Rockwell Commander 112A

About the plane

The Rockwell Commander is a four seat, low wing, single engine airplane with retractable landing gear and a constant speed propeller.

It has a 4 cylinder, fuel injected, Lycoming engine (IO-360) rated at 200 HP and cruises between 125 - 130 knots (225 - 235 kph).

It holds a maximum of 68 U.S. gallons of fuel, can fly at normal cruise speeds for over 6 hours and can climb to over 13,000 feet though, typically we remain below 10,000 feet as there are no oxygen masks installed in the airplane.

The plane is equipped with traditional radio navigation aides (dual VORs, ILS & ADF) plus has a modern colour moving map GPS certified for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operation. The GPS is a Garmin GNS 530

Weather Considerations

While both plane and pilot are certified to fly using Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) there is still weather that cannot be negotiated by any airplane this size.

The two most common reasons to cancel a flight are thunderstorms & icing conditions.

No airplane can fly through a thunderstorm and we will not commence a flight if thunderstorms are forecast to be in the vicinity of the departure or landing airports at or near our estimated time of arrival (ETA). Flight would also be cancelled if we would be unable to plot a course around thunderstorms along the proposed route of flight.

The Rockwell Commander is not certified to fly into icing conditions. Icing exists within any cloud that is below 0°C.

Keep in mind that the temperature decreases by 2-3°C for every 1000 feet we climb above the ground so while it may be well above freezing at ground level it could easily be below freezing at the level the clouds are at.

For example, if it were 12°C at ground level, and the temperature were to decrease 2°C every 1000 feet, clouds at 6,000 feet would be at freezing and would constitute icing conditions. If we were unable to fly at a lower altitide, typically due to lack of radio reception at low level, we could not make such a flight.