26 Vol. 10 / No. 5 / May 2018 Global Aviator
and the ‘battle’ between those two
wealthy – but not particular bright- businessmen, and so did I.
The company I worked for was
a Rockwell Commander dealer, so I
introduced the Seneca owner – a private
pilot with no instrument rating nor
R/T licence - to a one-of-a-kind aircraft,
the Rockwell Commander 700, nee
Fuji Heavy Industries FA-300 of Japan.
Only 48 were ever produced. This
aircraft was a blunder, clanger or goof.
Let me explain: it had a large cabin,
larger than a Piper Navajo and it was
pressurised, but lacked practicality. It
had 320Hp engines, but with a full load
of passengers it had a miserable range of
only 390Nm. But ... it was bigger than
a Navajo. Rockwell acquired the rights
to sell it outside of Japan. As a Rockwell
dealer the company was more or less
forced to take one and it sat in the hanger
for a long time. My boss offered me a
substantial bonus if I could please sell it!
I contacted this businessman who
was 100% in the correct (?) state-of-mind
to do better than his rival. I visited him,
showing him the brochure with all kind
of optimistic claims. He owned a second
house in the north of Spain and he
suggested that if we would trade in his
Piper Seneca AND if we could fly him
and his family for a weekend to Spain,
we had a deal. I agreed, stupid me, but
the ego, you recognise this fellow?
The promise of scoring big was
tempting, so I agreed to fly him
and his family to Spain. I knew
that I had to fill the tanks to the
brim and that the fuel would get
just me and the aircraft to Spain.
With full tanks, passengers and
luggage it would be rolling the dice.
On that Saturday morning they arrived
at Antwerp airport - all six of them.
The prospect would sit in the cockpit
and the rest would occupy the cabin
including the loo. Besides suitcases
they also brought four crates of beer,
because it was cheaper in Holland
than in Spain! Should I spoil the party
by stating that to fly non-stop, at least
5 passengers would have to stay in
Antwerp or wouldn’t I? Here I made my
next wrong decision, and off we went.
The runway at Antwerp is
thankfully long enough to get a good
speed, way over the normal lift-off
speed, but we were climbing perhaps
300/400ft a minute. It took us to the
French border to reach 6000ft.
After some time the client enquired
why we were still so low. I explained
(read: talking porgies) that due to a
large joint exercise of the Belgian and
French Air Force we had to stay low and
were only allowed to climb gradually.
Only around Paris – another 220
miles - did we reach Fl180. Obviously,
the Air Force restrictions were suddenly
completely gone. Fortunately, the
soon-to-be proud owner of a Rockwell
Commander 700 (PH-ZUS) not only
did not have a R/T licence but also
did not speak or understand English.
We arrived on the last fumes of
petrol. I stayed the weekend with
this family and got the feeling that
the trip was a success, not in the least
thanks to my charming people skills.
On Monday we returned, and whenrefuelling it took more fuel than was
officially possible according to the flight
operations manual. The aircraft was
sold with an American register. The
owner told me that getting a Dutch
multi-engine rating for this pressurised
aircraft would create a problem, he
did not say why, that only became
clear to me much later. I suggested
that we visit the American FAA office
in Brussels together to get a FAA
Private Pilot licence with multi-engine
rating, based on his Dutch licence,
which should not pose a problem.
The man was enthusiastic but I told
him that the only thing which may put
a spanner in the works was his lack of
English. The FAA official understood
my request, was perfectly willing to
comply, until he started questioning
the owner, and as expected the client
did not understand one iota of what
was said. Hence the FAA inspector
declined polity and off we went.
The client then subsequently
trained on the aircraft and requested
a multi-engine endorsement for
his new more capable aircraft. The
Rijksluchtvaartdienst (CAA) examiner
called me, telling me he knew the
owner because he did the test flight
for his Piper Seneca rating, which was
OK but just barely. He confided that
he had never received payment for
that test flight and after having asked
for it for a few times, he just let it be.
Noticing that this man was up for
the Rockwell 700 he insisted that he
would be the designated examiner.
On the day of the test, he
suggested they first sit in the aircraft
and check up on things. The first
was to ask for payment – this time
up-front – for this and the previous
test flight, which the candidate duly
paid in full. The examiner asked one
or two pertinent questions regarding
the operations of the Rockwell
Commander and subsequently – for
lack of knowledge – failed the candidate
and suggested he sell the aircraft.
This story did not completely end
there because the owner called me a
few weeks later and asked if could sell
this aircraft for him and perhaps sell
back his Seneca. So I did. Selling this
machine not only once but twice and
selling his Seneca back to him, made
me a nice and substantial commission.
Half a year later I started my
own charter company in Rotterdam,
which I wrote about in previous
issues of this magazine. •Top to bottom:
Rockwell 700 PH-ZUSAerostar 601P PH-HACSia Marchetti S25 G-AVEGPartenavia P68B PH-DKIMemories relived