My friend Ken is one of those people who need to fly. He is darn near a UFO (United Flying Octogenarian) so I think it is a little surprising that he did not discover this about himself until a few months after he sold his seventh Mooney. Mooniacs, as aficionados of the narrow cockpitted speedsters with the reversed tails are called, are a special breed of pilot. They love speed, and more importantly they love efficient speed. None of this throwing a giant engine at the problem. They want an honest 180 mph on 180 horsepower, and many of them get that and more. Mooney’s have a reputation for being a challenge to fly well, though I have no experience in the type I am sure I could fly one as badly as the next fellow. They are slick, so they don’t like to slow down, and they are fast, so you have to work hard to stay ahead of them, and they have retractable gear, which adds one more way you can botch a landing. Someone who has spent 40 years pushing Mooney’s through the skies is a pilot through and through.
So it was a bit sad to be talking airplanes with Ken when he was palpably missing getting up in the air. He has a spot on the Icon light sport list, but the production date of that sexy amphib keeps moving back. He had no plans to re-enter the Mooney market having shed a mid six figure plane with no pressing financial need for another. That is how I found myself in the right seat of my 172 watch Ken work out his flying bug with a few landings at Skagit. Ken is a really good pilot and my airplane is about as simple as a rock, so I was perfectly happy to add him to the short list of folks who have a key to the plane and an invitation to fly it when they need to (or really want to). To me, loaning out an airplane is not a shocking thing. My insurance covers just about any pilot with a pulse, and I like machinery to get used. I have no sentimental attachment to the plane, I just really like seeing the hour meter move, and I am very aware that the more a plane flies the better off the engine is.
The Commander - the horizontal stabilizer is midway between conventional and T-tail.
All this is preamble to explain how I got a chance to fly a Rockwell Commander 112 today. Ken really could not stay out of airplanes for as long as it was taking Icon to make a plane, so when a great deal appeared on the 112 he jumped. I asked him how he liked it and he replied “it has the flight characteristics of an inverted bathtub and the glide characteristics of a large rock“. He seemed surprised when I replied that it sounded great and I would love to get a ride. Surprised, but not shocked, since he understands the obsession. In any case, Ken Generously offered to take me up and we arranged to meet at my home base and fly to lunch. While this is no Mooney, I really hope Ken gets to liking it, because it is a pretty neat airplane.
The plane is very clean and has amazing avionics. I don't know how much he paid, but I bet I could Ebay the panel for a large chunk of it, what with the Garmin intercom, radios, transponder and multifunction display. Anyway, I got 1.2 hours and two landings. When I got home I saw Bob J. and he asked me how it was. I realized I was not qualified to say how it was. All I can give is a totally unqualified evaluation of the plane, but aside from a rank beginner in the market for an oddball plane, who would care? And that is how this 100 airframes project began.
The Commander is roomy and the view is quite good. The entry is easy and there are two doors. For a low wing this is unusual. Start up and taxi revealed no real oddities, but on take off Ken insisted on holding the brakes until manifold pressure hit 25. I can't believe this is POH standard, but he said it was good for the turbo charger. In any case, despite getting a real head of steam up before brake release the plane lumbers down the runway. It took off cleanly with almost no right rudder and commenced an easy climb. With three aboard and full fuel we made 800 FPM at a placid deck angle. I was flying right seat as PIC which meant I could barely see the turn coordinator. My butt is quite uneducated, but I never felt badly coordinated. We topped out at 120 knots and 12 GPH.
Descent is a simple matter of dropping the nose, we lost 1000 feet and gained about 20 knots. This is not a speedy airplane. As we hit the Arlington pattern I dropped the gear and we started down at 500 fpm. Adding the flaps put us at 800 fpm with a slight nose down attitude, but no real feeling of diving for earth. The landing was a revelation. I have never landed trailing link gear before and that stuff will make you look GOOD. Really good. On short final I did discover that the slightly oddball proportions of the plane, with its not quite T tail and seemingly undersized rudder, do result in a rudder that is not very effective. I try to wag the tail a bit going in to make sure that both the plane and I are clear about who is responsible for the runway center line. In this plane my wag made me look at my feet to make sure I could reach the pedals. A more vigorous shake led to a lazy back and forth from the hind end. Not very reassuring for crosswinds. Nevertheless the landing was a treat because of the gear. The return to Friday Harbor saw me get 5 knots fast on the approach and though I thought I would touch down in the first 500 feet, I was past the first turn off before the trailing link again made me look perfectly competent. I am going to look into this gear for my 172. I just installed a vernier mixture knob, how hard could new gear be?
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