Dear viewers.
Welcome again to a new video and this time we check out a 2002 COMMANDER AIRCRAFT 115.
This is a great aircraft for 4 people and a great traveller.
It had quirks but nothing that cannot be resolved.
It was a heavy aircraft, sturdy, solid but for its weight it was given quite little power for the bucks.
Despite this, the aircraft in its turbocharged version, reached speeds of 187 knots at 75% power - sacrificing range down to 670NM that is - and it could fly up to 25.000ft.
A good IFR aircraft it sure was and thanks to its wide cabin it had a generous panel space in front of the pilot.
This makes that UPGRADING to all glass is not as complicated and large displays can be installed.
We make proposals for upgrading the aircraft as is to better than new standard for this FEATURED AIRCRAFT but we also propose considerable upgrades and ways of efficient manufacturing under our concept of WHAT IF WE BROUGHT BACK INTO PRODUCTION... series of videos.
We would like to give a HEADSUP to DWAYNE`s AVIATION RU-vid CHANNEL as he has a video in which these quirks that made it fail on the single engine market are set forth. Based on that we have meditated on how this could be resolved.
Please find the link for his complete video on the COMMANDER here below. We also give credits to his channel for the section Why it failed which we have at the very end of the video as BONUS CONTENT.
• Why the Rockwell Comma...
DESPITE QUIRKS - THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE GREAT AIRCRAFT TO BUY!!
UPGRADES ON THE FEATURED AIRCRAFT are rather in the AVIONICS DEPARTMENT as this airplane, that is base in the south of the U.K., has already had its WHELEN AEROSPACE UPGRADE done.
What we`d propose is an ENGINE UPGRADE - not the one existing with a 320 hp engine - to a CONTINENTAL IO-550-B with a TURBONORMALIZER/INTERCOOLER package driving a HARTZELL 78" 3 BLADE SCIMITAR PROPELLER. 300hp TURBONORMALIZED is a gain of 30 hp over the TIO540 offering 270 hp. First of all, the prop of the CONTINENTAL turns at 2700 rpm which shortens the take off run and improves the climb and cruise while the 270 hp Lycoming runs at 2575 rpm.
Maybe combine it with a 4 BLADE MT-PROPELLER with SCIMITAR BLADES would also dampen the noise footprint by 30Db less.
This would be an experimental setup that could form the base for a STC with FAA and EASA.
125 more RPM gives more take off and climb thrust.
Ideas and proposals is what we make here in order to make this good aircraft better than it ever was.
In the avionics department, it now has a G600 two pane glass PFD/ND which we would swap for a G600TXi 10.6 INCH;. The GTN750 would be upgraded to GTN750Xi and the KFC225 AUTOPILOT would be replaced with a GFC600 with dedicated MODE CONTROL PANEL as a maximum.
The minimum would be a G500TXi with the upgrade to GTN750Xi and additional GTN650Xi replacing the smaller comm installed with a GFC500 AUTOPILOT.
Also as minimum would be the upgrade to GTS825 ACTIVE TRAFFIC system.
As for the rest, we propose for the FEATURED AIRCRAFT a full TKS FIKI system on wings, windshield, vertical tail and horizontal tail.
The remainder of the upgrades proposed is already under the "what if we bring back into production..." segment of our video.
Those are considerable changes to improve the OFF FACTORY new COMMANDER 115 series.
Thank you for watching the video. Please watch till the end for the bonus content.
PLEASE LIKE, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE. See you in the next video.
UPGRADING THE FEATURED AIRCRAFT.
8 окт 2024
