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Advice for Beginner from Costa Rica

M

motoadve

New member
Hi Im new to the forum and learning to fly to get my PPL.
I live in Costa Rica
I want a Commander when I get my license.
Everyday after school the Hangar just in front has one and Im drooling and looking at it.
A few questions:

How hard to fly ?
Any bad tendencies?
Expensive to own maintain operate? I have seen a few 1975 112A in the $70,000s range

Some of the fields here are grass and short, will the Commander manage this type of fields?
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Hi Jose; the Commander 112 is a great beginner airplane for you once you get your private. ..because it is retractable, insurance premium will be higher, but also not so much that it wouldn't offset what you'd be paying to rent for the next year, either. it is a very easy airplane to fly! there's nothing bad. :) It's great to see more folks outside the US w/such a love for the Commander.

if you'd like to discuss more in-depth, feel free to contact me. I hv specialized in the product since '93 and am more than happy to fill in the spaces for you. :) Our Owners Group will surely chime in and comment on the grass/short field performance as well.
welcome aboard!

Judi Anderson




motoadve said:
Hi Im new to the forum and learning to fly to get my PPL.
I live in Costa Rica
I want a Commander when I get my license.
Everyday after school the Hangar just in front has one and Im drooling and looking at it.
A few questions:

How hard to fly ?
Any bad tendencies?
Expensive to own maintain operate? I have seen a few 1975 112A in the $70,000s range

Some of the fields here are grass and short, will the Commander manage this type of fields?
Click to expand...
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Jose Judi is the Mother of the Commander community. If you are serious she is very knowledgeable on the plane and everything you would like to know. You can't go wrong talking to her about the plane.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

You sound like me 30 years ago ... I would taxi by this Commander in my Cessna 152 and just lust after it. The guy had it for sale and he gave me a ride, even though I told him buying was not in the cards. I was hooked. Only took me about 20 years to finally get one. Love affair for life. There are a few things that are "different" a bout flying a commander, but nothing whatsoever difficult. Great manners, smooth, well-behaved and predictable. (Come to think of it, Lonnie, that is just about the exact opposite of you!) Find the owner of that bird on your field, ask him if you buy gas if he will give you a ride. Most likely he will.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Hola Jose:

There is no other option, it has to be our airplane you are looking at, it is a 114, not a 112.

Please feel free to give me a call and I am sure we will find an excuse to go flying, I bet it is not harder than just saying "let's go flying".

Now, our lovely airport has an average density altitude year round of around 5500 ft, I am not so sure that I would feel as comfortable with 60 or 70 hp less than what we have. For the 114 it is not an issue at all to operate from any of the runways we have in Costa Rica. The only runways that we are not willing to try with this airplane are Carate and Sirena; but Carate is going to be fixed this year so Sirena would be the only that we will keep as "banned".

My mobile is 8839-8323. I have a family compromise for Saturday; but we can talk about going on Sunday.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Atta boy Roberto! Said in true COG spirit.

Don't just love having folks drool when gazing at your aircraft? (Happens all the time Jose. Even from some of the heavy iron drivers. I was taxiing out one day and a G-5 jockey made the comment and left me shocked. "...uh, thank you! You too, wanna trade for a day?" ;-)
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

That is true, modesty apart, I think ours is probably the most beatiful single engine in Costa Rica. It is really nice to see the people expressing in different ways that they like the airplane, you see thumbs up when taxing, you see spotters photographing it and so forth.

The other peculiar thing about ours is our registration, it is TI-COS, and we Costa Ricans are known as "ticos", so that alone, has made our airplane very popular; there is a controller or two that actually sing the "war songs" from the national soccer team when we call in.

Ah...Jose, at www.commander.org go to the very bottom of the page and watch the video with Bob Hoover flying the 114 in the '70s. In youtube, search rcastillo114 and you can see a few videos from the inside of the airplane.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Roberto Yes its the TICOS the one I drool about
And yes its the best looking single engine plane in Costa Rica, today after flying with my instrcutor Mr Navas , I told him about your plane and we went into the hangar and he show it to me.
You made my day!!! for sure will call you to go flying Sunday
Thank you soo much
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Jose, Roberto's comments about density altitude are important. I've been to your lovely country several times and the extra performance would be good to have. That doesn't mean a 112 wouldn't work but you might want to consider the turbonormalizer option for it, a straight turbo version, or Jim Richard's STC to replace the engine with the IO-390.

At the bottom of our home page is a Commander FAQ with lots of good info in it. Take a look there and many of your questions about the different models should be answered.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

I read the FAQ , Im impressed how active this community is.
Question about the wing life limits.
What happens when is reached?
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Roberto ... what I want to know ... what is a "family compromise?" Hmmmmm .... a wedding?:confused:
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

well...it is actually a baptism, my wife's niece's daughter.

probably I had a "language barrier" and misused the term compromise
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

that would be a first for you. Your english is always 100% perfect. Much better than Lonnie's, for sure!
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

motoadve said:
I read the FAQ , Im impressed how active this community is.
Question about the wing life limits.
What happens when is reached?
Click to expand...

It's not really clear what happens. Part of the original certification of the Commander here in the US was that there had to be life limits established for certain airframe items like the wings. The limits were determined by Rockwell and are mathatically derived. You'll find wing life limits on all new aircraft certified under FAR 23. For example, the SR22 when it first came out had an airframe life of 4350 hours. Cirrus has reworked the math numerous times to extend that number. I think it's beyond 10,000 now - and that's with no changes to the aircraft.

There is someone here in the US working on an STC for a wing life extension but most of our Commanders are relatively low time so the problem likely will never occur (something else like an accident or other damage will end the aircraft's life first) or the next generation of owners will address the issue. I suppose that the new factory might also come up with a 'fix' if there's sufficient owner interest.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Well Roberto took me for a flight in his 114 today, and I can tell why you guys like so much your Commanders, very nice performance and great looking too.

Im impressed , hope to own one some day.

Thank you Roberto!!!!
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

It was really my pleasure. I hope to see you again soon.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

rcastillo said:
well...it is actually a baptism, my wife's niece's daughter.

probably I had a "language barrier" and misused the term compromise
Click to expand...

No language barrier there - I smiled when I read the words "family compromise", very well stated indeed. I believe many of us have those... :)
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Thanks Dave....

Looking forward to go flying tomorrow, I have a visitor from Colorado and we are taking 2 coworkers that have never flown.
 
Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

Re: Advice for Beginer from Costa Rica

funny... I came to Commander.org today to search for what's been posted on short field take offs and found this one when we met Jose "Larry" Larrabure, he didn't get a Commander, he got a 182 instead. But we became very good friends, and our wifes too!
Tomorrow we are flying his airplane, a 185 and our 114 to a 1900 ft runway! Sea level, no obstacles.
I have the VGs and normally I use less than 1500 ft in normal operations at around 5000 ft density altitude. Tomorrow I'll be arriving to this field with a weight of about 2600 lb, so it should be fun.
The whole idea is to do short field training... Ah, it's grass! I'll let the other 2 planes land first to confirm the conditions just in case and will be more than ready to go around quickly.

Should be a fun day!
 
Be careful amigo. We want to keep all the owners healthy all birds airworthy. :-)
 
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