Everywhere you go it seems flying activity is increasing. Ramps are busy, activity analysis firms like Argus show business is up, flight training is booming, and shops are busy with maintenance, avionics upgrades, and refurbishment projects.
The Twin Commander market seems to also be in good shape, according to Bruce Byerly of Byerly Aviation. The end of last year was especially strong, with eight Twin Commander transactions in December. That was followed by an expected and cyclical seasonal slowdown, which has since started to pick back up again.
In addition to widespread factors such as tax implications and budgets, the end of the year is also a busy time for Twin Commander operators who fly on forestry contracts. Byerly said they typically buy and sell aircraft in the fire off-season to have them ready to go when the season starts again in the late spring.
The supply side is looking only slightly better for buyers than it was at the end of the year. At that time there were only 38 Twin Commanders on the market, compared to 45 now. Byerly said the most competitive market remains late-model 1000s in good condition.
Part of that may be due to the fact that there will always be buyers of late-model top-shape airplanes, but an interesting dynamic has been changing the type of buyer. As older pilots retire, a new generation of owners is coming in with a different set of expectations. Whereas the existing generation maybe learned to fly in the military and lived out aviation’s heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, the new buyer comes in technically savvy and with high expectations. Maybe they’ve learned to fly in a glass-panel equipped Cirrus, and their expectations align to that modern glass capability and aesthetic. Byerly also said previous customers may have been more interested in finding an airframe and customizing it to their needs. But the newer generation is perhaps less patient and doesn’t want to wait a few months through a complete upgrade. “It has to come with a Garmin glass panel of some kind,” he said.
Thankfully for those buyers, a wide range of the latest advancements in avionics is available to retrofit to Twin Commanders.
