Eclipse Jet TV News Story

[On Your Six]

All i can think of is the never ending comments as passengers board my 50 seat EMB-145, with a galley and a crapper, and lament about being stuck on "one of the small ones" and "oh i hate these kind" and my personal favorite "is this thing safe?"

People already accustomed to GA flying may not scoff too much, but this rest of the traveling public would have a fit in an eclipse.

That's true, but the public seems to expect bigger airliners in most cases - they are used to 737s and A320s. If you offer a ride in a Lear 60 or Citation X, most people would be impressed despite its obvious smaller size than an E145. It's a mindset. Most people who will sign up for Dayjet (and pay the $200 initiation fee) will have already seen photos of the Eclipse - they may be mentally prepared. There still may be some initial shock when they see the size of the actual airplane, but the act of flying on a "private jet" may override their intial concerns.

Who knows? This is one big experiment and a lot of other potential air taxis are watching...

 

[RNObased]

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

Was "stuck" behind one over Colorado a month ago. The pilot was all proud of his shiny new airplane, BSing with the controller about it while at 340. This lastest about 10 mins until myself and a united 777 were coming west at 360 and 340 started to close in on him. He was soon on his way down to 280.

The thing is a road block, makes a ultra look fast also about the size of a Baron inside...

 

[Tgaug6300]

Was "stuck" behind one over Colorado a month ago. The pilot was all proud of his shiny new airplane, BSing with the controller about it while at 340. This lastest about 10 mins until myself and a united 777 were coming west at 360 and 340 started to close in on him. He was soon on his way down to 280.

The thing is a road block, makes a ultra look fast also about the size of a Baron inside...

Was that an Eclipse? it is my understanding that it is not RVSM yet?

 

[On Your Six]

Funny that nobody on this forum admits to being a Dayjet pilot. That's surprising since you generally hear from a wide variety of pilots in most operations. Do you think they have a no-talk policy?

That would be too bad because I think most of us would like to hear about this "exciting" new opertor...

 

[RNObased]

Was that an Eclipse? it is my understanding that it is not RVSM yet?

Yep, Eclipse. I thought so also, he was BSing with the controller got to hear all about the VLJ. He did get slammed down to 280 so maybe he was just up there because no one else was around.

 

[Publishers]

These things are going to be flying around in the mid twenties or lower. Most trips are one hour or under. It is those 1 hour trips that are where they really do well as an operator. RSVM not a factor for the reason above. They are training pilots as fast as they can.
300 aircraft includes the southeast but they will be opening up regions as the aircraft come. Florida which has 5 Dayports now will probably end up with 10 and that equals at least 20 aircraft just for that operation. Remember, no weekend flying. Another problem is everyone has to train in the aircraft. Tom Costello knew what he was talking about and you must remember it is for the general public so you are trying to find a reference the public might understand. You do not do these stories for pilots or even aviation people. The reservation software is the story here for the educated but it does not do well with the masses. They want the plane.

 

[finnjl]

What is the pay? It seems like it may be a place for the retired airline pilot to work for fun. Where money is not a problem and it is just a hobby. Not good for those of us trying to make a career out of this profession.

I made 47,000 a year as a year 3 FO at the regionals. I wonder if it will be close.

Their site advertises average pilot experience is 10000 hours. That is why i figured their are retired airline guys there.

 

[x402]

Ecplipse is laying people off and cannot produce aircraft in the manner they expected. Dayjet will be a long time waiting for a large fleet. I hope their business model will work with 1/4 of the fleet they expected.