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Turbo Commander

AdamFrisch wrote:

I need to upgrade to a 690 or Jetrop

Just had a new MT prop fitted to the Jetprop…unfortunately budget would run to a 5 blade…..€38000 +TAX (?) exchange

Yeah, they’re expensive. Cost for the MU-2 and Merlin was in the $100K range, so I assume the Turbo Commander will be in that range as well. That said, a friend just overhauled his props on the Merlin for $37K. And that was most of them passing, think he exchanged one or two blades. If a majority of blades would have been out of spec, then it could add up quickly to where a set of 5-blade MT’s might be a pretty good deal…

… and I thought amphibs were expensive. I am very happy that the new MT on my Lake is not anywhere near that figure. Although it does have two blades less.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

Frontal shot. Surely worth $100K to look that good, no?

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 21 Feb 19:46

Just one more…

But them and come home to Sweden and show it to us. :)

ESSZ, Sweden

Last night was spent with good friends who filled us with information about G-AWOE.
We have learned that the aircraft is still at Elstree (I saw it last about 7 weeks ago) but the most interesting bit was that this aircraft was an ex. Air America aircraft. It developed engine problems and was abandoned in Iran. John Houlder used to own a large shipping company, as it happened, one of his ships was around and its captain became aware of it and called Mr. Houlder. The engines were repaired and the aircraft was flown to Elstree wheels down (not for the last time). Then, the story went on about the installation of the radar in the aircraft and how it was certified. At the time there wasn’t any person in the UK who was knowledgeable about it so no one could sign the aircraft back to flying, so the following day he went to the CAA offices, seat the exams, passed and signed the aircraft. The following step was to fly to St. Moritz in a good VFR day, he flue the valleys and took a photo every 30sec, one of the radar screen and another of the ground below, with that he created a string of cards which he used during his winter IMC flights. Then there were stories how he modified his C310 from a non turbo to turbo by using cars parts and fiberglass. Well, there are many stories to tell as he was a very colourful person.

The Houlder family own a large estate in Argentina, and Mr Houlder was a twitcher (bird watcher) and would borrow a Cherokee from the local aero club and fly to various lagoons deep in the Pampas and land off field. He was a well known character amongst the local GA community – last time I saw him he was walking back -AWOE having gone tech (not unusual) and been left on one of the Elstree taxi ways.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

A growing number from last time I checked the inventory in Europe. One operator has added one and two others that I probably did not know about. Let me know of you see any at the airports you frequent. And if you can snatch a reg number that would be greatly appreciated for the list!

D-IHSI 695
D-IUTA 690C
I-BLFE 690A
I-MAGJ 690A
M-BETS 695A
SE-MFN 690C
SE-GSS 690C
SE-IUV 690C
SE-LZU 690A – operating in Belgium
SE-LZX 690B – operating in Belgium
VP-BMZ 690D
OO-ROB
OO-GOA
N840PN
N690CL
N691CL
N71AH 690
N771BA
OH-ACN
OH-FMI – operating in Belgium

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 07 Sep 22:11

Probably the lowest time, most well equipped, mint Turbo Commander 1000 ever, N51DM, hit a deer during takeoff sometime ago. Unbeknownst to pilot, it took the whole elevator out on the right hand side. Pilot flew a pattern and returned to land. Tough birds.

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