When I first "went to school" on the Turbo Commander (December 1997), the instructors addressed the issue of these "slipper aux. tanks". They told the class because of the "extra drag", they added extra range "only at high altitudes" [mid- to upper 20's] and if you "slowed your cruise airspeeds by 20-30 knots."

Very cool! It was a great pleasure to see this beautiful Turbo Commander at Bern. It was a very rare sight. Hope you come soon again :)

Thanks! I love it too especially the Garett sounds :)

It's worth noting that the engineers got the idea for the "Javelin Aux. / slipper wing tanks" from the similar setup used on the Dehavilland Mosquitoe "Mossie".

Thanks for watching Jon!

***** Thank you. Turbo Commander are extremely rare here. I was very enthusiastic to catch this good old aircraft.

TheHDAviation look i have a new video of turbo commander

Yep noticed that. Either that or the pilot had a double bass drum set up in the cockpit...

***** Thank you very much!

Thanks

Thank you for your kind comment! Much appreciated!!

You're welcome.

Thank you for sharing that nostalgic memory! The Turbo Commander is indeed a remarkable aircraft with its distinctive turbo prop engines. The ability to use reverse thrust to slow down the plane is quite impressive. It's amazing how certain sounds can bring back such vivid memories. Thank you for watching and reminiscing with us! 😊

Yes I Also got to see another turbo commander at the Reno Air Race around that same time. It was piloted by Bob Hoover, yes the Air Commander its very impressive doing loops and rolls and even did a landing with both engines off!

Thanks for watching! :)

Thank you for your comment! The Rockwell 690 Turbo Commander is indeed a unique and powerful aircraft. 😊

King air?

Incorrect. The original Aero Commander 520 *piston* twin was the first *civilian* aircraft approved for presidential use. The Turbo Commander turboprop was a Rockwell product, and came many years later.

Sounds great!

Nope. Look at the sock early in the video...

I noticed what I think was over controlling the rudder, but I would like to know what he needed to improve on. I am not a pilot but I am a skydiver.

@@hubriswonk , not really - the Turbo Commanders' nosewheel steering is controlled through the first few degrees of "brake pedal movement" on each rudder pedal. In the takeoff roll as you transition from "nosewheel steering" to full rudder authority, it's normal to see a lot of rudder movements. What I was asking in my first question above was referring to doing a "power check on both engines" prior to break release WITHOUT the nosewheel centered - this puts tremendous "sideloads" on the nosewheel tire, rim, and nosegear assembly - the weakest link in the aircraft's landing gear. I also think he "over-controlled" with the rudder about 5 seconds prior to rotation, but not knowing the winds at the time, that could have been a reaction to a sudden gust of crosswind.

Thank you!

black zebra - I guess the guy flying me wasn’t too expert either because I remember it wandering down the runway

Thanks

And Aerostars!

I think you are right

Or maybe not kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q6mUd9NoprzNkps.html

Her is a landing with flaps kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eceRqcad3rHLdnk.html

Old Post...but Commander 690s do not use flaps on takeoff. I fly one here in the US. There is no aerodynamic benefit to takeoff flaps so they designed it to not use them for takeoff.

@@davidwright2867 So flaps add drag, but no lift? Or, flaps add lift and drag, but don't shorten the T/O roll, or reduce T/O speed? Aerodynamically, I'm struggling to understand that design.

Thanks for pointing out! It was an extremely rare visit!

Standard take off configuration is no flaps. At max gross you'll be airborne a little over 3,000 feet.

10 degrees of Flaps probably would have helped! Did you see him rotate abruptly and then settle back down? He lowered the nose and again it wanted to settle back toward mother earth. Probably rotated too soon given the upcoming treeline in view, and Bern density altitude. The hill looks close, although the telephoto lens on the camera no doubt distorts the relative distance.

It is so wonderful. Thanks for watching.

Jorge Hoffmann Thanks!

The twin commander range are renowned for the difficulty in ground control below 40 knots, the rudder is not connected to the nose wheel, you steer using the top portion of the peddles which operates the hydraulic movement of the nose wheel until around 40 knots where you have sufficient airflow for positive rudder control, difficult to master, sim time will not help even if you could find a sim, which is a very big if, as sims were not programmed for realistic ground movement. They are a great aircraft though! especially when the steering method is mastered, comes with real time practice.

Stephen, you are a fuckwit

In my opinon Wayne Elliot is correct. Having been a mechanic for many years, flown and also written lots of STCs for the Aero Commander series 500B, 500S, 680 and 690 I must say ground handling at slow speeds is a knack and takes time to learn. I takes anticipation as well as finesse on rudder toe controls. That is for a plane with everything tight on the nose gear. These planes are getting old and parts are difficult to get. The hydraulic cylinder attached to the nose gear is actually attached to a slip collar called the "steering collar". It rides in a precise groove around the nose gear casting. This in turn has the scissor links attached to it which then go down to turn the nose wheel yoke when the cylinder applies pressure in either direction. This simply means there are a lot of places for slop to rear it's ugly head and make the ground handling even worse. I do not think any two Aero or Turbo Commanders handle exactly alike. I could go into this deeper but i'm getting tired of running my fingers.

Awful lot of rudder input on that T.O. roll. Didn't seem like much of a crosswind. Are those planes that 'squirrely' on the ground?

***** N690CL is based at Newcastle at the moment doing some flights to Scotland :) Thank you, it was very nice! Hope you will have a great stay too!

***** I have not been to our local airport for some time now, it looks like the size of aircraft that would service the islands.

Okay 😉✈️ Thank you for watching!

cheating death,....one day at a time

mmbmbmbmb True! I love too. I was very enthusiastic about this rare visitor at Bern.

***** You are a master in catching rarities. This one definitely found a spot in my playlist of "trains, planes, ships & church-bells" ... like so many others of your fabulous 'offerings', Matthias! Great weekend! Karin

WOW I hope you enjoyed it.

***** Yeah, it was pretty neat.

Trevor Ledgeway Thank you!

Cross wind conditions and the propellors are not contra rotating, obvious!

Ineke Mateman Counter-rotating, the props aren't on the same axis.

masso172 Cool. Would have loved to see more of those. It is extremely rare though in Bern.

***** I guess your right, I worked in Texas and we would get these all the time.. I personally love their sound its loud and has sort of a humm, I love it. They're also called island hoppers :)

Yup a Turbo Commander.

Actually where i have worked being called a driver is a compliment. Mind you our idea of a windy day is when the steady state is 40 kts

Garrett, the original makers of the 331, merged with Signal, who then merged with Allied to form AlliedSignal. Then, AlliedSignal merged with the old Honeywell company, before renaming ITSELF as Honeywell. As a consequence, what was originally a Garrett creation is now a "Honeywell" product.

Garrett TPE331 :)

I hope you enjoyed the video.

you're an idiot

Watch again. He rotated and immediately pushed the nose down to stay in ground effect gaining speed. Very common procedure

Thanks for watching. They are very rare here.

Rudder swinging all over the place!