November 362 Alpha

The story of Tom Scholz’s meticulously engineered touring plane and why he finally let it go.

Tom Scholz’s A36 Beechcraft Bonanza “N362A” (courtesy Pilots To The Rescue)

Last November, Michael Schneider, the founder of Pilots To The Rescue, a small animal rescue organization, received a message through the group’s website:

Thinking of donating my BEAUTIFUL 1980 A36 bonanza. It has extensive mods for all weather, long distance flying; owned and flown it since new. Interested? Dog lover-pilot, Tom Scholz

Schneider didn’t recognize the name at first. He was just excited about the organization getting its hands on a second plane for their special operations to rescue abandoned dogs and, sometimes, endangered species. He quickly set up a call.

Scholz, who is 78, explained that he had long suffered from a bad back, and some more recent sports injuries meant that he could not renew his FAA medical certificate. He had been trying to sell the plane, but he had long supported animal rights causes, and his wife Kim had suggested giving it to Pilots To The Rescue.

As they talked about technical details, Schneider was blown away by the depth of his knowledge of the plane. “You could tell this was his baby and he had an emotional connection to it,” says Schneider, a pilot himself. “The more you fly . . . you start to become like man and machine or one with the machine.”

It was only later that someone in Schneider’s office realized that Scholz was the founder of Boston, a meticulous musician and engineer who had tinkered with machines his entire life.

For 43 years, Scholz had flown himself around the country for Boston tours in this modest single engine plane with a maximum speed of 200 mph. “He could have bought a jet if he wanted to, right?” Schneider says.

In fact, Scholz had put over 700,000 miles on his plane. “He told me he flew this plane from Bedford [Massachusetts] to Palm Beach in nine hours,” Schneider says. “I don’t know anybody who could sit in a plane for nine hours.” Scholz loved that plane so much, he would fly a scale model of it when he wasn’t traveling.

When Pilots To The Rescue sent a mechanic to give it the once-over, it looked like it had just rolled off the factory line. But, in some ways, it was better than new.

Scholz had installed modifications known as Mike Smith’s Speed Mods to seal small air gaps among other aerodynamic tweaks to reduce drag and add a few knots to its cruising speed.

He had also added, at no small expense, a TKS de-icing system to fly more safely in inclement weather. “We call it a ‘get out of jail free’ card,” Schneider says.

Then, there were the more idiosyncratic details. In order to gain a knot of speed, Scholz, who is 6’5”, removed a step from the wing that allowed pilots of more average height to climb in.

“It’s sort of like in music,” Schneider says. “The few tweaks he might make to the guitar, just create that extra special sound, right? You may not be able to hear it as a novice audiophile, but to him it made a world of a difference. It’s kind of the same thing with the plane.”

Last month, Schneider and his team finally flew out to pick it up at Hanscom field in Bedford, Massachusetts. Tom and Kim met them at the airport, and they shared a vegan lunch together.

“I considered selling this one-of-a kind aircraft, but I just couldn’t let this prize fall into the hands of someone I knew nothing about,” Scholz said in a press release.

The plane’s tail number, N362A, had never been made public before. When Schneider climbed in, he found a few pairs of reading glasses in various pockets.

He also found a couple of partly used batteries. Scholz had carefully checked their voltages and labeled them with a pen. “It was really surreal to go through the aircraft,” Schneider says.

Now, the plane, renamed “Little Paw” by the organization, will be flying out tomorrow to rescue three litters of puppies in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Michael Schneider with N362A, now known as “Little Paw” (courtesy Pilots To The Rescue)