Beechcraft Baron: prices, price cuts and days on market

Buyer's notes

About the Beechcraft Baron

What it is

The Beechcraft Baron is the six-cylinder twin Beech built on the Bonanza's fuselage and wing, starting with the 95-55 in 1961 as a replacement for the Travel Air. It has been in production ever since. The short-body 55 series carries four to six people; the 58, introduced in 1970, stretched the cabin and added a pair of aft doors so the rear seats face each other around the big opening.

Pilots who fly them talk about the controls. A Baron feels like a big Bonanza: light, quick in roll and solid in pitch, with enough single-engine performance to mean something on a hot day if you keep it light. The reputation is that it is the twin you buy after you have flown the others.

Variants that matter for price

The 55 line runs 95-55, A55, B55 (260 hp IO-470s, the most common short-body), then C55, D55 and E55 with 285 hp IO-520s and a longer nose. The 58 started with IO-520s and switched to 300 hp IO-550s in 1984, along with a rearranged throttle quadrant that finally put the levers in the standard order. There is a pressurized 58P and a turbocharged 58TC, both of which cost far more to maintain than they cost to buy. The G58 with the Garmin G1000 panel arrived in the mid-2000s and is a different class entirely.

Buyers hunt 1984 and later 58s for the IO-550s, the modern quadrant and the higher gross weight. Among the 55s, a B55 with recent engines is the sensible buy and an E55 is the fast one. Sellers write them as B55, E55, 58, 58P, 58TC and G58.

What buyers check

Engines dominate the numbers. Two IO-520s or IO-550s are the biggest cost on the airplane, so time since overhaul, cylinder history and oil analysis matter more than paint. Older Barons have the gear and flap switches positioned opposite to what most pilots expect, and the pre-1984 quadrant puts the prop levers where your hand expects the throttles, so read the logs for a gear-up or a prop strike. The landing gear is electric with a chain of rods and uplocks that need rigging by someone who knows Beech gear.

Corrosion shows up around the wing bolts and spar carry-through and in the magnesium-skinned tail surfaces, which are expensive when they go. Fuel bladders on the earlier airplanes dry out and leak; look for staining at the wing root. Heated windshields, deice boots and radar all need to work or be priced as if they do not. Expect an annual to turn up gear rigging, and exhaust and turbo work on the turbocharged models.

Who it suits

The Baron suits an owner who flies real distances with family or business partners, wants two engines over water or mountains at night, and can absorb the upkeep of two big Continentals. It is not an economical airplane, it is not a short-field airplane, and a 58P or 58TC belongs with someone who has already owned a piston twin. The realistic cross-shop is the Cessna 310, the Piper Seneca or Aztec, and a Bonanza A36 with one engine and half the bills.