Adam Aircraft Is Bragging About The A500's Severely Restrictive
TC... Why?
I know we've mentioned
this before, but we're a little concerned at the precedent set by
companies that claim to be certificated when the paperwork involved
is virtually worthless to the task at hand.
Take the case of the A500 that we've seen at two VERY public
venues with "FAA Certified" Emblazoned across its schnozz.
Adam Aircraft has earned a VERY limited TC for the A500... which
is WORTHLESS in terms of current production. The current TC has
extreme limits... the aircraft can only seat THREE -- the 2 forward
seats and 1 center seat on the right hand side only. No baggage
allowed. Only 180 out of 230 gallons of useable fuel are allowed. A
current airframe life time of only 250 hours. And, of course, we've
already told you about the 12,500 foot (msl) altitude limit, no
Take-offs above 10K (MSL), Day-VFR only, not to mention no icing or
ANY flight in visible moisture with temps below 40 degrees F, and a
number of other limitations.
So, you tell us -- is that "certified?"
In name only... maybe. But maybe not. As we read the
A500's Type Certificate Data Sheet, we also understand that
according to Note 3, a Standard Airworthiness Certificate can not
be issued until Adam finishes a Continued Airworthiness Document
with all airworthiness limitations. So, it appears that the A500
may not really be all that certified, after all.
If Adam was a little more forthcoming with all this, maybe by
describing their TC as a basic version and adding that much work is
yet to be done before the TC process was complete; we'd be a bit
more reserved about all this -- but we've been within earshot of
Adam staffers telling interested passersby that the A500 was "fully
certified" and that they were the only company in the VLJ business
that had a TC'ed product... which seems pretty disingenuous to our
ears.
Mind you, Adam is not the only one to pull this stunt (and yes,
we'll have more on some other such tactics shortly)... but they
certainly seem to be the least forthcoming about the facts
surrounding an early, very basic, and commercially restrictive TC
that still leaves them months (maybe a year?) away from a
significant, reasonably useful, TC that will allow them to start
serial production of what might otherwise be a pretty solid
offering, if not for the (as we see it) less than up front tactics
of the manufacturer.