vdub280
Newbie
Okay, since it's official and I'm now laid off, I've decided to sell my Commander and get ahead of the curve on what may prove to be tough financial times. I'll put the Gyrobee project on hold until things improve.
What I've got is an AC Commander "Classic" in very nice original condition. It's never been flown. I'm the second owner; the first owner put it together but didn't quite finish everything up. It was stored away in a garage for the last 20+ years. It's in great shape with some scratches and scuffs from storage, and some minor corrosion on some of the fasteners from humidity.
It has a Rotax 447 on it; it was never run until I purchased it. I went through the Bing carb and replaced the o-rings and all of the gas lines, siphon bulb, filter, clamps, altitude line, and sight-line. I broke it in following the Rotax manual precisely, on a 50:1 mix of Yamalube R2. It runs great.
The gyro also has a Wunderlich prerotator, hydraulic brakes (which I filled and bled out since they had never been set up), 23' Skywheels (nice shape with some minor scuffs and scratches from storage; they don't appear to have ever been mounted), and a gauge pod with German Winter guages (altimeter, air speed, cylinder head temperature and tach), 60" Warp Speed 4-blade prop, and a rotor brake.
Since this is basically a virgin time-machine kind of craft, it reflects exactly what was sold in, I believe, 1987. None of the suggested updates or safety retrofits have been done.
Everything is in nice shape; heck- it's all basically NOS. The seat tank is clean since it never had fuel in it until I broke the engine in. There are no leaks from the brakes or fuel taps. Seat cover is nice. Tires are clean, hold air fine and have no cracking or checking. There's some minor adjusting necessary to the various controls and cables, some minor hardware that should be replaced (mostly the Nylock nuts which show minor corrosion on their tin shells), and some torquing of the various fasteners, since this was never completed (I just snugged up whatever hadn't been tightened, since I don't have the manual for the AC and Air Command doesn't respond to emails). The only things missing from the unit are four of the blade bolts/castellated nuts and the 2-pair electrical cable from the gauge pod to the engine. It was never installed and went missing somewhere along the way. All I've done is wipe the unit down and do the aforementioned break-in and tinkering. I would completely disassemble the gyro sequentially or by sub-assemblies and clean and check everything, but at least you get to start with something that hasn't been bent, crashed, fatigued, worn out or even flown! It would be a good starting point for a CLT conversion or a makeover into a two-seater.
Add a horizontal stabilizer while you're at it.
I thought I'd offer this to the forum members first, before I put it on Craigslist or Ebay, since you've all been very friendly, accommodating and helpful to me in getting into gyros.
I'm asking $7500 OBO; please feel free to ridicule me about, or comment on, the price. I'll also consider selling it for the best offer without the Rotax 447 on it, since I'd kind of like to keep it for the Gyrobee project when I can finally return to building it. PM me if you're so inclined. I have lots of other photos and will try to answer any and all questions to the best of my ability.
What I've got is an AC Commander "Classic" in very nice original condition. It's never been flown. I'm the second owner; the first owner put it together but didn't quite finish everything up. It was stored away in a garage for the last 20+ years. It's in great shape with some scratches and scuffs from storage, and some minor corrosion on some of the fasteners from humidity.
It has a Rotax 447 on it; it was never run until I purchased it. I went through the Bing carb and replaced the o-rings and all of the gas lines, siphon bulb, filter, clamps, altitude line, and sight-line. I broke it in following the Rotax manual precisely, on a 50:1 mix of Yamalube R2. It runs great.
The gyro also has a Wunderlich prerotator, hydraulic brakes (which I filled and bled out since they had never been set up), 23' Skywheels (nice shape with some minor scuffs and scratches from storage; they don't appear to have ever been mounted), and a gauge pod with German Winter guages (altimeter, air speed, cylinder head temperature and tach), 60" Warp Speed 4-blade prop, and a rotor brake.
Since this is basically a virgin time-machine kind of craft, it reflects exactly what was sold in, I believe, 1987. None of the suggested updates or safety retrofits have been done.
Everything is in nice shape; heck- it's all basically NOS. The seat tank is clean since it never had fuel in it until I broke the engine in. There are no leaks from the brakes or fuel taps. Seat cover is nice. Tires are clean, hold air fine and have no cracking or checking. There's some minor adjusting necessary to the various controls and cables, some minor hardware that should be replaced (mostly the Nylock nuts which show minor corrosion on their tin shells), and some torquing of the various fasteners, since this was never completed (I just snugged up whatever hadn't been tightened, since I don't have the manual for the AC and Air Command doesn't respond to emails). The only things missing from the unit are four of the blade bolts/castellated nuts and the 2-pair electrical cable from the gauge pod to the engine. It was never installed and went missing somewhere along the way. All I've done is wipe the unit down and do the aforementioned break-in and tinkering. I would completely disassemble the gyro sequentially or by sub-assemblies and clean and check everything, but at least you get to start with something that hasn't been bent, crashed, fatigued, worn out or even flown! It would be a good starting point for a CLT conversion or a makeover into a two-seater.
Add a horizontal stabilizer while you're at it.
I thought I'd offer this to the forum members first, before I put it on Craigslist or Ebay, since you've all been very friendly, accommodating and helpful to me in getting into gyros.
I'm asking $7500 OBO; please feel free to ridicule me about, or comment on, the price. I'll also consider selling it for the best offer without the Rotax 447 on it, since I'd kind of like to keep it for the Gyrobee project when I can finally return to building it. PM me if you're so inclined. I have lots of other photos and will try to answer any and all questions to the best of my ability.