Has anybody flown this aircraft a Commander 700? If so what is performance like?

http://www.controller.com/listingsdetai ... chList=add

Tony,
I looked into it. Very well built (No ADs...), good range, good speed, but underpowered. Queen Air is slower, but carries more. Commander 700 is good bang for the buck. I decided the T303 is enough for me, as I don't mind teh oxygen canula.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/inter/fuji_ ... er-700.php

Chieftain engines on a much wider fuselage. Have heard it was designed for a turbine follow-on that never came. Would be a great plane with 500hp per side probably.

Not sure that "no AD's" is meaningful for a plane with 16 copies on the FAA registry - only 7 of which have any IFR activity in the last year.

At that fleet size, I'd worry about finding insurance, parts, etc.

Back to the Duke / 421C

I looked at them briefly as well but came to the same conclusion as everyone else here. Very rare airplane, and that always raises warning flags - parts, knowledge, training, etc.

When I was shopping for a pressurized, cabin class twin, it really came down to "which flavor of twin Cessna do I want?". Yes, I know there are a lot of Duke fans here, but the cabin is too small for what I wanted.

If you're not going to go turbine, get the 421C. The "straight leg" (pre-80) models are fairly priced and if you shop around you can get a good deal.

Robert

We had one in our flight test department in college back in the '90s that was donated. (It might have been the first one or prototype.) I never flew it or in it, but we used it sporadically for testing various systems we were developing. Our prof/flight test pilot (with an impressive USAF pedigree and GA owner/pilot) said it was quite a pig, performance-wise. It was well-built and had a great ramp presence, but that is about the extent of it's highlights IMO. It really needed some turboprops to make that airframe shine.