One Saturday every December in Michigan hundreds of pilots and airplanes brave the elements and come together for a purpose that extends beyond flying. They carry thousands of donated presents to foster children all over the state in a marvel of logistics, goodwill, and in the spirit of giving back. Operation Good Cheer is an entirely volunteer-run gift-giving program from Child and Family Services of Michigan. Roughly 13,000 children are in the state’s foster care program, and for decades pilots have organized, donated, and delivered gifts to as many as they can in one day. Most years you can find longtime Twin Commander pilot John DeCarli pitching in. DeCarli has been flying gifts for the organization for about 16 years.…

Here’s a way to earn a free beverage from your aviation friends in the bar. How many people have flown light airplanes solo over the earth’s poles? It’s fewer than you think. Only five have accomplished this incredible flight. And now, thanks to Robert DeLaurentis’s recent journey, one of them was in a Twin Commander. Every pilot knows that making a difficult flight with a crew is one thing, but doing it solo, that’s quite another. With his return to San Diego on August 10 of this year, DeLaurentis successfully completed a journey in his 1983 Model 900 that covered more than 26,000 nautical miles through South America, over the South Pole, across to Africa, up through Europe, and over…

There’s a common refrain when you speak to friends and associates of Geoffrey Pence, Twin Commander’s long-serving technical service manager. He was universally liked, respected, and admired. After a long career helping others solve issues and serving customers, Pence was best known as honest, straightforward and, most of all, a genuinely nice guy. Soft-spoken, he possessed a sharp wit and ironic sense of humor.   Pence retired from Twin Commander earlier this year, capping off 21 years with the company. Before that he worked at Aero Air, a Twin Commander Factory Authorized Service Center, and Gulfstream when it was producing Commanders. Jim Matheson, the former owner of Twin Commander Aircraft, hired Pence. “Geoffrey was a big part of how we…

It’s widely accepted that airplane owners trade their rides every three to five years. There are some who hold out for a decade, and a few more who might have the nostalgia to hang on to their airplane for even a generation. Having an airplane in the family for nearly 60 years? That’s practically unheard of. Ricardo Otaola’s 1962 680F, now with its second-generation owner, is the best kind of heirloom. Otaola’s father Juan owned a construction company in Venezuela that created large public works projects, and airplanes were a great way to commute to the company’s construction sites around the mountainous country. He flew Twin Commanders from the beginning, upgrading from earlier 680S to the 680F in 1962. It…