Photograph:
A British registered Air Command Commander Elite G-TFRB at Kirkby,North Yorkshire, UK in 2012 (Air Britain)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Two-seat light sport gyrocopter
Power Plant:
One 82 kw (110 hp) Hirth F-30 four-cylinder, two-stroke, horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Rotor diameter: 8.53 m (27 ft 11 in)
- Length: 4.09 m (13 ft 4 in)
- Max operating speed: 177 km/h (110 mph)
- Cruising speed: 129 km/h (80 mph)
- Minimum flying speed: 33 km/h (20 mph)
- Rate of climb at sea level: 366 m/min (1,201 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 3,040 m (10,006 ft)
- Empty weight: 222 kg (489 lb)
- Loaded weight: 578 kg (1,274 lb)
History:
The Commander Elite was a two-seat gyrocopter produced by Air Command International of Caddo Mills, Texas, USA and was one of a range of machines produced by this Company. Formed in 1992, the Company produced a series of kits, the Commander Elite F-30, being introduced in late 1999, and making its first flight on 1 March 2000.
The Eite was first demonstrated at the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-in in Florida in April 2000. Later a two-seat side-by-side variant was introduced. Three variants have been produced, the model F-30 with a Hirth F-30 engine and tandem seating, the F-30ES with side-by-side seating, and the Elite Mazda with a Mazda rotary engine, production of which was discontinued in 2003.
Further designs have appeared over the years, including the Commander 147A, the Commander 447, the Commander 582 Side-by-Side, the Commander 582 Tandem and the Commander 618, the designation basically relating to the model of the Rotax engine installed.
A few examples have been imported to this region, including ZK-RBI (c/n R80); ZK-RBF (c/n NZRA/R72); ZK-RBN (c/n NZRA/R75) which later became ZK-RBW; ZK-RBR (c/n NZRA/R78); ZK-RBS (c/n NZRA/R74); and ZK-RBW (NZRA/R73).
An Australian example crashed 7 km south of Ballan, VIC on 6 May 1989. Australian examples have included G-014, G-0371, G-2019 and G-2620.