Saturday, November 02, 2019

Rockwell International 112A Commander, N1274J: Incident occurred November 02, 2019 at Clearwater Air Park (KCLW), Pinellas County, Florida

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Tampa

Aircraft landed and gear collapsed.

https://registry.faa.gov/N1274J

Date: 02-NOV-19
Time: 13:00:00Z
Regis#: N1274J
Aircraft Make: ROCKWELL
Aircraft Model: 112
Event Type: INCIDENT
Highest Injury: NONE
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: UNKNOWN
Activity: PERSONAL
Flight Phase: LANDING (LDG)
Operation: 91
City: CLEARWATER
State: FLORIDA










CLEARWATER, Florida — Police responded to a hard landing Saturday morning at Clearwater Airpark.

At some point during the landing around 9 a.m., police say a plane's front landing gear collapsed. Pictures tweeted by the Clearwater Police Department show the plane's nose on the ground, with its propeller sliced into it.

The pilot was the only person on board.

No injuries are reported.

Original article can be found here ➤ https://www.wtsp.com

11 comments:

  1. This plane should be put back into production, it was so far ahead of its time. The rest of the general aviation market is only now catching up. The Cirrus Aircraft look mundane next to the Rockwell Commander.

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  2. In my opinion the Commander is the most beautiful small aircraft ever made.

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  3. Only flew the 114. Very comfortable interior and a well laid out panel. Performance seemed to be slightly less than other planes with same 260 HP ... Probably due to the wide cabin. Wallowed almost, not quite, as bad as earlier Bonanzas.

    I would imagine that a 112 is a pig on performance.

    Gooseberries I guess.

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  4. No hate at all in my comment.

    I liked the comfort ... it just seemed to underperform what should have been a comparable plane. Comparing the wallowing to a Bonanza not really accurate ... Bonanzas more fish tailed ... This plane WALLOED .... probably due to the short distance from CG to the tail ... no doubt that raising the horizontal was necessary to compensate for e wide fuselage ... Needed a yaw damper.

    YMMV

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  5. And yes ... That one pictured does/did look really nice.

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  6. Back some years ago a friend of mine had a 112 Commander. God, that was one roomy and beautiful aircraft. Only problem was the not so great performace with tha Lycoming IO-369 200 HP engine. I never rode in it and never heard him say anything about it wallowing. The 114 came out with 260 HP and was a much better performer.

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  7. I hit the wrong key. It had a IO-360 not a 369. Big fingers. :)

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  8. As a witness to the incident, I can tell you that it wasn't a hard landing. The nose wheel just folded under on roll out. Very unfortunate. It was a very low time immaculate aircraft.

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  9. I agree with all comments about how great the Commander series is. I truly enjoy my 112! The odd thing in the pics is it doesn't look like the collapse occurred on the hard surface, but rather appears the nose wheel went off the runway & the collapse occurred in the turf, which also looks rather muddy. Shame this happened, but most likely repairable and no one was injured.

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  10. I am a partner in a 112 that has the IO-360 engine. Its not a rocket ship for sure but with two adults and some luggage and full tanks it cruises along at 125 knots burning 8.5 gallons/hour. Super comfortable, stable and will not scare you. Beautiful aircraft !

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