Test flight - Eclipse 500 Jet

[modelleg]

All that glass in the cockpit and he still has the Garmin sitting on the dash.

[MrAirbuster57]

could you fly this plane with 1 pilot?

[OWHSsoccer07]

yoke or sidestick?

[JayPattersonTV]

@OWHSsoccer07 yoke

[apriliakawasuzuki]

That's what I need, just looking for some small change ....

[zintoit]

Critique:

1) Ok im back.. the Cirrus SF50 has "MUCH" more space than the eclipse. And no doubt better avionics.

Dear Eclipse, you better get with it cause the Cirrus SF50 beats your aircraft hands down.

[djasperSR22]

@zintoit : Cirrus SF50 is still 3 years away from production... This means that they will be way to late in entering the market.

Some counterfacts:

Speed eclipse 370 kts, cirrus 300 kts

Ceiling ecilpse 41.000ft, cirrus only 25.000ft => serious downside

Eclipse has 2 engines, cirrus only one (a lot more safe to have 2, don't you think?)

Fuel flow is lower then all other VLJ

I'm also a big fan of the cirrus jet, especially from the interior. Fact is that we all have to wait for 3 more years

[brucejr1234567]

@djasperSR22 no i think 1 engine is safer,..........

[yamahonkawazuki]

@brucejr1234567 but if 1 engine jet and 1 fails ;). 2 would be nice. but i hear these ppl went bankrupt. hell idk who did or did not

[Igberunrun]

@brucejr1234567 Really? Really?

[brucejr1234567]

@Igberunrun omg!! joke much!!!??

[brucejr1234567]

@djasperSR22 less fuel burn

[Pum0a]

@djasperSR22 All that is true, but you dont mention that Cirrus SF50 is FAR less expensive than Eclipse 500: 1.72 vs. 2.15 millions $

[zintoit]

Critique:

1) It seems this eclipse is more solidly built than its dubious but current competition cessna "bucket of bolts and way too expensive" mustang - that is, until the Cirrus SF50 comes out. From the looks of things I think the Cirrus is roomier.. as it is, I would wait for the Cirrus to come out before buying either aircraft. Strangely though, the (build it yourself) lancair "turbo prop" is faster than either one of these "jets".

[zintoit]

Additional Critique:

The cockpit is cramped to the max. I can already hear it.. "uh dude.. do you mind removing your arm from on top of mine please." then "do you like me dude.. cause you keep rubbing my arm and you know... do you wanna kiss me?" lol

"Say.. where are we?" ... "Gee, I dont know either"... "lets ask center"... "Center.. where the F are we?... you dont know either??? well thanks. Lot of good you are."

LMAO

[zintoit]

Critique:

1) The Door is poorly designed on this aircraft.. The handle should be recessed at the very least. You hit it with your knee and byebye.

2) Did I miss something? Where are the gps maps on the mcu? Very poor situational awareness. Oh i get it.. the copilots pfd turns into a map display uh huh.

3) Is this a warm-weather jet? No info on surface heating over the wing surfaces.

4) No info on how control surfaces are operated.

Otherwise.. this is a bitchin airplane.

[zanfozanfani]

@zintoit YES YES .... but you'd have it! This is the story of the fox does not reach the grapes and then says it's bad.

[PRIVATEFBI]

SAFEST PLANE IN THE WORLD

[tot173]

sucks they are crap and went out of business

[desiang1]

@tot173 someone brought the company back : )

[1whiteiphone]

just out of curiosity, what is the startin price on one of these little puppies

[futurepilot764]

I don't know to much about the new technology in the newer aircraft but is this the G1000?

[cupcakekevin277]

ive heard some pretty bad things about the eclipse jets... anyone want to eleborate on this for me?

[billace90]

1.3 million? Nah, I'll just keep my G5. In my desk of course.

[rcacad]

tiny ass little rice burner airplane, all it needs is some gay stickers and a fart can muffeler.

[11222sweety]

Cocpit, wie in einem Sportwagen.Super!!!

[rjpilot]

PFDs are bigger than the darn windows.

[rapcirurgia]

so much noise.i'll think this is unconfortable, mustang looks like better un this detail, or not?

[azmab]

Who was the intended market? Or did they just build it only to find there was no niche market to sell into? Those that could afford it would prefer to own an airplane that can COMFORTABLY carry passengers.

[marick626]

170kts in a climb? a bit far off from the DA20 I fly. I need to be on a steep descent with a 30kt tail wind to get that fast and the wings would fall off.

[joe69rocket]

i love it so much i bought the company! lol jk

[juanca8a]

I love this airplane and the cessna citation mustang too, but this its so faster than the other one

[posseidonnnn]

Price knows somebody?

[cloudbook1994]

1.3 million

[maxalberta]

great airplane!!!

[schwarrow]

Can on pilot fly this plane or it always have to be 2 pilots?

[arby321]

the citation mustang is better

[malcolmry]

sold !

[malcolmry]

and now u can buy the company !

[DITMN]

i agree.. i cant imagen anybody wasting ther money on this garbage, u can get much better for the same price

[mcgra8bc]

Biggest piece of shit I have ever flown

[gulmalik]

why ?

[spicedclay]

I hope there are backups.. if you loose the monitors, looks like you are screwed!!

[aviator147]

ahhhh , new plane smell

[mtanz0]

I thought these came with an airbus type joystick, instead of control wheel.

[mcgra8bc]

they do

[BiologicalUnit2380]

Thanks for uploading this video. Been looking for descent vlj test flight vids.

[anthonycarl2020]

is eclipse jet now bankrupt?

[acsmashing]

It's such bullshit that there is a portable Garmin on the dash!

[Joey7700]

I like these small jets. although I heard there was some problems with this jet. but really what jet doesn't. pretty cool plane. =]

[fuzznoggin]

Deice boots on a jet? LOL What a piece of garbage.

[MJ142857]

Mr. fuzz... do you actually know anything about small jets? I would like to point out that many jets even larger and more expensive than Eclipse have deice boots. Just as an example the Mustang has them too.

[fuzznoggin]

I'm not a believer of "boots" on a "high performance aircraft". Sort of an archaic method of Ice removal anymore. And yes, pardon my brashness, but I do know "things" about jets....probably having more time in the "flare" than you do total time?? Hot wings for me sir.

[MJ142857]

It is not a matter what is "archaic" but what is feasible anti/deice solution for certain class of airplanes TODAY. Based on what I read about it there is no way you could have hot wings in this class of aircraft, thermodynamically impossible.

[RiderXXX]

I hope you're talking about how you like your chicken when you say "hot wings".

[fuzznoggin]

Yes sir, I like those too with an ice cold brew

[MJ142857]

Yeah, but you definitely can compare this aircraft with Citation Mustang and/or upcoming Piper Jet or even the Cirrus jet being developed. And if like some experts write that Eclipse 500 should cost around $2.5 mln. to make it a viable business it no longer is such a good deal if one start comparing its capabilities, interior space, etc. against competition. And this comical portable GPS placed on the glare shield in this video - it really speaks volumes about maturity of this design.

[dawntraderman]

I've flown a lot of expensive alloy, and in my view the (now defunct) Eclipse represented good value in a potentially exciting new market niche. You simply can't compare this tiddler with Embraer, Citations, etc. Compare it with a King Air or a high spec Chieftain. It still had wrinkles in its design, but they could easily have been ironed-out. I think it's a pity that a potentially good little 'plane landed financially well short of the threshold.

[mcgra8bc]

The eclipse 500 is the worse piece of garbage I have ever flown.

[christychackojohn]

Why  is it bad my fellow pilot?

[mcgra8bc]

Where to start...well first of all I'll give you some background. I flew the Embraer 145 for the airlines so I may be a little spoiled flying a $30mil aircraft but there are still a lot of fatal flaws with the eclipse. I think a lot of the positive comments are from Barron an Cirrus owners who have SHINY JET SYNDROME. I think they get so enamored with the JET aspect they over look the flaws. Bad radar,Vors,:no gps,fms, anti-skid, buckets, spoilers. It has very poor brakes and tires.

[christychackojohn]

Oh thanks dude.I never flew jets because i am a private pilot but looking forward to join ATP for further training.But I know the systems of jets and I am a huge fan of embraer.

[mcgra8bc]

Embraer is a great product. I have some friends who either work or have worked for ATP where are you training with them?

[norman123go]

All the people who lost their deposits - between 10% and 60%, can now look at this video and see what they almost purchased. Instead, they've lost all their money and are all SOL. All the folks that actually received an airplane no longer have a warranty and few options for maintenance and repair.

[Bagels108]

Yikes. That doesn't sound too good

truculentturtle

[jakallia]

Chapter 11- This company is toast

[MBAraujo35]

That´s a very noisy aircraft.

The cockpit looks great, but a prefer the Embraer jets.

[54spiritedwill54]

wow that glass cockpit is amazing

[v12kid]

heard the FAA is going back to review the certs it got, think these problems will be fixed?

[truculentturtle]

I'm not sold on this puppy yet. I have 47 hours already logged into one and already have experienced a number of problems. Not life threatening. I was at fl 23000 when I had a panel short. The instruments went dark but we continued on to Mesa. popping and resetting the circuit brakers. I finally was able to land without further incidents. Another time it was a yaw and damper failure all this in only 47 hours. Not a very reliable track record. I'm unimpressed really.

[R1Stunter13]

the E-500 is a P.O.S. they are always breaking and popping breakers!!!

[gaga500500500]

haha i really want to

[Tuckie]

Nice one plane!

See 3S4Dvkr-HjI for a very wild air display of this bird. :)

[Spidifredi]

This is a noisy piece of crap. This thing is far from meeting aviation standards unless the owners bribe the FAA or something.

[adl320]

I was in ABQ on Business today and stopped by the Eclipse facility just to see one up close. first off, I'm actually impressed with what they have pulled off so far. I'm sure it was to save costs, but even production aircraft are coming with a pair of Garmin 430W's instead of an integrated moving map. I fly 172s and DA-40s with G1000 avionics and TIS but came from Garmin 430/530 units. I can't imagine NOT having the situational awareness of the G1000 and TIS now. Perhaps they can update later?

[lukynumbrslevin]

Did you get into the 400? It looks like a sports car in and out personal i like more than the 500. But im not sure what they stuck in the dash. Im not trained to do the systems.

[Ardrex]

Updates: The first Eclipse 500 accident (no injuries) took place when someone landed high and fast and ran off the end of the runway. No official conclusions but I guess it would have helped if the brakes were more robust with antilock feature. Eclipse better get on the stick fast and retrofit the whole fleet.

Also looks like the company is having severe cash flow problems and will probably file for bankrupty protection with the intention of reorganizing. I'd buy Cessna Mustang instead.

[lukynumbrslevin]

they did come to a conclusion and they investigation revealed that the pilot shoved the throttle to hard it jammed up and tricked out the computers the official investigation concluded pilot error i cant remember what the other one was for but none have been to aircraft failure

[Ardrex]

Someday this plane might be great, but don't hold your breath. CEO Van Raburn has alienated nearly every vendor! Thanks to his mismanagement, the 500 has a brain dead avionics suite with no moving map, Synthetic Vision or advanced autopilot. The only good thing about Avio NG is that it is very nicely tied into the planes hardware, so you know what's working. The Garmin g1000 makes Avio look like a toy. Plus no antilock brakes so lotsa blowouts! Good luck landing on icy runways.

[dave0mary]

That's a Garmin hand held on the dash! Are you kidding me? Maybe they wanted it for back-up, but kinda chincy looking for a video.

[freddytuber]

That's exactly what is wrong this country! Futuristic turbines? What's up with that garbage? If it is not electric and solar it's NOT futuristic at all; it's plain and simple more of the old junk that didn't work. 747s are now beeing grounded because of fuel consumption - how futuristic is that! Single engine turbine - flameout - boom! Unsafe and old garbage for the last time, come up with NEW stuff we can use.

[airsharesrealviewtv]

If you want to own consider airshareselite

[donmei]

Classic pyramid scheme. Now they're selling a single engine jet. They need more cash to keep the pyramid going.

Diamond has SEVERE financial stresses as a result of their disastrous Theilert association. I feel really bad for them and the da42 buyers. At this point, I wouldnt trust a deposit with Diamond.

Nope, for me it would be a Cirrus jet if they ever produce it. Or a Cessna or Embrarier. Both know how to do volume airplane production.

[hugo747330]

It was a disaster, i work for Flight Training Adelaide who bought seven of the DA42's and the entire fleet was grounded only months after there delivery. We had two seperate incidents with engine failures and various electrical issues aswell!

[donmei]

I've poked around these airplanes at shows. They are a nice craft. The problem is the business model that Eclipse has chosen. They cant build them as fast as they wanted to. So they arent getting the efficiencies. I'll bet anyone here $100 it will go this way. Eclipse will be liquidated. Someone will buy the type cert and tooling. they will produce the jet at 3 mil and sell some and make money on it. Eclipse, the jet will live on. Eclipse the company will fail.

[donmei]

Boy, it doesnt say much for the Avio NG avionics if the demo pilot prefers to keep a garmin 296/396/496 on the glare shield!!!!!

[dragythusa]

This is my jet, I bought it in an auction off last week. It's pretty amazing. Monthly payments are a pain. I might mortgage my house so i can afford to keep it :)

[Nfarce]

Impressive. Also impressive is the apparent first flight by the left seater. It looks like a very easy aircraft to manage and fly, and I'm assuming it's single pilot certified. VLJs (very light jets) like these are going really going to increase in popularity in the future - Eclipse and their management issues or not.

[burninangels]

wow that glass cockpit is amazing

[AlanPetmonkey]

whose jet is this?

[millz311]

Demo jet - owned by Eclipse I imagine

[ConnorAlves]

This aircraft is made in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[TEXWAKE]

Sooooooooo how much will this baby set me back? I want one!

[spitfir3ace]

$1.52 mil i think.. yeah me too hah

[TEXWAKE]

wanna go halfs? haha

[austinober]

did the glass pop on you

[alex9734]

I WANT ONE :D

[uploader1010]

me 2

[JohnyCanuck796]

All that glass and the Garmin 296 on the Dash lol

[fxdwings]

Yea right...hahaha

[moud22]

They might just couldn't afford a integrated one xD

[13117531]

I saw that too. Eclipse you've got spring for a moving map. Easy for low time fly boys to get lost at 300+ knots.

[DeltaLimaCharlie]

Airliner feeling in a small jet INCREDIBLE

[rock3nrenigade]

What an amazing plane, whats the range on that sucker?

[clinton252]

around 1100 miles

[bsxtreme]

Looks are deceiving! when you buy any airplane ask to see the production Inspection logs or a serialized listing of parts installed.

Dont get me wrong Verns Idea is a great one!

Thats why I went to work for them!

The Things I saw SCARED ME and i got tired of working for what the employees have labeled as New Mexico's sweat shop!

All I am saying is VERIFY EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU ACCEPT YOUR Aircraft!!!!!!!!

[nagarjun424]

what an amazing aircraft!!!

[DrWojo8302]

Is this @ ATW?

[millz311]

sure is

[moto400ex]

Awesome plane.... Hahah at the end, "no reverse thrusters" Didnt seem like a terribly fast approach speed anyone know what some of the v speeds are?

[Mohanathas]

V speeds (aircraft) are speeds that define certain performance and limiting characteristics of an aircraft and the "V" stands for velocity. They are established by the manufacturer during design and testing, and are specific to the aircraft model, and in many cases (V1, V2, Vref, and several others) based on the current weight and balance characteristics of the individual aircraft

[moto400ex]

Im sure eclipse standardizes these speeds some how. They cant say this aircrfat will stall at 70 knots and another exlipse stalls at 71 knots.

[millz311]

I do remember that we flew the pattern a lot like you would in a Cirrus SR22 - I think we held something like 85 kts on final and 100-120 in the pattern.

[jdobbs2001]

Lol thing lands smooth as butter :)

[wrh61]

From a business standpoint Eclipse is hurting. They haven't been able to deliver like they thought. It is also known they work their people to death.

[Mohanathas]

The cockpit is too small and badly designed and not enough place for you to put your legs. The best jet is the Diamond aircraft

D-Jet, built by experience aeronautic engineers.

[millz311]

Actually, I found it pretty comfortable, and I'm fairly tall.

[DaBears6585]

Notice they had to use a handheld GPS because none of the flight planning or moving map functions work on the "next generation" avionics. Not quite worth $1.5 mil til the bugs are worked out.

[millz311]

yeah, it was kinda funny. But this is a test airplane so I think they swap avionics in/out regularly to try new things. The ones that go to customers are all decked out and ready to roll.

[ridedirtba]

I could feel my ears popping on the descent.

[1000BaseT]

Outstanding!

[Downhillskier152]

i want it...

[mikeb172sp]

Great job and that was your first landing!

[mikeb172sp]

Very nice!

[zzarnticolz]

Looks like a flight sim with wheels on

[jeff9574]

Great airplane. i need to get one of these babies

[Kaipeternicolas]

Such a great airplane. I love that cockpit!

[aaaaaras]

nice