- Aircraft Year
- 1977
- Aircraft Type
- 112TCA
- Reg Number
- SE-LTC
- Serial Number
- 13150
Greetings fellow Aviator !
I am a newly (early) retired airline Captain who has owned a 1977,Commander 112TCA, Ser no: 13150, since 2002. We bought it from Holland with Reg no: PH-RWM. It had previously been registered in the US as N4619E.
The first upgrade we did in 2003 was a new Stec55x Autopilot with autotrim. It has been working flawlessly ever since and is a good A/P for enroute and initial approach. Approaching minima it becomes a little “wobbly”. We also put in a electric Attitude indicator as a backup for the vacuum driven A/I giving us redundancy as the A/P is driven by the electrical Turn/bank.
A new original winterkit (seals of the outflow of air from both cowl flap) was available from the old Commander “dealership” here in Sweden along with the landinggear lights..
An electric engine preheater together with a cockpit heater was installed the first winter. It is termostatically controlled and turns off and on with a phone call.
An EDM800 engine monitor was installed and has later been upgraded to the EDM830..
In 2017, as a bulletin for our two bladed Harzell prop came out, and made our hub obsolete. We opted to contact MT propellers in Germany to inquire if they could do an STC for the Turbo Commander. They would be happy to do so if we could bring our aircraft to them as a “testbed”. And so we did….
Spent 3 days at the facility, meeting very nice people, while they were doing the tests. We are very happy with the prop. It has less vibrations, lighter (8,9 kg/19,6lbs) compared to our 2-bladed Hartzell. ( It’s 13kg/28,67lbs lighter than the 3-bladed Hartzell.)
In 2019 we researched different routes for being able to do LPV approaches. We had an old Garmin 430, non WAAS, 28 volt (we have a 14-28 volt converter). It could not be converted to WAAS.
The decision was made to go with Avidyne 540. The installation was very simple : Just pull out the 430, change the rack to the 540 rack, plugg in the existing 430 wiring and change the rooftop antenna to a WAAS and we were good to go. At the same time we changed the KT76 transponder to a “plug/play” King KT74 mode S transponder with ADS-B Out.
The 112TCA had been repainted sometimes during the mid 90 in a “green/gold” finish. In 2021 the decision to repaint it again was made. We also opted for a completely new leather interior. Unfortunately this extra expense came at the same time COG was looking for airframes to do the Genesys 3100 STC for Commander. So unfortunately we could not join in the effort….
Just before the repaint we installed the NACA dorsal fin, new wing/stabilizer seals and door/bagage stops from RCM.
Future upgrades we are considering :
Avionics : Single Aspen (or dual) Pro with Stec55x unlock and altitude preselect.
Engine: Electroair dual mag/single drive replacement (as soon as it is certified for the TO-360 engine).
Overhaul the TO-360, or if an STC for the TIO-360 exists, go that way.
Airframe : Aerodyme stream line mod.
Stay tuned for more….
Best regards , Per Petersson Stockholm, Sweden.
I am a newly (early) retired airline Captain who has owned a 1977,Commander 112TCA, Ser no: 13150, since 2002. We bought it from Holland with Reg no: PH-RWM. It had previously been registered in the US as N4619E.
The first upgrade we did in 2003 was a new Stec55x Autopilot with autotrim. It has been working flawlessly ever since and is a good A/P for enroute and initial approach. Approaching minima it becomes a little “wobbly”. We also put in a electric Attitude indicator as a backup for the vacuum driven A/I giving us redundancy as the A/P is driven by the electrical Turn/bank.
A new original winterkit (seals of the outflow of air from both cowl flap) was available from the old Commander “dealership” here in Sweden along with the landinggear lights..
An electric engine preheater together with a cockpit heater was installed the first winter. It is termostatically controlled and turns off and on with a phone call.
An EDM800 engine monitor was installed and has later been upgraded to the EDM830..
In 2017, as a bulletin for our two bladed Harzell prop came out, and made our hub obsolete. We opted to contact MT propellers in Germany to inquire if they could do an STC for the Turbo Commander. They would be happy to do so if we could bring our aircraft to them as a “testbed”. And so we did….
Spent 3 days at the facility, meeting very nice people, while they were doing the tests. We are very happy with the prop. It has less vibrations, lighter (8,9 kg/19,6lbs) compared to our 2-bladed Hartzell. ( It’s 13kg/28,67lbs lighter than the 3-bladed Hartzell.)
In 2019 we researched different routes for being able to do LPV approaches. We had an old Garmin 430, non WAAS, 28 volt (we have a 14-28 volt converter). It could not be converted to WAAS.
The decision was made to go with Avidyne 540. The installation was very simple : Just pull out the 430, change the rack to the 540 rack, plugg in the existing 430 wiring and change the rooftop antenna to a WAAS and we were good to go. At the same time we changed the KT76 transponder to a “plug/play” King KT74 mode S transponder with ADS-B Out.
The 112TCA had been repainted sometimes during the mid 90 in a “green/gold” finish. In 2021 the decision to repaint it again was made. We also opted for a completely new leather interior. Unfortunately this extra expense came at the same time COG was looking for airframes to do the Genesys 3100 STC for Commander. So unfortunately we could not join in the effort….
Just before the repaint we installed the NACA dorsal fin, new wing/stabilizer seals and door/bagage stops from RCM.
Future upgrades we are considering :
Avionics : Single Aspen (or dual) Pro with Stec55x unlock and altitude preselect.
Engine: Electroair dual mag/single drive replacement (as soon as it is certified for the TO-360 engine).
Overhaul the TO-360, or if an STC for the TIO-360 exists, go that way.
Airframe : Aerodyme stream line mod.
Stay tuned for more….
Best regards , Per Petersson Stockholm, Sweden.
Attachments
Last edited:
