Even if start-up air taxi DayJet had its critical launch mass of 10 Eclipse 500 very light jets today, dependable and economical on-demand charter work for the company might be a few months premature. Issues with several key subsystems or components, including the pitot static system, cockpit avionics and windows, have hobbled early users.
Most incapacitating has been an airworthiness directive issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration on 27 June that prevented pilots from filing and flying instrument flight plans, a standard procedure for making schedule when clouds and weather limit visibility to less than 4.8km (2.6nm) or cloud ceilings to less than 1,000ft (300m).
The issue began after ice in the innards of the system was found in several test aircraft, causing the loss of primary airspeed, stall speed caution, over-speed warnings and autopilot operations. The FAA in response had banned the VLJ from instrument flight rules conditions to prevent the possibility of moisture (from clouds) accumulating in the system, and limited flight to daytime-only to help prevent inadvertent encounters with clouds. The FAA, in the AD, said its concerns were "heightened by the aerodynamic characteristics" of the aircraft, "which relies on the stall warning and the stick pusher to alert the pilot prior to the loss of aircraft control".
Mike Press, the first Eclipse 500 pilot/owner to graduate from the Eclipse type rating course, is not overly concerned. He says Eclipse pilots are taught to initiate stall recovery procedures at "first indication" of a stall, which could come from an audible stall warning horn, a stick "pusher" or, worst case, by a buffeting feel that precedes loss of lift on the wing. "In all cases, you recover at the first indication of a stall," he says. Press is owner of the fourth production aircraft and also a seller of Eclipse 500s on the secondary market. He was scheduled to receive the pitot system fixes last week.
Eclipse now reports that it has completed the FAA certification of the pitot system fix, which will be installed in the deployed fleet within 60 days.
Customers also have a few more months to wait for a fully functional cockpit. Eclipse says it plans to begin installing the Avio NG integrated cockpit, a replacement for the Avidyne-built Avio total integration package, into production-line aircraft from serial number 100 around September. Retrofits to the existing fleet, however, will happen until year-end. Eclipse and Avidyne parted company earlier this year.
Avio NG features primary flight and multifunctional displays built by Innovative Solutions and Support (IS&S) a flight management system built by Chelton Garmin GTX 33 and GTX 33D transponders Honeywell Primus Apex KTR 2280 digital radios and a PS Engineering PMA500 audio control panel.
The new panel will allow functionality for the first time of the aircraft's moving map navigation system, satellite weather, collision and terrain alerting, options that were not integrated into the current Avio cockpit display system (Press says he was given a Garmin GPS 496 portable GPS unit with satellite weather for the interim). IS&S plans to show off a prototype of the system at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual gathering in Oshkosh later this month.
Life limits on windscreens due to fatigue cracks in the outer layer of glass in the cockpit windows will also add maintenance hours and costs in the near term. Currently, the two front windscreens must be inspected every 50 flights and replaced every 100 flights the side windows replaced every 250 flights. Under a design change the company began certificating last month, the non-intrusive inspection interval will be increased to 300 flights for both sets of windows and 1,500 flights and 600 flight for replacement of the front and side windows, respectively. Eclipse says the fix will be available for retrofit by the end of July.
DayJet had originally expected to launch service with 12 aircraft between five DayPorts in Florida last November, a date then pushed forward to March as it waited for Eclipse to obtain its production certificate, accomplished in late April. The company has said it will launch the service when it receives 10 aircraft, but has not speculated when that might be.
Source: Flight International
