I had the opportunity on New Year's Day to spend several hours with fellow BT member Andy Boniface at his hangar in Florida seeing his beautiful Eclipse Jet and getting an in depth briefing on the IFMS 2.7 and the airplane in general. Andy has owned his plane since new and has upgraded it to the current Eclipse state of the art and really knows these airplanes. Following our visit he offered to fly me in the plane a couple of different times but our timing never worked out.

So, last Friday I flew to Albuquerque for a visit to the factory and a test flight in their Eclipse 550 demonstrator. Iggy Burkhardt my sales rep, who I've talked to on and off over the last couple of years, flew from Dallas to meet me. Because I was on a tight schedule, as I wanted to return back home that afternoon, Iggy introduced me to Ken Oden one of Eclipse's instructors and we went flying.

Ken has about 1600 hours in Eclipse jets and I'm sure a huge number of hours in lots of other things. A Vietnam veteran and F4 pilot he's a hero and also a very nice guy. We set up all the avionics for our flight and then started the engines. To start the engines you turn the FADEC knob and watch the gauges. That's it. No noise. No fuss. When it was time to taxi I found that the ground handling of the plane is easy and its small size makes it feel very comfortable.

After taking off I hand flew to 13,500 feet and we did some air work including 30, 45 and 60 degree turns, climbs, descents, etc. At some point during this Ken said "by the way, I've had the right engine shut down for two minutes!" I laughed my ass off. Hadn't even noticed! No yaw. The plane is very easy to hand fly, is very comfortable in the cockpit and so quiet its unbelievable (as are the CJ1 and Mustang I recently flew). Too soon it was time to return to the airport. Unfortunately, due to some runway issues we weren't able to fly an approach and flew a VFR pattern instead. The landing was easy and non eventful. The plane is trim sensitive but not nearly as much as a Cirrus. Roll and pitch forces are a bit more than my airplane but not much though it is twice the weight. The IFMS displays are crisp, easy to read and relatively intuitive. What a fun airplane to fly!

After the flight we went through all the buildings Eclipse is building airplanes in. It reminded me somewhat of the Cirrus factory: well organized, large parts inventories, clean, neat and full of friendly employees. It definitely looks like a going concern to me. I counted over 18 airframes in one stage of construction or another. The welding machines, and the welds they produce were amazing. Some of the technology is intriguing even for an insurance guy like the engine fire suppression system which is about 5% of the size of a Citations. Everything I saw was first class.

While I was there I looked at their training facility which was very well done, much nicer than Cirrus' which is pretty great. There were 3 pilots training while I was there. All former SR22 pilots. Seeing some of the new paint designs on the planes also reminds me of Cirrus. Which it should with Alan Klapmeier now in charge. I've been reading about many of the changes he has been instituting over on the Eclipse Forum for several months so the new leadership seems to be making a difference.

After a quick lunch Iggy took me back over to Cutter and I climbed back in my Cirrus and remembered thinking while I loaded my flight plan "man this thing is loud! and it vibrates like crazy!". It wouldn't take long to get spoiled. It was a long day of flying for me. Six hours in the Cirrus and one in Eclipse.

Back home Andy and I have exchanged a bunch of emails and PMs. He's been super helpful and very informative. Thanks Andy!

Questions?

What- no pics?
You are cruel

Yeah, didn't happen...

You know I should have. I was just so busy...

You gonna buy one, the Eclipse is a drug. Let us know how it goes.

Don't know Michael. Looking at a couple other options. It's a great plane.

Per the FAA registry, it appears that only 2 newly built EA550s have been delivered to customers (SN 550-1001 and 550-1002).

The number of airframes on the assembly line don't tell you how fast they are going out the door.

Mike C.

Jingong alone committed $60 mil for 20 jets...

I am 10000% speculating but I think Jingjong actually owns Eclipse. At Oshkosh this year, there were plenty of Chinese guys in Eclipse outfits wearing solid gold Rolexes. These were not sales guys or employees, these were serious well heeled investors.

So, it is possible that Eclipse sold 20 jets to themselves?

I don't about that Michael but I asked when those jets would be delivered and was told they were waiting to get it "certified" in China. That's a head scratcher as I've read or heard nothing about China certifying airplanes.

If you're right and the Chinese own Eclipse maybe that's a good thing. They saved Cirrus and maybe Continental. The Chinese could certainly use GA and the world could use their purchases of aircraft.

It doesn't matter to me who buys Eclipse jets. I hope someone does as its a great little airplane.

join the EJOPA and start reading. It's an exciting adventure. There are some good training videos on the forum to start learning about the systems.

Thanks Michael. I've been on there and a couple others for quite a while.

Tony,
You are welcome
Yesterday I had my bird in for pit stop service. They do the engine annual service and a bunch of other stuff in a day.
I had lunch with 2 other owners and we all love the airplane for two of us it's our last plane.
Two of us commute between Florida and the NY metro on less than 200 gallons my last trip to Florida was a record for me 2 hours 26 minutes.

You can't beat it's economy or safety.

I am sure it is a great little airplane but...

I watched it start as a sub MM$ airplane and investors lined up for a position. I don't believe in Santa Claus so when it sounds too good to be true... It was cheaper to buy than a Baron. Most lost their money and those that got their position ended up with a plane that for some reason that I don't understand are essentially worthless today.

Someone on this list just recently sold their plane for parts. What is up with that? There are two Eclipses here at Sarasota that seem to just be sitting in the hangar and never move.

Could someone please explane what the problem is with Eclipse.

I believe it should state that the US government in it's idiocy killed them both with arcane rules and regs.



I'd agree with that one.

I'd go with a Cessna mustang

I believe it should state that the US government in it's idiocy killed them both with arcane rules and regs.



I'd agree with that one.

I'd go with a Cessna mustang