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Commander Spotlight, N114BL
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Tech
News & Information
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David Loose,
N114BL I "officially"
started in aviation on Mary Beth's and my first anniversary in November
2005, when Mary Beth gave me a 'paper' certificate good towards initial
flying lessons... enough time on Microsoft's Flight Sim! I was surprised
when I signed up for the lessons at the Austin Academy of Aviation and
the chief instructor asked me how long I'd been interested in
flying..... I always was, and thought everyone else was too!
I did my private training in round
gauge Cessna 172s, completing my checkride in June 2006. After spending
the summer enjoying some flights with my wife and kids, I started my
instrument training in the fall of '06, transitioning to G1000 panels in
the newer C172s. Over the winter and often at night, I logged 14 hours
of actual IMC, and passed my checkride in February 2007, with an FAA
examiner watching my DE from the backseat! Interested in
trying new things, I transitioned to Diamond DA40s at a new FBO at
Austin Bergstrom. This seemed like the ultimate plane, brand new, glass
panels, amazing visibility! Mary Beth and I flew a Diamond to Taos, NM
for our third anniversary... we had come a
long way in two years! I spent most of
the next year frustrated by scheduling limitations, daily use minimums,
trips cancelled due to plane squawks and all the hassles of renting,
flying less than 20 hours. I spent many hours dreaming of buying a
Diamond, and by going back to the steam gauge models, considering a
partner and the stock market still moving up (or sideways!) it seemed
like a real possibility. But the more I read about the Diamonds, I
realized there were some real limitations here... useful load can be
pretty light in some, and in a couple of years I wouldn't be able to
take my family and their bags! I was also getting disillusioned by those
flying the G1000, spending $10,000 to upgrade to Synthetic Vision and
saying "I'd never fly without it!" Come on, flying didn't 'come of age'
last year..! How about flying a plane where you are a real pilot? I
wanted to train for a commercial license, but it's hard to find a
retract to rent... As the market
began to decline,
that dream got further and further away. In January '09 I was going to
meet a pilot friend for lunch, a prospective partner, so I pulled up a
search on controller.com and did a search at roughly half the price of
the Diamonds, IFR w/ 4 seats. A handful of planes showed up, some nice
looking Bonanzas, older 182s and one red and white Commander 114,
N114BL. Everytime I looked
through those pictures I came back to the Commander, and started doing
some research. I joined COG and learned all I could here, putting any
concerns about a plane with no current manufacturer aside. In spite of
the economy, I figured "if not now, when," and Mary Beth was equally on
board. We checked out
some other Commanders, but kept coming back to 114BL, and the rest is
history! We now have a plane that has taken us on our longest cross
country ever, to Michigan, to meet the best group of pilots anywhere!
We've taken the whole family and a week of luggage to Indiana, in the
same time it takes by commercial air. Becoming a real
pilot has just begun...
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