midcap
Pattern Altitude
It's good for a plane to fly regularly, but, it shouldn't be a show-stopper if it hasn't - just more due diligence. If memory serves me, when I was researching my plane, going back year over year, it was: 1 hour, 6 hours, 9 hours, 20+ hours. I sent the oil off for analysis, shared my findings with the shop that did my pre-buy. It took me about 4 oil changes for the oil analysis to be "perfect" but, each oil change it improved. So I've been ok.
If you are serious about investigating it as a possibility - contact Judi Anderson with Sun Coast Aviation. She has files on almost all the Commanders and knows the history of most of the fleet. She has been working with Commanders since the late 70's. She may have background info. You could also join the Commander Owners Group (www.commander.org) - it's a great site for Commander specific info.
Dean
Thanks for the info.
I am still a ways out, but there are a myriad of planes that would fit my missions I finally narrowed it down to 3. The Commander is one of those 3, followed by the Comanche and a 182RG