Post by Tom Goodrick on Oct 22, 2010 20:59:53 GMT -5
The Aero Commanders were designed in the 1950's by Ted Smith to have good general usage and good performance. They are also known as pilots' planes. enjoyed more by pilots for their flying qualities than passengers for their not-so-quiet cabins.
Milton Shupe and his team have done a very fine job of developing the designs for the Flight Simulator. Several of us on this Forum have flown these designs in FS. I have had the 560 for a couple of years. Its twin 295 hp engines with geared props give it plenty of power to crry a full load at about 190 knots. The quickest of the Aero Commanders is the turbocharged 680 that gets about 210 knots using high altitudes. It was sometimes pressurized by installing a pump in the cargo area.
I recently heard about the Aero Commander 500 model for FS. I confused it with an "AC500s" model I had obtained a few years ago that is a model of the 1978 Rockwell Shrike variant with a poiinted nose and a forward door for the pilot. But I knew there was a 500 model that was considered under-powered. It was the first of Smith's designs to fly. I found it Wednesday on avsim.com and downloaded it. From habit I took the version without the VC. I may go back and get the bigger file since it took very little time to download it.
Today I flew it. It needed one simple change to be right on the specs. I flew it with my own Aero Commander panel which showed 120% power on takeoff. (I had set the proper 250hp power gauge before takeoff.) Changing the power scalar from 1.0 to 0.8 took care of that extra 20% power. with just twin 250 hp engines it does fly okay but demands a little care during takeoff and climb with a full load. But it does cruise at 167 KTAS at the optimum altitudes (from 5000 ft to 8500ft). Landings are very easy. It has effective flaps. I found clean stall was 65 KIAS and stall with full flaps was at about 52 KIAS.
It's a very nice model of an aircraft that has a very good role in aviation. It is an economical twin that can carry 6 people with baggage at a fairly good speed for just about 900 nm.
Milton Shupe and his team have done a very fine job of developing the designs for the Flight Simulator. Several of us on this Forum have flown these designs in FS. I have had the 560 for a couple of years. Its twin 295 hp engines with geared props give it plenty of power to crry a full load at about 190 knots. The quickest of the Aero Commanders is the turbocharged 680 that gets about 210 knots using high altitudes. It was sometimes pressurized by installing a pump in the cargo area.
I recently heard about the Aero Commander 500 model for FS. I confused it with an "AC500s" model I had obtained a few years ago that is a model of the 1978 Rockwell Shrike variant with a poiinted nose and a forward door for the pilot. But I knew there was a 500 model that was considered under-powered. It was the first of Smith's designs to fly. I found it Wednesday on avsim.com and downloaded it. From habit I took the version without the VC. I may go back and get the bigger file since it took very little time to download it.
Today I flew it. It needed one simple change to be right on the specs. I flew it with my own Aero Commander panel which showed 120% power on takeoff. (I had set the proper 250hp power gauge before takeoff.) Changing the power scalar from 1.0 to 0.8 took care of that extra 20% power. with just twin 250 hp engines it does fly okay but demands a little care during takeoff and climb with a full load. But it does cruise at 167 KTAS at the optimum altitudes (from 5000 ft to 8500ft). Landings are very easy. It has effective flaps. I found clean stall was 65 KIAS and stall with full flaps was at about 52 KIAS.
It's a very nice model of an aircraft that has a very good role in aviation. It is an economical twin that can carry 6 people with baggage at a fairly good speed for just about 900 nm.