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Re: [OM] IMG: Workhorses, Past and Present

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Workhorses, Past and Present
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2015 10:32:42 -0500
>      I always liked the Rockwell Twin Aero Commander for short-haul
passenger service, though it did have structural problems.  Still an
attractive looking twin turboprop.


One of the most beautiful airplanes ever built. Especially with ones with
the big picture windows. Shame, about the spar failures, though. But the
retrofit kits (the second one fixed the first one, which also failed) take
care of it. Most of the high-use turbo-commanders are aging out of the
air-fleet now as the pressure-vessel is up to cycle limits. The 5xx series
piston and 6xx series piston ones will live on in cargo ops for a long
time, though. They have a serious payload capability and still climb like
homesick angels. While there are only a small handful of North-American
operators of them, they are in high-use elsewhere--especially where
soft-field ops are required.

There was a retired guy in one of our churches who used to be a pilot for
an operation that provided executive transport using the Turbo-Commanders.
He spent many years and thousands of hours flying executives, politicians
and entertainers all over the country in them. They were nearly perfect for
the application because the majority of flights are in the 300-600 mile
range and you could fill every seat and still arrive at the destination at
about the same time as you would in a turbojet with half the fuel needed.

We discussed the single-engine flight-ops. He said that the airplane was
very good in an engine-out situation, but said that it made the airplane
enherently more dangerous because the pilot would have TOO much confidence
in the aircraft.

Ted Smith really was an artist. There are few aircraft of his design that
didn't look really good and fast just sitting still.


-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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