I put down my 400 hour Eclipse due to lack of company support. Very sad day. Goodbye old friend, I will miss you

Sad.

Tell us more.

A guy in the hangar next to me has just bought another of these first gen eclipses. He's optimistic that a solution is coming.
For your sake I hope he's wrong... For his I'm praying he's right.

I know that plane (serial #32). Original owner is a friend. I've got a couple hours left seat in her. Sad. :(

Eclipse has chosen not to support 1.0 and 1.3 versions of the Eclipse. There is no avionics, probes, autopilot servos or 10 year life extension available. If you buy a 1.0 you will 100% have a pumpkin in 2017. I elected to sell the motors and part her out while I could. Basically, if something broke, you were going to be grounded without support. The original Eclipse was certified with a 10 year life limit and my bird was not eligible for the paperwork to increase that.

Awful. I flew her over 150 hours last year all over the country and made a lot of good memories. She was in flawless cosmetic and mechanical shape when I put her down.

Buying an early Eclipse is foolish at this point unless you are getting it for the price of the engines (which is what I did!).

Mr. Leadbetter right? He took beautiful care of her. Meticulous! Despite its quirks, it was the best plane I've ever owned and possibly the best year of my life traveling with her. Very VERY emotional to do this. But, her organs are living on. The engines are flying on a famous movie star's plane and her other parts are going to support a fleet of 3 1.0s flying in Texas.

You're probably talking of Tim Cappelli? I've got quite a few hours in N???VW. He has other intentions and is very bright so I think he will be OK.

Mr. Leadbetter right? He took beautiful care of her. Meticulous! Despite its quirks, it was the best plane I've ever owned and possibly the best year of my life traveling with her. Very VERY emotional to do this. But, her organs are living on. The engines are flying on a famous movie star's plane and her other parts are going to support a fleet of 3 1.0s flying in Texas.

Sad indeed; Sir, sorry to see that happen....

Yep, that's him. Glad N80TF was an organ donor and lives on.[/quote]

Leadbetter made a very cool bracket to attach Baron Rosen visors to the airplane to get around the $18,000 that Eclipse wanted for there sun visors. The bracket with 2 wing nuts looked like it cost $10 and 2 hours in the shop. Very clever solution! Original Eclipse came with tinted sticky film as visors; ridiculous!

Hi Michael,

Sorry to see but glad you shared the story - we are trying to breath life back into a Duke - time will tell.

Ken

Hi Michael,

Sorry to see but glad you shared the story - we are trying to breath life back into a Duke - time will tell.

Ken

Ultimately all these planes are just machines but the memories they make is what brings them to life and makes them family. I've had a personal connection with all of my airplanes and feel a responsibility to take care of them as they have me.

Parting out the Eclipse was a mega defeat brought about by the financial reality of supporting a plane that could no longer be supported.

Sad... Shame on Eclipse, hard to understand how anyone could buy one after treating the original customers this way. How hard could extending the 10 year limit be?

a 2 hour corrosion inspection when doing the 48th month inspection.

But, without grounding all the 1.0 Eclipses then how could the company buy all the $500K 1.0s and convert them to "Eclipse SEs" and sell them for $2.3 million?

It's a total scheme to steal all the cheap airplanes and sell them refurbished. BS.