What a year it’s been. Many families have suffered financially, physically and emotionally. In aviation, it’s been a year of ups and downs with severe restrictions in many parts of the world, and unique pressures on companies to ensure their employees and customers remain as safe as possible. But now, finally, it appears that we are turning the corner together and brighter days are on the horizon.
At Twin Commander we never shut down during the pandemic, and never stopped working hard for pilots, owners, operators, or the Authorized Service Center network. During the initial stages of the pandemic, we remained on site at the factory, ensuring that there was full coverage to provide critical parts for our customers, and to maintain engineering and technical projects that will further solidify our future. Over time some of us worked more from home, but only after it was determined there would be no loss of service.
In a business you must be constantly focused on the future. That’s why, even in times of uncertainty or in challenging economic conditions, you must position yourself not only for the current needs, but what your customers will expect of you after things turn a corner. And that’s exactly what we’ve done.
Over the past year we’ve not only maintained our exceptional level of support, we’ve worked hard on development projects that we think will serve customers well into the future. Just in the last year we have developed a new nacelle bulkhead to provide a more secure fit, redesigned the cabin altitude indicator that had been out of stock, created a new rudder gust lock to address customer feedback, conceived handbook rewrites, implemented a welcome change to the hydraulic pump overhaul procedure, designed a new nose gear spacer, and much more. As you can see, we’ve been busy preparing Twin Commander for the time when the world’s economies pick back up, flying activity increases, and shops get even busier than they were.
By all accounts that’s exactly what’s happening. The independent facilities that make up the Twin Commander Factory Authorized Service Center network tell me they are extremely busy with regular maintenance and inspections, panel upgrades, paint and interior work, and with parts sales. At the factory our monthly results in the first quarter reflected that activity, as parts orders started to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.
Since the airplane was certified in the early 1950s as the world’s first light twin meant for personal and business transportation, Twin Commander production and support has weathered many storms. We’ve survived wars, major depressions and now, a pandemic that all of us hope never to see again in our lifetimes. A great design, a supportive community, active and passionate pilots, and strong factory support are the ingredients that make an airplane thrive 70 years. By working together and focusing on the needs of owners and operators, I’m confident we’ll all continue to enjoy the airplanes for many more years into the future.
