Took a little ride with my friend Steve yesterday in his gorgeous 980. He was kind enough to fly me up to see my old antique. Camarillo to Stockton and back. ATC gave us direct straight out of the bat and in no time whatsoever we were at FL280. Just before us was a brand new TBM 900/930 on a conforming flight (they do final deliveries at CMA), and we left him in the dust in the climb. He was panting at 9700ft when we were climbing through 12000ft overtaking him…
Steve has spared no expense on his 980. It started out as a bankruptcy sale that had been sitting for awhile, unloved, but now it’s like factory new. New engines, new paint, new interior, new panel – you name it. Very impressive plane. I’m extremely jealous.
Pictorial:
Wheeling it out at CMA.
New G600 panel with dual GTN’s. Steve put a clever additional PTT under glare shield. Smart addition as your hand tends to rest there naturally.
Brand new TBM900/930 on a conforming flight from delivery center at CMA ahead of us.
Notice the fuel flow during taxi and compare it with the later one in cruise. Almost identical – flying at 295kts costs the same as taxiing…
The TBM ahead of us is going to be left in the dust during the climb…
FL280. If you take some mind altering drugs, you can almost see the curvature of the earth…;)
Steve leveling out.
Fuel flow at FL280. 420lbs/hr doing eventually 290-295kts (hot day with +17 ISA). It’ll do 300-305kts when colder.
G600 with two GTN’s. Very nice setup.
FL280
Torque, EGT’s and prop RPM at FL280. At high altitudes you tend to be temp limited. Lower down you’re more likely to be torque limited.
New Q-tip Hartzell’s replaced the Dowty’s. No real performance difference or maintenance difference, just that Hartzell is American company and has a better presence. Maybe a little quieter than the Dowty’s.
Steve shows the appropriate tongue action for a landing.
Landing KSCK.
Clearance for return flight.
Beautiful California from FL270 on return.
The sexier pointy spinners.
Nice photos. How is yours coming along?
I’ve had a kid, so not really been on it. But it’s getting engine final rigging next week and that should be it. But then I go away for work in South Africa. I’m hoping I can be trained and flying it by the time the Commander fly-in is end of Sept. But with my luck probably not.
Great photos thanks for posting. How many commanders are flying in the US? I have only seen two in Europe one in Guernsey and the other just once in Le Touquet. Burning fuel by the lb sounds even more frightening!
Alex – They made about 1100 of the turbine Commanders between 1966 and 1985. How many that are still flying is very hard to say, but perhaps 500? Just a guess. Many are outside the US – they are very popular in South America (due to load hauling and the prevalence of unimproved strips there). You see Commanders here and there at airports, I wouldn’t call them rare, but not frequent either. It’s nowhere near as many as PC12’s. I read that the PC12 deliveries are now over 1400, so it’s a huge success.
420pounds of fuel is only about 60gal/hr, or 30gal/hr aside. Not bad at all for a turbine, actually. And with the Jet A1 prices much lower, it’s probably on par with the fuel burn of a piston twin.
Thanks for some great pics! Looking forward to see when you are flying there yourself.
AdamFrisch wrote:
I’ve had a kid, so not really been on it.
So when will you have time for flying? 
Never, it seems! 
So it’s been nearly 2 years Adam since you bought it?
Those are good numbers, the PC12 might show 265 KTAS on 360 lbs/hour at FL280. I think it is hauling a more spacious passenger/cargo compartment, and possibly better payload? Block speed typically around 250 KTAS.
