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Scott Schellhase, N527GT
February 9, 1979, I soloed in a Cessna 152 from Ridpath Aviation at the
Lubbock International Airport. I was a sophomore at Texas Tech
University, studying Architecture. I had always wanted to learn how
to fly, and with my father, Walt Schellhase, who was already flying
at this time, I begged my way into taking lessons while in Lubbock (my
parents were living in New Orleans at the time). I passed my written
exam and flight exam in June 1979, and my father began his pursuit of
trying to find, at the time, an Aero Commander 112A, which he did
just a few weeks after receiving my license. He found the plane,
N1040J, in Houston, Texas.
I fell in love at first sight, the plane looked like a race horse in full
stride race mode (my description as a 20 year old novice flyer), but,
still to this day, the best looking single engine aircraft ever made.
Something I find funny today, from my instructor in New Orleans, while
getting my high performance rating and checked out in the 112A, he told
me, you will NEVER experience a bad landing in this plane, and then I got
the education of my life on landing gear design. What’s funny, that
analogy and reason for never having a bad landing has not changed in
over 35 years, which says something about the beautiful and graceful
design of Ted Smith and the Aero Commander.
I
grew up doing a lot of flying during my college breaks, and during the
summer of 1980 I had the opportunity to fly 1040J all over the southern
and southeastern seaboard area in search of a Beechcraft Baron, or my
dad thought that’s what he wanted. Eventually, he found an A60 Duke,
N7620D, which was an amazing ‘beast’ of an airplane to fly when you
needed to carry passengers or cargo, but, was never as much fun to as
the Commander.
I
can still remember to this day, the dates Lendon and I had flying this
airplane out of the Slidell, Louisiana airport, flying over Lake
Ponchatrain, going to Destin, Florida and other destinations around the
southern coast. I can also remember my first landing gear experience
flying into Pensacola with the Commander, but, with one push of the
emergency gear drop, they came right down and locked. Subsequently found
out that the hydraulic oil level was low.
We have included some photos of N1040J with my father at the controls,
leaving Lubbock shortly after the birth of our daughter, Devan, in
April 1990 (time flies, literally there). It was also my reality check
on the affordability of my flying hobby and raising a family. Soon
after I hung up my charts and went into father/husband mode, until the
summer of 2013. Our son, Kiefer, has always been fascinated about flying,
and he decided what he would like to do for his senior project at
school was to get his pilot’s license. I was thrilled, Lendon a bit
apprehensive, but the memories and feelings of 20 years ago rushed
through my mind.
So,
that June of 2013 Kiefer signed up for flying lessons and ground school at
HUB City Aviation at the Lubbock International Airport, there location
is about 200’ away from where I took my lessons back in 1978/1979 at
Ridpath Aviation. Can I say that bug slowly took over my whole body is
an understatement, it took about 4 months for Kiefer to convince me
that I could get back into it. I went the process of turning in my paper
license for the new plastic one, getting my flight physical, and on
November 19, 2013 I took back to the skies with an instructor to begin
the process of gaining those skills once again. After about 5 hours of
flight time and a couple hours of ground school I was cleared once
again to fly. The thrill was absolutely incredible. I worked on my time in
a high performance aircraft and the first time I pulled the gear up,
all I could remember was 1040J and the fever I felt continued to burn
for months. I so wanted that Commander back.
Thanks
to Judi Anderson and Suncoast Aviation, she worked diligently for 6 or 7
months to educate me, teach me and school me on Commander 114 ownership.
She has provided (and I know will continue to provide) valuable
information, leads and true friendship throughout our process of
purchasing a Commander. We found 527GT in Mesa, Arizona, at Falcon
Field. On September 5, 2014, we flew her for the first time, I can say
I was tearing up when we saw the plane and when she left the runway. I
know the differences between the 112 and the 114, but I can say it felt
the same, handled the same, with the rush of memories flooding my mind,
how much I missed this plane. Of course, the landings were incredible,
still to this day, with as windy as it can get in Lubbock, Texas (20-25
MPH is a normal day) I haven’t experienced a bad landing yet, she is a
very forgiving aircraft, and when Ted Smith designed the Commander, he did
it the best he knew how with the best and beefiest materials around.
Our
family is proud to be blessed with this opportunity to share in the life
history of 527GT, to again go on dates with my co-pilot Lendon, to fly
with my son Kiefer, to transport our daughter Devan and to be a part of
the Commander community once again.
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