ANN Flies The Eclipse 500... and The Eclipse Lives

By ANN Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell

Pity the poor jet pilot of the not-too-distant future. Used to regaling various oh-so-impressionable sweeties with feats of derring-do, of tales wrestling those fearsome jet devils through the skies with incredible skills bequeathed to the very few whom God has looked upon with favor; we self-aggrandizing jet-jockies are about to get a wake-up call (and may never get lucky again, unless we come up with a better schtick...).

[Note to our female readers... and don't even think of telling me that those of you working in jets have never tried to impress a guy with such tales... I've seen more than a few of you do it, and the only difference is that you're usually FAR better at it than we are... damn it.]

At any rate, jet flying just got a lot easier... and (dare I say it) potentially, a lot safer. Yup, "Vern's Folly" is for real... and the dream of a modern, affordable, (much) easier-to-fly turbine transportation system is looking like it just mighta, sorta, kinda could be for real.

Gulp.

It's been an interesting week as we've made the rounds of a number of GA manufacturers to get updates on the progress of various new and fairly new aircraft development programs. But NO flight has been as eagerly anticipated as ANN's first flight in the Eclipse 500. Over the course of a few days, ANN got thoroughly briefed about what was going right, what wasn't, and had excellent access to the factory, its staff (who is turning into a force to be reckoned with) and CEO Vern Raburn -- and for the better part of two delightful hours, the youngest member of the E-500 fleet, N504EA.

We're going to have a lot to say over the next few weeks about this... but we also have to travel, do a GREAT Fly-In at Arlington and head home to pack for Oshkosh (as well as to pull off a Zero-G photo mission or two...) AND a Shuttle launch (we hope, God willing and if the bureaucrats don't blow a gasket -- Kick Ass, Eileen, we're rooting for ya!). The full flight test report and profile of the current state of the art E-500, still maturing slowly (and a bit behind schedule) warts and all, is going to be a monster and thank God we're all electronic now because if we had to print it out, the arboreal casualty stats (for the requisite paper) would scare the tree-huggers into catatonia.

But... let's hit the high points, first, and we'll get the full report out, in digestible pieces, over the next few weeks. As to the big question... how does the critter fly? Damned well. No kidding. I really enjoyed myself and became positively comfy with the bird within minutes of departure. From a strictly flight dynamics standpoint, I'd say that the Eclipse is well on it's way to being the ultimate 'jet for dummies' -- for all the guys who feared to tread in the flight levels... either because they were short a few pence, or once thought that jet flying was 'really hard or something.' More important, the Eclipse flies particularly well in a really boring kinda way... and is a hell of a lot simpler than most (possibly all) light piston twins of our acquaintance. A long time ago, Raburn told me he wanted to build a jet that was easier to fly than a Baron... and he's (so far) done just that -- by quite a bit.

Over the course of about two hours, we peaked into each corner of the envelope on a warm Albuquerque morning that was at least ISA +10 and a near full load (full of gas, Eclipse Test Pilot Terry Tomeny, yours truly -- after breakfast, God help them -- and a few racks of test gear. We worked a test profile that took us right up to the ceiling of our flight test area at 18,000 feet. The test profile included stability and control checks, basic maneuvering and performance evals, approach mode maneuvering at 85 knots with everything hanging in the breeze, throwing the gear out at all of 200 knots, engine cuts and throttle slams at 200 knots, 230 kt speed runs, steep turns up to and including 60 degrees, a half dozen take-offs and landings using a number of normal and quasi-abnormal profiles (full flap, no flap and simulated flame-outs), a pseudo-ILS to ABQ's Rwy 3 (including my amazing drunken sailor localizer performance after having to fly it using the right side PFD after tumbling the left side PFD whilst investigating steep banks/screwing around). The best part of it all is that Terry is NOT a stick hog (a brave man, a USAF veteran no less), having let me play PIC with nary a hint of interference (a well-insured man, no doubt) while I did my best to scare the bejesus out of him for nearly two full hours with the exception of one flawlessly executed SFO that HE demo'ed just so that folks down below could see that the aircraft really was under the control of a pilot who knew what he was doing. There was more... but you get the idea.

The upshot of all this is that the Eclipse legitimately presents itself as a novel transportation system that is truly much easier to fly and manage than most light (piston) twins and certainly any light twin carrying pressurization and/or known icing capability.

One simple example... remember all that macho crap about jet starting procedures? Spool this up, monitor that, turn fuel on here, and try not to blow things all to hell (especially you jet warbird drivers... and you KNOW who you are)? Well, Eclipse spoils that, too. There are two three-position switches on the center overhead panel staring you in the face... one for each engine. To start a PW610F, you turn the switch to On/Start and then sit back and look useless (a skill that I have mastered like no other person in the world, let me tell you -- I AM SO qualified for this airplane...) while the FADEC does it all. The worst part of this is the eventual shutdown procedure... where you rotate the switch to "Off" and wait for the quiet. The shame, the shame.... I may never be able to wear my "Macho Jet Pilot" T-Shirt ever again. The whole airplane (where possible) is being designed for such simplicity.

Overall handling is obedient and agile but eschews the kind of sensitivity that gets nervous novices into all kinds of trouble, the PW610Fs are about as easy to operate as anything ever built with a throttle (and perform magnificently), fuel burns are equally impressive (your wallet is about to get a much-needed break), visibility is good and occasionally very good, low-speed behavior is docile, and (so far) devoid of perceptible threat, the bird holds energy well and sheds it in a pretty modest fashion, and the take-offs and landings are easily some of the easiest I've undertaken with a bird with real live jet engines attached.

Mind you, this is so darned EARLY in the flight test program and there is SO much more work yet to be done -- a lot of the systems that we flew were yet incomplete, not ready for prime-time (and occasionally hiccuping--which is a BIG part of flight test, no kidding), or just getting finished up... but that disturbs the bird not a whit. The thing I like best is that if all does go to hell, the E-500 is a surprisingly docile stick and rudder flyer, all by its lonesome, that should not overtly task anyone currently competent in flying any of the new generation of high-performance single engine airplanes, much less a multi. If all of technology's wonders take a dive, the Eclipse has enough battery power to give you basic info for a half hour or so, the FADEC locks in at the last 'safe' configuration, the gear will free fall with a vengeance and there ain't a hydraulically controlled bone in the beasties whole bod (unless you count brakes). In other words, while the bird is packed with the latest and greatest of techno-goodies, their criticality to safety of (basic) flight is not much of an issue. At the same time, the core of the Eclipse's "brain," Avidyne's AVIO shows immense promise as a tool for simplifying aircraft and flight management -- but good grief, what a huge piece of engineering R&D this is going to take to complete... especially, in time for certification. 

There's more... so much more, and my test flight data summary is already showing a count of 5000 words (that joke I use about being a future mini-series is for real, this time, folks)... and I'm at a quandary as to how to properly sum it all up outside of the fact that I really liked what I saw... before launching into my usual verbose quantitative and qualitative comedy show. At the same time, something really neat happened here. While I am more aware than ever of a number of major obstacles staring Vern's troops in the face (and yes, we're going to get into ALL that, I promise), and the fact that certification is possibly the least (sit back down, I'm NOT kidding) of his real challenges for the future, I have to say that the bird, itself, is on the right track and that I haven't had this much fun since learning about what you can get away with in a High School closet with Renetta V when the homeroom teacher is out to lunch.

The current short/sweet eval? In terms of handling qualities, the Eclipse 500 is already delivering pretty much of what Vern promised... In terms of performance, I see excellent progress on speeds, some real progress on drag reduction issues, a good start on giving the airframe a needed diet, and workable programs to solve remaining tech issues with the aircraft's development. At the same time, any vendor or tech partner can throw a monkey wrench into the works at any time... so the whole program is not exactly a sure thing -- but an incredible balancing act involving exceptional management, foresight, and planning. An amazing collection of things have gone pretty much right up til now (with the big exception of the Williams issue) -- but far more (potentially) threatening issues remain in the offing. This is turning into a tremendously fascinating but complex story... one that promises, one way or another, to turn GA on its ear.

Stay tuned... solid data/background/analysis coming your way shortly -- as soon as my brain clears and the grins subside. Today was a cool day....

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com