small jets

[sanford&son]

are any of you guys following the development of the coming generation of small jet aircraft (proposed standard and experimental)? the owner of my company was very interested in an eclipse, until i explained to him that we would have to own and staff two of them, just to meet our current travel needs. i am just curious how many of you are interested in this type of aircraft, and see them as indeed, being the future of general aviation? how many of you plan to seek type ratings or training in these aircraft as they become available? i am very enthusiastic that these aircraft will have a great impact on general aviation, but i am uncertain as to the degree. your thoughts_____?
-Lamont Sanford

 

[avbug]

Just the latest crop of doctor and laywer killers. Most of us can't afford to own a Cessna 120, let alone buy our own personal turbojet. Few, if any folks here, or who are flying for a living, will be in the market for these aircraft.

People will seek and get typed in whatever they can get employed in.

Personally, I don't see anything exciting about these developments. Most of them are largely smoke and mirrors, with a lot of dishonesty and misdirection going on in order to keep themselves afloat.

 

[chawbein]

How optimistic!!

 

[Rick1128]

While the new small jets signal a move into more interesting times in this industry, I believe that many of them will as avbug stated become the new crop of doctor and lawyer killers. Which in the case of lawyers may not be a really bad thing. Also happening at the same time is the trend of smaller turbo prop aircraft. The real movement here is the movement toward smaller, lighter and more reliable engines. And that is good.

Unfortunately, the FAA is not keeping up with the advances in airframes, engines and avionics. And I mean regulatory. Many of the equipment regs are from the 50's, 60's and early 70's. They are outdated and need drastic changes.

As for getting typed. I do not plan on spending my own funds to get typed on those aircraft. That could change, but I doubt it.

As for needing two aircraft for your operation. Sometimes it is better to have two small aircraft than one larger one.

 

[sanford&son]

that's it for me...

that's where the excitement is for me, small and lighter powerplants. i have yet to see a design that fits my operation, but the advent of these types of technology is in my opinion, promising. i don't plan on spending an cash on training for this type of thing either, at present, but you never know what might happen tomorrow. guess we'll just wait and see.
i'm off to see grady and esther.
-lamont

 

[TurboS7]

Car insurance for my 20 year old son is over 4 grand a year. Let's see what would it cost to insure him in his own private 450mph jet.

 

[501261]

Here's what I think the problem is going to be with the Eclipse and the other new jets. Certification!

As anybody from the EAA can tell you its not very hard to get build an airplane and make it fly.

As anybody that regularly deals with the FAA can tell you it's a whole other story to get something certified. Just look at the SJ30 for example; I think the first prototype flew over 10 years ago!

There are just too many little things that need to be done to the FAA's satisfaction, that Eclipse can’t do it for $875,000. Just off the top of my head (since another thread was talking about bird strikes) just think about how you certify that the windshield is not going to break when hit by a bird? Well, everybody knows you take a dead, thawed (not frozen) chicken and shoot it out of a cannon at 300+knts and hope that the windshield doesn't break. Well, where do you get the chicken-shooting cannon from? I'm sure Cessna is not going to lend them theirs!

Now the windshield example is just a for instance, but just think how much fun it must be to try and get an airplane CERTIFIED by the FAA.

AS far as getting typed in one, sure if someone wants to pay me $$$ to go fly one. However I doubt that too many professional pilots will be flying them, as avbug eloquently said their just the next generation of doctor and lawyer killers.

 

[ShawnC]

Car insurance for my 20 year old son is over 4 grand a year. Let's see what would it cost to insure him in his own private 450mph jet.

Yikes, how many accidents has he gotten into? I only pay $2 ground a year for my old BMW.

 

[TurboS7]

He rolled the family van a couple of years ago. I got it down to 2400per year by going to the absolute minimums and $1000.00 deductable. I had to put him on the family policy with me as the principle otherwise it was going to be 4 grand with stand alone insurance. Broward county is one of the highest places to get insurance in the US.