When Julian Duff shows up for work he’s not exactly sure what will happen. On a routine day he may be called upon to fly a passenger charter flight or some freight. More interesting missions might be spotting prawns or taking passengers to a resort on the Great Barrier Reef. And then there’s the school runs and the cabin full of live giant crayfish. Duff is a pilot for East Air, a charter operator based in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The company’s location near the Great Barrier Reef, close to fertile fishing grounds, and within an easy flight to the Australian bush provide a setting for a variety of unique jobs. All of which are served by a fleet of 500S…

He’s dubbed it Citizen of the World. Beginning this December, new Twin Commander owner Robert DeLaurentis is embarking on a trip that has never been achieved. He’ll be flying his 900 around the world from pole to pole. The real estate broker and author has been preparing himself and the airplane the past 18 months. A flight with such extreme temperatures, long overwater legs, and remote airports requires an incredible amount of coordination and preparation. But most of the time has been spent taking a standard 690D and converting it to an airplane that can easily fly non-stop for more than 17 hours. From fuel tanks to panel, the airplane has been extensively modified for the trip. The route will…

What’s the best way to get from Yukon, Oklahoma, to Johannesburg, South Africa, a Great Circle distance of about 9,600 nm? For Michael Johnstone, the answer was easy. He first did the reverse route—Johannesburg, which is home for him, to Yukon—by airlines so he could do the return trip his way, in his newly acquired Commander 695B. Johnstone and ferry pilot Antony Maitland left Legacy Aviation Services in Yukon, where Johnstone had purchased the Commander, on December 13, 2017, and five days later landed at Lanseria International in Johannesburg after logging about 34 flying hours. “The trip was an amazing experience for me as it was my first flight from the USA through Europe back to South Africa,” Johnstone says.…

Kent Titcomb recently upgraded from a Cessna 414A to a Twin Commander 840. A few months into ownership of the Commander, we asked him how it’s going. He answered with the following. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Persig’s iconic 1974 book, was a philosophical examination of the marriage of the technical and the emotional. The Commander is a beautiful example of that Zen. A blend of exceptional speed, exceptional fuel burn, reasonable purchase price, reasonable maintenance costs, cabin size, and payload/range flexibility. What machine can do more for less? Did I mention excellent short-field performance? Did I mention how good the aircraft flies? Ramp presence? Another aspect that attracted me to the Commander was Twin Commander Aircraft LLC. They want to see Commanders…