EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015: Airshow Performers - Beechcraft Bonanza and Mentor

Fred Harl and Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience continues our coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015 airshows with another performer combo pack: Beechcraft stable-mates Bonanza and Mentor, flown by Jim Peitz and Julie Clark.  The planes they currently fly, the Beechcraft F33C Bonanza and T-34 Mentor, have a family history dating to the late 1940s when the original V-tail Bonanza series was introduced.  In the early 1950s, the Mentor trainer, a tandem cockpit development of the Bonanza, was accepted into U.S. and Allied armed forces and served until fully replaced by the T-6 Texan II in 2012.  In the following photo essay, we feature Jim Peitz flying a later model aerobatic F33C Bonanza and Julie Clark flying her beautiful T-34A Mentor during several airshows that week: