The other night I saw a Freight Runners Be-99 takeoff in what I swear was well less than 1,000ft. I didn't really realize that these old birds were 'rocket ships' per se.

Was I seeing things? If not, are they really a joy to fly single-pilot?

It's an unpressurized king air with fairly simple systems and yes they are a fun aircraft to fly. With at or near empty takeoff weight they have a better power-to-weight ratio than a P51 Mustang (verified by our DO). They are a joy to fly, some are a little noisier than others due to some of the seals being bad on the storm windows and crew door, but nonetheless fun!!! At the same time it can make you a very dumb pilot. Some pilots have told me they have gotten bored with the airplane because they feel it's too easy to fly. It is interesting to get commments from airline pilots telling you that they have that exact tail number in their logbooks when they were hauling people around.

Get it light, with a low density altitiude, and 1000 foot takeoff roll is achievable.
Just as fun is getting the thing to drop like a lawn dart. Crossing a mountain 8000 feet above field elevation at 15 miles out, you can still get a stabilized approach by a 3 mile final.

On the other hand, like a King Air pilot I used to fly with said "whatever you're flying in, it'll never be fast enough." I definitely feel that way about the cruise performance of the BE99.

And it'll carry one helluva load of ice!!!

I think it depends on what engines you got on it. We had 4, 2 had PT6-20's and we had 2 with the PT6-27/28. The first 2 were dogs and the latter were pretty awesome. Overall pretty damn fun airplane to fly. No autopilot so it's hard to fall asleep. You could definatley bring them down too. I flew one for the last six months of my freight dogging job and got a jet job and went to Flight Safety and I think it definately gave me an advantage, with doing all that hand flying and all.