Anyone here know any pluses or minuses about them? Specifics (other than
all the usual every-airplane items) to look at on pre-buys?

I've looked closely at exactly one Sundowner, but here are a few odds and
ends that might be worth knowing:

- Genuine Beech parts are breathtakingly expensive, even for little things.
You can get prices online from Raytheon's parts site, RAPID
(https://parts.raytheonaircraft.com/R...ssl/login.asp). For example,
the weatherstripping on the baggage door was going for something close to
$2000 (that's two thousand dollars) last I checked. The good news is that
less expensive replacements are often available, such as the aforementioned
weatherstripping. Beech Aero Club (BAC) is a great place to find sources for
those kinds of things.

- The Sundowner's (and other Musketeer types) reputation for being hard to
land is undeserved, in my opinion. It will feel a little nose heavy if
you're used to Cessnas as I was -- just fly the recommended approach speed
and keep the nose up in the flare.

- Compared with other planes I've flown, it felt extremely stable without
feeling heavy on the controls.

- Be sure to look inside the fuselage during the inspection and pay
attention to those foil-covered panels on the sides. Those are not to make
the airplane quieter (which is what the seller said), they are
vibration-dampening honeycomb panels that keep the skins from flexing and
from cracking due to fatigue. They don't affect airworthiness, but if
they're in bad shape, they can't be ignored.

- The exterior plastic parts (wing tips, fairings, etc.) deform easily,
unlike fiberglass. On the one I looked at (and this is common, I'm told),
pretty much every screw had been overtorqued, which caused the edges of the
plastic to buckle. There's not much to do about it during the inspection,
but your future mechanic should be aware of it.

- There are a number of special places where corrosion lurks. I can't bring
them to mind just now, but ask on BAC, and then make sure your inspector
checks those places.

Have fun with your purchase.

Tom Young