do you get this stuff? These numbers are pure fiction. And you neglect to note that “Full Fuel” in a Saratoga is 102 gallons usable–nearly 30 gallons more than what a Bonanza can carry. That’s almost 180 lbs. of weight right there, and you can always leave that extra fuel out of the Toga if you want the weight carrying capacity.

For what its worth, 1980’s Togas have over 1200+ lbs. useful load–so even after “full fuel” at 102 gals, that’s 600 lbs for people & bags. Or if you just fill the tanks to the capacity equal to what the Bo’s full tanks are, the Toga can carry over 750 lbs. Just as importantly–unlike the Bo–there’s actually room to carry the bags, both in the rear and in the nose.

And if you load up a Bo to its max and then go flying, at some point your fuel burn will put you outside of your C.G. envelope while in the air. That doesn’t happen with that goofy-nosed Saratoga which was designed from the ground-up as a 6 seat airplane. The Bo was never designed for 6 places–they just stretched the cabin and thought that was a good idea. It was a great 4-place airplane, but never designed to be a 6-place. Hence it has C.G. issues that simply do not exist on a Toga.

And I caution you to be very careful using “book figures”. In the real world there is other equipment in the plane–not the least of which is avionics (which are surprisingly heavy). I doubt your numbers are correct , but even if they were “by the book”, the book assumes a pretty stripped airplane in the case of the Bo. Put in some good IFR equipment and watch it weigh down.

I quote from Aviation Consumer’s “Used Aircraft Guide” Eighth Ed. regarding the Bonanza (p. 124): “…range is limited…six riders and luggage would leave practically no weight for fuel.”