Eclipse Jet TV News Story

[rfresh]

I saw a news story about Day Jet's new Eclipse 500 VLJ's now flying 'taxi' service for them. They followed a business man who had to fly 300 miles north (in Florida) to a client site - he paid 600.00 for the trip. The camera crew flew along with him and the reporter sat in the co-pilot seat since it was empty.

Two things I noticed about the trip:

1. The cockpit seemed a lot roomier with no control wheels in front of you since they have side sticks. The glass panels looked really cool in that small cockpit.

2. The plane seemed to jump around alot - I don't know if this was due to turb or if the VLJ just gets bounced around because of its size. In any event it was not a smooth ride this time.

I guess time will tell if they can suceed in this new (VLJ) market.

Day Jet said they need *a lot* more customers like this one business man who decided it was better to fly 300 miles in a little over an hour vs driving 4 hours each way.

 

[johnsonrod]

I saw a news story about Day Jet's new Eclipse 500 VLJ's now flying 'taxi' service for them. They followed a business man who had to fly 300 miles north (in Florida) to a client site - he paid 600.00 for the trip. The camera crew flew along with him and the reporter sat in the co-pilot seat since it was empty.

Two things I noticed about the trip:

1. The cockpit seemed a lot roomier with no control wheels in front of you since they have side sticks. The glass panels looked really cool in that small cockpit.

2. The plane seemed to jump around alot - I don't know if this was due to turb or if the VLJ just gets bounced around because of its size. In any event it was not a smooth ride this time.

I guess time will tell if they can suceed in this new (VLJ) market.

Day Jet said they need *a lot* more customers like this one business man who decided it was better to fly 300 miles in a little over an hour vs driving 4 hours each way.

Look at the 135 forum - you'll find a link to that same Dayjet story on the Today Show. Pretty interesting.

 

[nomore]

Miami Center

We had a lovely evening imbibing and dining with two married controllers from Miami Center last rotation. They were on vacation. The lovely bride works traffic north and was telling us the vlj goes up to 360 and slow everything down. They have to go up so high to make any money and I don't remember exactly but they do about .52 or something. I don't see this thing lasting very long.

 

[rfresh]

.52??? I didn't realize they were *that* slow!!

 

[nomore]

Maybe

I heard her wrong, we were IMBIBING but that's what I remember. The two of 'em didn't think that thing was gonna last.

 

[johnsonrod]

Here's the Dayjet video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B150uxW7CRk&NR=1

Man, that airplane looks really small. Check it out...

 

[say again]

So flights under 2 hrs dont face airport delays??? Ahh the brilliance of some!!!!!

 

[johnsonrod]

So flights under 2 hrs dont face airport delays??? Ahh the brilliance of some!!!!!

Yeah, and it's blatantly wrong to compare an Eclipse to an "$11 million" Lear Jet with respect to price alone. Sure, some of the newer models are $11 million or more but you can easily pick up L25s and L35s for a lot less... And those older Lears would be a lot more comfortable than an Eclipse.

Can you imagine 100-200 Eclipses flying around the Southeast in the next year or two? Just imagine the delays if this thing actually succeeds... I am sure others will be deployed to new regions (maybe Midwest or Texas) for a total of 300 or so over the next couple of years. Still, 100-200 of those VLJs flying around the Southeast during busy weekdays will really add to the congestion... And more Air Taxi operations are on the way.......

 

[sweptwingz]

I sincerely wish them well. Anything that creates more pilot jobs can't be ALL bad. I hope the economics work out....I'll admit that I have some doubts.

 

[johnsonrod]

The ramp-up to 300 airplanes in 2-3 years seems a bit quick to me.