Would anyone know about the Commander 114A as far as reliability and maintenance goes? I am married and a father of two little ones. My brother loves his Bonanaza but I have found that for $95k that doesn't go far in the Bonanza world. I don't mind going slower for more weight advantage. I have seen commanders with good avionics and low time in my range but I don't know much about them. Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi Lachlan,

Welcome to BeechTalk.

This thread might be a good place to start:
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=103281

Good luck!

- Martin

Aircraft design is an exquisite example of a zero sum game. Everything is a trade-off. The commanders are the fullest expression of prioritizing comfort over speed. Most people seem to be very happy with them if comfort is your priority. However, unless you were looking for a 36, I would disagree with you that 95,000 doesn't go very far. You can get a very nice debonair or V-tail for that price.

http://www.commander.org

You could sniff around the linked Commander Owners Group. Not sure how much you get without a paid membership. Yeah, most owners are a bit biased towards what they own. Those that have the 114 seemed pleased, but we all can be different.

If it's just payload and speed as main factors, I'd look at all options. The Commander does have good ramp appeal, for whatever that's worth.

I stumbled into an underpowered 112 needing engine work. It's almost done getting the IO-390 installed. Yes, there were other directions I could of gone, but ended up here.

solidly built
the best ramp appeal
doors on both sides -- like GA planes should have
trailing link landing gear
a very comfortable traveling machine

Nice planes

A 114 was my first plane and I loved it. Flew it 500 hours and never had an AOG event. Maintenance simple and routine. IO 540 is de-rated to only 260 hp (I think, not sure I remember exactly) so with that big cabin you're not gonna run away from many planes, but you'll do so in style. Loved the trailing link landing gear.

I like the way Charles said it: prioritizes comfort over speed.

I agree 100% with this.

I owned a 114 for 9 years. It was a great roomy, good load hauler. 140 kts GS at 23 sq
In cruise. Very solid construction.
Sold it because looking for another 25 kts.. bought V35B in 2004, Got the additional 25 kts. Love it some trade off in CG Loading with Bo.
STILL love the extra 25 kts. ( both same fuel burn per hour )

Maintained a 114 many years ago. Reasonably well built plane. But it does have its quirks. Never park it with full tanks and the fuel selector on both or you'll find one wing dipped down and fuel pouring out the vent. Also the nose gear has no forward rake and, in fact, is mounted slightly aft of centerline on the fork. A fellow at my current location with a 112 found out the hard way not to land nose first. Swinging the gear at annual involves pulleys and weights to simulate air load on the nose gear.

I found a photo of our last one (had one back in the 90's and one about 14 years ago): there's just nothing that looks better sitting on the ramp..
.

FWIW, I looked hard at the 114 in my search, but for the price, I kept thinking for just a tiny bit more I could get an SR-20 with the same cabin comfort, same speed, a bit less payload, and a lot less fuel burn, cheaper insurance and likely easier ownership exit when the time comes. Plus the chute. And more than one lender wasn't interested in an "orphaned" plane. The turbo 112's (factory or Hot Shots) were attractive for speed and efficiency but a bit shy on useful load for what I wanted. Agree with others, still one of the sexiest planes on the ramp.

Always seemed like a nice airplane to me, had a handful of hours in a 112 years ago.(not great at high density altitude, 114 has to be the way to go.)
First thought, what are the parts/support channels like now? Maybe the owner's group has some insight.

The question of parts and service is always brought up about the Commanders. As an owner - I do not know of an actual owner that was not able to source a replacement for a part on their plane. Most of the parts are common to other brands, produced by 3rd parties under STC, etc.

Commmand Aircraft is now owned by a Chinese firm and is based in Norman, OK. The firm is licensed as a repair station and the common belief is the series will begin to be produced in the future.

Meanwhile - My (admitted biased) view is to look at the plane if you like it... buy it. Of course joining the Commander Owner's Group is money well spent.

Browsing Judi Anderson's site for Commander's for sale is where to start as Judi has been involved in the brokering of Commanders and has files on almost all of the planes in the fleet: http://www.suncoastaviation.com

What you never hear about is how nice the control feel is on the commander. It has the perfect combination of pitch and roll stability while still having a light crisp roll rate and moderate pitch forces. They are very easy to fly with great stability, a big panel and comfortable seats. I think they have a better control feel than the beech if only because they are Cessna 182 RG like in stability.