The invisible aeroplane

Anyone know what's happening with the Skycatcher? In terms of orders, it's in high-speed cruise, in terms of deliveries it's just about limping away from the hangar.

As I understand it, there have been just eight deliveries so far. Most of those have gone to Cessna employees, or those close... so what gives?

The official line is that the aircraft are being shipped to Wichita for assembly and modification by Yingling Aviation. That's true, but how come only eight have been delivered? Wichita has thousands of skilled unemployed aerospace workers, so presumably there's not a resource issue. Cessna has over a thousand orders, so there's not a demand issue...

There are of course rumours, none of which I've been able to confirm. I've heard that the factory in China is struggling to make acceptable quality aeroplanes, I've heard that Cessna is not at all happy with the Chinese for various reasons, I've even heard that the Chinese have an aeroplane all of their own that looks just like a Skycatcher.

Anyone got any ideas?

Attitude indicator

I was hanging around a flying school recently. This particular school appeared to be modern, forward looking and well run. The instructors, students and ops staff were all friendly and helpful and the facilities were excellent.

There was of, course, a fly in the ointment and that fly worked in engineering. While I sat on my bar stool minding my own business an obviously frustrated character publicly strutted his stuff for all to see. Trying to make a sentence from the few words that made their way through the expletives, I figured that there was an issue with some paperwork. Something about logging flight time I think.

Whatever the detail, his actions suggested that it was serious - it seemed that if something wasn't entered in the right place on the right bit of paper that a wing would fall off, probably both wings actually.

He may (or may not) have had a point, but his public posturing did nothing to create a good relationship with the instructors. Who knows what the customers thought.

Aquila gets Garmin

I was at the Aquila factory last week and saw their new demonstrator.

Until now buyers have been able top chose between a traditional analogue six pack, a Flymap equipped aeroplane or one with a pair of the excellent Aspen PFD1000s.

Now buyers will also have the option of choosing the Garmin 500 too. Taking the Garmin will cost you about $5000 more than the Aspens.

Not a great ATIS

Been a bit busy recently, hence the lack of posts here...will try to do better.

I took someone for their first couple of flights in a GA aircraft a week or so ago. Things started out well - the relatively early departure meant for still smooth air, and the slightly nervous chirps from the right-hand seat served to limit my angle of bank to less than 15 degrees (yawn). We were only flying for about twenty minutes, but it was a good introduction. However...

It was early afternoon when the time came for the return trip. The air had warmed up a bit and there were black clouds on the horizon, which given that the visibility had decreased significantly wasn't that far away. After starting up I tuned the ATIS to hear the words "Thunderstorms in the vicinity" or similar. It didn't put my passenger at ease, particularly as there was a big black cloud sitting off the end of the runway.

We took off and flew through some moderate rain - not so bad that it rained inside, a favourite trick of the Cessna's, but enough to make a bit of noise. The short flight that followed was a bit bumpy, nothing outrageous, but enough for my new to GA passenger to feel a little queasy, although personally I blame the airfield lunch!

Electric future

There's lots of talk about electric aircraft and there are a couple of experimental versions flying, but while they're on the verge of making it to market they aren't there yet. The cost/performance benefit isn't there yet, but that begs the question of what will be an acceptable balance?

For starters it'll have to have two seats - the lighter weight of a single-seat machine might appeal from an engineering point of view, but the market for single-seat aircraft is about as big as their cockpits. I don't think that high speed will be too important, but lack of speed will be a bit of a dampener. 70kt is marginal, 90kt better, 100kt ideal. Range/endurance - it has to be at least a couple of hours surely? Anything less is going to be a real pain, and three-and-a-half to four hours would be ideal. Training aeroplanes will either need a quick charge or a quick change of batteries.

So, two people, for two hours, at 90kt and that, I think, is the bottom end of the acceptable range.

I've heard people predicting that in ten years we'll have four-seaters flying for four hours at a time - and if they manage that at any decent speed (120kt at least) we'll be in for some interesting times.