GOING THE EXTRA 35,000 MILES IN
SUPPORT OF THE FLEET
By Matt Isley
President, Twin Commander Aircraft LLC
I recently spoke with a Commander owner who flew his aircraft around the globe in what was surely a 35,000 nm feat of professional execution using modern navigation. He spent many months planning the expedition, including working with his Service Center to ensure that the aircraft was in tip-top shape. During the journey members of our worldwide Service Center network stayed in regular contact with the owner, even loading up his plane with a few spare parts in case of an emergency. In the end, the aircraft performed flawlessly, flying 125 hours with not a single squawk on the airframe.
Coming off the heels of our most recent Service Center Symposium this past May in Oklahoma City, it is inspiring to work with these folks who go the extra mile to support their customers. I want Commander owners to know that their Service Center team members are full of good ideas and suggestions on how we can constantly improve our support of the fleet.
We covered many topics at this year�s Symposium, many of them involving progress on the parts front. For example, most folks are benefiting from extended cutoff times for part shipments as a result of our east coast move. (Out west we had earlier cutoff times in order to meet deadlines for shipping out of the Seattle area.) Our new parts-search database makes it easier for Service Centers to determine parts availability. And we have several engineering projects underway designed to make our parts more robust, less expensive, and most importantly, more available.
However, there are and always will be more parts and services issues to work on, and in partnership with our authorized Service Centers, we will continue to be aggressively proactive at developing solutions that are in your best interests.
Supplying quality parts at fair prices is a primary mission of Twin Commander Aircraft, but it's not our only mission. We do everything that an aircraft manufacturer must and should do to support a worldwide fleet, except build new airplanes. An important part of that support is communicating with owners and operators. We attempt to do that on many fronts�Flight Levels in print and online (www.flightlevelsonline.com), our website (www.twincommander.com) and Community Forums (http://www.flightlevelsonline.com/phpBB/), the monthly Twin Commander Newsletter that is emailed to subscribers, periodic postcards highlighting special programs and upgrades, and even the occasional email broadcast on an important and timely subject.
If you are not receiving all of these products, please go to our website home page and look for the buttons �Flight Levels Registration� and �Join Our Mailing List.� Subscriptions are free, and we pledge not to share your contact information with anyone. Our sole interest is keeping you informed about projects and initiatives underway at Twin Commander Aircraft and our authorized Service Centers that will keep your airplane flying at the head of the class for years to come.
Finally, I am proud to announce that we will be hosting the 10th Biennial Twin Commander University next spring�April 28-30�in Bonita Springs, Florida. We are already planning special events and speakers, and it promises to be the best one yet.
See you there!
Matt
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