The 350 and 400 have the same rudder. There were some small changes, there is a ventral fin on the 400 so Lance tells me they added a small piece to make it even with the fin.

He said the 400 was certified spin recoverable, because of the higher ceiling, 25,000’ but the improvement was the fin, not the small addition to the rudder.

The 400 added an additional fin, under the tail, to achieve certification to 25,000'. It had to recover at all of its certified altitudes with normal spin recovery inputs.

The 350 recovers from spins with normal recovery inputs. It isn't certified as high.

The 400 has a larger elevator than the 350. The 350 tends to run out of nose-up authority a little sooner as airspeed decays. I think that may have also been a factor in adding the additional fin on the 400.



Look at the attached images. The 400 has the strake on the bottom of the tail, the 350 does not.

Maybe rudder is same size at top attach point. Definitely longer forward to aft as it goes down.

Elevator definitely loses authority when flying alone and getting a bit slow just before landing.

Easy peasy fix: case of water in baggage compartment to move cg back a bit and carry a hair of power into landing. I do miss lil blue.

Back to Ascend,
I get wanting a flat floor in a Global 8000 or G650 where there is ample headroom.
Can not understand why someone would want a flat floor and duck walk into seat and to LAV vs a drop floor.

I’m not a Columbia expert, so I asked Lance Neibauer. Just shared what he told me.

On the flat floor, it’s a huge difference. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been on a trip riding in the back. Even the Beechjet, as small as it is, is much more comfortable than the dropped floor.

Simply put, you walk down an isle for seconds to sit for hours, when you are sitting the flat floor and where you can place your feet is much more important.

That few inches looks good on paper, after that… it’s not beneficial.

I still can't help but chuckle at the possible phonetics of "Ascend". Just really matters where you put the stress on the syllables.

Curious choice of names...

I guess Textron was confident that we would stress the ass-end syllable of Ascend.

Cabin on xls is big and feels better by miles than cj or phenom, even with aisle.

I sat in a pc24. I didn’t think it felt much different than p300. Both feel small relative to xls.

I would give up the aisle in Piaggio if I could put fuel in there . Cabin would still be wider than xls ….

This seems to be a reason to bring out the Ascend, good to have competition.

Embraer Supplants Cessna for the Title of Most-Flown Private Jet in America
https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/embraer-phenom-300-now-most-flown-private-jet-us-1234887689/

Robbreport, really? This is an pilot aviation forum

Bloomberg requires an account to read their news. I have enough accounts to just read news.

Guess there's a market after all.

https://investor.textron.com/news/news- ... fault.aspx

WICHITA, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Textron Aviation and NetJets® today announced a record-breaking fleet agreement for the option for NetJets to purchase up to 1,500 additional Cessna Citation business jets over the next 15 years. This agreement extends NetJets’ existing fleet agreement, and includes options for an increasing number of aircraft each year, enabling NetJets to expand its fleet with Cessna Citation Ascend, Citation Latitude and Citation Longitude aircraft. Equally exciting is the announcement that NetJets has been named the fleet launch customer for Textron Aviation’s newest jet — the Citation Ascend. Deliveries of the Citation Ascend are expected to begin in 2025 when the aircraft, currently under development, is expected to enter into service...

It is incredible how may jets NetJets is buying, last time I was at the factory they said about 2 out of 3 Latitudes and Longitudes going down the line were for them.

I haven't been able to figure out what the Assend is supposed to compete with... I guess it doesn't have to compete with anything.

Sounds like it was made to order for NetJets. They must have identified a need in between a P300 and Sovereign/Latitiude. I'm sure the Ascend is a lot less to operate than a Sovereign/Latitude if you don't need the range.

Having flown on both the Phenom 300 and the Latitude, the flat floor makes a measurable difference on cabin comfort, in my opinion.

When I stretch out my legs, one isn't dangling 6" lower than the other or stuck to a narrow elevated side.
When I get up to walk, my feet aren't stuck having to go be straight ahead. And when you do want to turn around (like returning to your seat after getting a snack) it doesn't get stuck when you try to pivot.

I will take the flat floor over less head room any day. I also believe the Ascend will have a wider cabin over the Phenom. Certification is expensive to amortize over a couple hundred airframes. Might as well start with what you have, to reduce development cost.

A wise man once said "It takes 20 seconds to walk to the seat you're going to sit in for four hours."