Commander C-115

By Andrew Herd (19 October 2001)

he Commander single-engine, high performance aircraft have a fine pedigree - their origins lie with Rockwell International, which was responsible for the Mustang, the Super Sabre, the B-1 and the Space Shuttle - but although the product line was a success, Rockwell sold it to Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation along with its General Aviation Division during the tough times that hit aviation in 1981.

Nine years later, the plane changed hands again, this time in a buyout by the Commander Aircraft Company, which has manufactured the aircraft ever since. Over the next 48 months the new company redesigned the aircraft it had inherited, the result being the Commander 114B, which was certified in 1992 to the demanding FAR 23 standard.

At the time the new version was hailed as a great step forward for general aviation, but the engineers didn't rest on their laurels and they have continually improved the aircraft. The result is a rugged airframe with untold numbers of hours of flight experience to its credit and an enviable history of reliability - according to the Breiling Aircraft Accident Study even the older C114 had the best safety record in its class.

In March of 2000, Commander Aircraft Company introduced the Commander 115 series of high performance single engine aircraft. Powered by a 6 cylinder Textron Lycoming IO-540-T4B5 developing 260 horsepower at 2,700 RPM and driving a 3 bladed McCauley constant speed, hydraulic prop, the normally aspirated C115 is capable of 155 kias cruise and yet has a range of over 900 nm - while the TC version simulated by FSD can cruise at up to FL250 at 187 kias. The laminar flow wing and single slotted flaps contribute not only to solid handling, but also bring excellent short field takeoff and landing capability. Other features of the C115 include panoramic visibility for both pilots and passengers and a legendary standard of comfort.

I was in the process of reviewing Flightsim Developer's excellent Super Cub when I found out that they were also coding a Commander 115TC and as you can imagine, the news had my immediate attention. I walk past a C115 approximately twice a month and am continually reminded of the contrast it makes to the Tomahawk standing next to it - statistically only one of them will be around in twenty year's time and my money isn't on the Piper. But airframe life aside, the outstanding thing about the C115 is its cockpit - apart from being about as luxurious as anything you can imagine on the general aviation scene, it has the feel of an upmarket business jet, packed into smaller space.

The package weighs in at around 13 Mb and is a payware download from the Flightsim Developers web site. Installation is painless and all the user has to do is to confirm the FS2000 directory chosen by the installer, or alter it if necessary.

Your $15 buys you a spectacular visual model, a panel to match and a suitably growly sound set. There is also a hypertext manual covering performance data, aircraft history and support, together with an illustrated tutorial on panel operation which I recommend reading. Although this is only a GA plane, the panel is as complex as anything you are likely to have seen and within certain limits, it works exactly the same way as the original - so reading up on procedures is vital. But although this little plane is more complex to operate than most GA simulations around today, once you have got the hang of it, is is extremely rewarding to fly.

The visual model is by Jim Goldman and it has as much detail as anyone could wish for in an aircraft of this size. A single, US registered livery is available. In what is becoming a signature of this group, there is a detailed 3D pilot (regrettably not Ms. Chika this time, but I live in hope that she might appear in a future project) wearing the mandatory Ray-Bans. Take the plane up beyond 10000 feet and he sprouts an oxygen mask! The rest of the cockpit is rendered in a similar level of detail right down to the throttle quadrant and instruments which light at night. In one of those subtle touches that FSD are becoming known for, the pilot takes off his sunglasses and lifts the windshield visors when the sun goes down. All the control surfaces are animated, the cowl flaps open, the gear detail is excellent and if you really do feel you have to look inside the bays, there is pipework and all sorts to see. When you land, the trailing links even flex to take the load.

Textures are very crisp indeed, look good at night and are finely detailed enough to include "no step" signs on the flaps adjacent to the wing roots. I confess I haven't actually counted every one, but all the aerials seem to be there and the strobes are unsynchronised. The panel graphics are absolutely superb, with some of the most beautifully rendered instruments I have ever seen, right down to details like the bezels, which are just about perfect. Overall, the panel design is a very good compromise between realism and usability and I found it extremely enjoyable and easy to use. Even the night lighting is a cut above the average.

A full set of external cockpit views are included and these load reasonably quickly, which makes the plane even more rewarding for VFR than you might expect. More than anything else, these views show off the build quality of the real plane and I can just smell those new leather seats...

The flight model is by Steve Small and is absolutely bang on the numbers, with the additional bonus that the aircraft has no discernable tendency to roll out of turns and can be flown with hardly any use of rudder. The multitude of control systems people use with Flight Simulator, together with the endless choice the user has in setting up sensitivities mean that the Holy Grail of building an flight model that feels like the original isn't really possible. However, the documentation supplied with the C115TC states that "Commander Aircraft Company management and personnel have test flown this Flight Simulator aircraft and have stated that they have verified it to be as accurate a portrayal as is possible within the limits of the Flight Simulator program," which is about as good a reference as you could hope for in a simulator. Certainly, the C115TC flies very well and the combination of a high cruise speed and stable handling makes it a pleasure to use.

But the piece de resistance in this package is the simulation of a state-of-the-art radio/nav stack. The base unit FSD chose as their working model is an incredibly desirable piece of kit that most pilots would happily sell their relatives to possess, and the simulation is almost fully functional. There is a surprise hidden in behind the display, because it is an extremely high resolution graphic and can be dragged to any size you want. Once resized, the display refocusses and all in all it is probably one of the most interesting GA stacks I have ever seen for Flight Simulator. While it can't be said that every single button on it works, it has more then enough functionality to keep most simmers happy, and there are some very nice touches, for example the way the transponder self-tests when it is power cycled. The standby frequencies can be tuned either by clicking on the numbers, or on the tuner controls and once you have mastered the procedure for selecting the receiver you want and for swapping frequencies, the radios are extremely easy to use.

From top to bottom the stack includes an audio selector, dual switchable COM and NAV radios with DME, a dual frequency switchable ADF tuner, a transponder and autopilot mode panel. There are separate panels for the quadrant and the switches, the latter including an ammeter/volt meter and a fascinating multi-function fuel gauge that I spent many happy hours fiddling with, although I should point out that you must have saved a flight plan for all the functions to work properly.

A full set of kneeboard data is included with the plane, eliminating one of the few criticisms I had for the FSD Super Cub, the documentation for which was a little sparse. As it happens, there isn't a great deal to know about operating the Lycoming in the sim - you can fly pretty much anywhere you want at 29 inches manifold pressure boost and 2400 RPM.

The scenery I used in the screen shots was the St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles freeware by Chris Kilroy and Thomas Lorentzen, available on FlightSim.Com. Apart from providing the opportunity for some dramatic approaches, the screen shots prove that the sun doesn't always shine in the eastern Caribbean and that English weather sometimes turns up at the other side of the globe too - in this case thanks to real weather courtesy of FSMeteo.

Do I like the C115? You bet. I get to see a lot of flightsim planes and panels and very few of them have the sort of appeal that this one has. Most of the stuff I look at gets deleted from the disk in fairly short order, but this one is going to stay, especially since FSD gaurantee to upgrade it for FS2002. Thanks to the great flight dynamics, the C115TC is no fuss to fly and the panel is a delight to use - once you get the hang of it, longer VFR and even IFR flights become seriously enjoyable. Sure, there is only one livery with the plane and although a choice would be welcome, I can live with it, though I suspect that if they were given suitable encouragement, the developers might come up with some more. On balance, given the high quality and stability of the software, $15 is a very fair price. The Commander makes a great stable-mate to go with the Super Cub and I only hope that other teams are spurred into action by what this group is doing; because right now FSD look to be making a strong bid to become undisputed kings of the general aviation scene.