Beechcraft Musketeer / Sundowner / Sierra

This page's specifications describe the Model C23 Sundowner (1971-1983), the longest-produced and best-attested model on FAA TCDS A1CE's fixed-gear line, and the model the used market overwhelmingly lists under the name "Sundowner."

Beech introduced the Model 23 Musketeer in 1962 as an entry-level four-seat airplane aimed squarely at the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee — AOPA's own framing: an airplane meant to "entice the pilot with Beech Aircraft Company products from a start in the trainer (the Sport), to the basic fixed-gear airplane (the Sundowner), to the retractable, cross-country airplane (the Sierra)." That three-step Beech Aero Club product line is also why this page had to split: the Sierra is a genuinely different airplane (retractable gear, its own certificate section) and now has its own page, Beechcraft Sierra C24R.

Why this remains one page (minus the Sierra). None of Step 1's hard splits fire among the fixed-gear models — same engine count, same class (piston single), same gear type. Step 2: gross weight 2,200-2,550 lb across the WHOLE fixed-gear span is a 15.9% spread, marginally over the 15% threshold, but the buyer-test (Step 3) settles it: a Sport-to-Sundowner upgrade is the same shopping decision Beech itself marketed as one product family, and the Variants table carries every model's own weight and power.

The reference cruise is 120 KTAS at 75% power (2,650 rpm), 11.0 gph, flown at 7,500 ft density altitude, per AOPA Pilot's October 1980 flight test of a 1980 C23. The same flight gives an economy row at 65% power (2,500 rpm): 115 KTAS, 9.0 gph, with the article's own stated range for that setting — "a range of more than 550 nautical miles at 65 percent power." A third point was flown at 57% power: 96 KTAS, 7.9 gph (not stored in frontmatter, since the schema's economy row is defined as the published row nearest 65%, which the 2,500-rpm point already is).

This is a real three-point flight-test grid, not a full POH chart — one density altitude, not the multi-altitude table a factory POH would publish. Saved as data/vault/performance/beechcraft-musketeer-sundowner-sierra.cruise.json. A February-1979-or-later Model C23 POH is confirmed to exist by TCDS A1CE's own equipment list (Item 2(c): "Model C23 Pilot's Operating Handbook dated February 1979 or later") but was not located in this research pass — see the confidence note.

No climb table was found, only a single best-rate figure (792 fpm), so no beechcraft-musketeer-sundowner-sierra.climb.json file exists — inventing rows for a chart that was never obtained would be exactly the failure this project exists to prevent.

AOPA's own framing of the airplane: "No, the Sundowner is not fast. It is between 10 and 17 knots slower at normal cruise speeds than the Piper Archer, its closest competitor in the four-place, 180-hp market." What the airplane trades speed for: "quality and rugged construction... stressed to six positive and three negative Gs... two more bulkheads in its fuselage than either the Piper or the Cessna singles... a heavy forged aluminum spar with a fuselage carry-through structure that resembles a truss in the Brooklyn Bridge."

Approach speeds: 68 kt on final with full flaps, 80 kt with flaps retracted, per the same article — "its nose gear is longer and its flaps are not as effective as those on the Archer or Skyhawk," making pilot technique more important on landing than on the competition.

With 57 usable gallons at 6.0 lb/gal (342 lb) and a 948 lb useful load (1,502 lb empty against 2,450 lb gross):

Full fuel and four adults do not fit together on this airplane — the same shape of constraint the runbook's payload-range convention exists to surface. Two adults with full tanks and genuine baggage capacity, or four adults with meaningfully reduced fuel, is the honest choice a buyer faces.

• Flight Training (7): Docile, forgiving, and the airplane the Beech Aero Club network was built around. The Sport variants (150 hp, 2-or-4-seat) were purpose-built trainers.
• Backcountry (2): Low-wing, modest power, not built for unimproved strips.
• Business Travel (3): 120 KTAS does not compete for time-sensitive travel.
• Aerobatics (1): Normal category on this page's representative variant; B19/B23/C23 do carry a utility/acrobatic category option at reduced weight per the certificate, but the frontmatter describes the normal-category airplane.
• Cross-Country (5): 550 nm at economy power is adequate for moderate trips; the 200-hp A23-24/A24 in the Variants table is the more capable cross-country option within this fixed-gear family.
• Cargo Hauling (3): Four-seat cabin, 270 lb structural baggage limit.
• Local Fun Flying (6): "Comfortable... nimble handling qualities," AOPA's own summary; the wide, forgiving landing gear is "very forgiving of poor pilot technique in a crosswind."
• Surveying (5): Low wing gives reasonable downward visibility; modest speed and stable handling suit slow-flight work.

Most Musketeer/Sundowner panels are basic and largely original — a single added GPS/ADS-B source is common on unmodified examples. A full IFR retrofit (GTN stack, G5-class primary instruments) is a five-figure project relative to the airframe's own value. The Beech Aero Club (BAC) is the primary type club and parts-sourcing resource, distinct from the Bonanza-focused American Bonanza Society.

Per runbook rule 32, the certificate's silence on these is not evidence they don't exist, though the STC ecosystem here is genuinely smaller than the Cessna 172 or Piper Cherokee's:

• IO-360 engine conversions, bringing a 180-hp Sundowner toward the 200-hp Musketeer Super's performance.
• Speed modifications (gap seals, wheel fairings) worth a few knots.

No specific STC number or verified performance delta was confirmed against an FAA record in this pass, so none is recorded in stc_variants.

• Parts: fair — less abundant than Cessna/Piper equivalents; the Beech Aero Club is the primary sourcing resource.
• Mechanic familiarity: common — the Lycoming O-320/O-360 engines are universal.
• Engine overhaul: $45,000 (O-360) per reference/engine-overhaul-pricing.md.

Asking prices: this page's own auto-synced Trade-A-Plane listings (captured 2026-07-14, twelve priced C23 Sundowner listings spanning 1970-1983) plus a Controller.com cross-check on 2026-09-08, which returned exactly one C23 listing at "Call for price" — no new data point, but no contradiction either (raw/market/market-musketeer-sundowner-2026-09-08.md). Vref/Bluebook subscription-gated, fresh Trade-A-Plane search HTTP 403.

This twelve-listing sample is the largest and freshest of any page in this week's Bonanza-family/Musketeer-family research pass.

• Wing spar inspection requirements — less publicized than the Piper Cherokee spar AD but a genuine pre-buy item.
• Fuel tank sealing — integral wing-leading-edge tanks can develop leaks with age; resealing runs into five figures.
• Nose gear shimmy — a common complaint on the Sundowner specifically; the shimmy damper needs periodic service.

Per GA Insurance Underwriting. Fixed-gear, normal-category, 180-hp singles sit in the most favourable GA insurance tier available — among the cheapest four-seat aircraft to insure. No hull-value-specific quote was sourced this pass; typical_hull_insurance_annual_usd left unset rather than carried forward unsourced.