Investors in Raburn's 'Technological Transformation' Find Much
To Celebrate
One of the more
interesting aspects of our attendance at the Eclipse Owner's
Conference was the chance to get 'up close and personal' with a
number of folks who put down some serious dollars in order to
invest in Raburn's dream. They were as varied a bunch as they were
opinionated, but after two years of occasional turmoil and
ever-intense speculation, they were (almost universally) a happy
bunch. We ran into virtually every type of flyer. We ran into
fairly new pilots (who don't scare us as much as the folks who
think they know it all...) who were aware that they have a lot of
training and experience to gather before they were going to be
flying any type of jet in a single pilot role, but were looking
forward to the capabilities the bird offered a few years hence.
Surprisingly, most of these low time pilots were very well aware
of the challenges they faced, and they seemed more then prepared to
do what was necessary to make sure that they not only learned to
fly their aircraft, but also prepared to learn to operate in an
increasingly complex airspace system. As a result I was
impressed in my talks with low time private pilots who
were as conversant on RVSM as some of the high time former airline
jocks in the room. I also met a number of pilots who are currently
operating high-performance single-engine and multiengine piston
airplanes, who were looking forward to the reliability and
performance boost inherent in jet aircraft. One attendee noted that
he had learned that jet aircraft were ultimately easier to
operate than a piston, once somebody had learned the requisite jet
skills, but was leaving nothing to chance and already taking the
time to get experience in a number of turbine and jet aircraft, so
that by the time he got his Eclipse, he would have no
surprises.
The most intriguing aspect of the dozens of conversations we had
that day were the uniformly positive impressions voiced by those
with a LOT of money at risk. Eclipse buyers have developed thick
skins and a phenomenal loyalty to their airplanes after having
had to deal with a fair amount of trauma in the last two
years. There are some very smart people with money down on this
airplane... we're talking CEOs, engineers, professional pilots and
other power players in the aviation, as well as general business,
world... and I found it hard (though not impossible), to find
anyone who didn't feel very positively about their future
airplane. Of all of Vern Raburn's many miracles over the last
few years, the way that he has informed, educated, and brought
together this crew (after quite a few ups and downs), may be his
crowning achievement.
The afternoon was reserved for factory tours of both the much
publicized Friction Stir Welding facility and the increasingly busy
main plant. Eclipse staffers were everywhere, and answered
questions without reservation. Hundreds of people went through both
plants while the FSW facility was engaged in actual fabrication,
and the main plant was undertaking final assembly of several of the
first airframes. Favorite parts of the tour included a spot where
visitors could get their digital picture taken with one of the
airframes (like that of a certain fly-writer pictured below... tell
me YOU wouldn't have taken the same opportunity...), with a print
made available within minutes, the avionics test facility, and the
flight test center (which boasts some of the most extensive
telemetry this side of Boeing).
As a working test pilot who has been forced to work under some
pretty primitive conditions, I have to tell you that one of the
most impressive aspects of the Eclipse development program is the
manner in which they are conducting their flight test
protocols. They've developed an advanced telemetry and data
collection system that has no equal in this class of aircraft.
EVERYTIME their aircraft flies, it is sending data to an
Engineering Center where a cadre of talented aerodynamic and
systems engineers have the ability to observe and analyze up to
2100 aircraft parameters in real-time. Each flight collects nearly
7 GB of data, which we are told (by Eclipse), is about 10 times
more data than may be collected in traditional general aviation
aircraft development scenarios. The quality of the data is
impeccable and has impressed the heck out of a number of the FAA
personnel working closely with the program. This is also one
of the reasons that I got so excited about flying the Eclipse 500
simulator… because the sim has the benefit of working
off an extremely detailed aerodynamic model… and what I flew
electronically should be closely matched by what I hope to fly,
aerodynamically, in the not to distant future. If the actual bird
flies like the sim model, this is going to be a GREAT flyer.
Overall, it was an impressive tour and presentation... ending up
with a pleasant buffet and party just off the main office complex,
well attended by all of the senior staffers of Eclipse, including
Raburn--who was accessible to anyone who stepped up (including
pesky pain-in-the-ass journalists... the man has NO pain
threshold).
By the time the sun set, some 12 hours after the whole thing had
started, there wasn't anyone amongst the hundreds who attended who
didn't feel far better educated about the Eclipse 500. While I
think it's a pretty obvious to everyone that some daunting
obstacles have been surmounted; there are still some pretty
significant hurdles ahead of the program. However, no one said that
changing the way an industry has been running itself was going to
be easy, certainly not Raburn, and certainly not any of his senior
staff.
ANN has come to have a fairly positive opinion of this entire
program… which is certainly no secret to anyone who's been
reading us over the last few years. That opinion has come about out
of intimate knowledge of what's happening on the inside of this
program (including the painful period when certain aspects of the
program were going to hell), some extraordinarily frank talks with
Raburn and his senior staff, and watching a whole series of rumors,
innuendo, accusations, and other nasty pronouncements come and go
as the Eclipse program has overcome problem after
problem.
No one is saying this is a done deal. And were not about to
pronounce that this program is a guaranteed success. However,
there's no question that, should the Eclipse movement succeed, that
this is the kind of airplane that changes how everybody does
business thereafter... and for that reason (primarily), we're
rooting for a positive conclusion. We'd be hard-pressed to tell you
what the odds are for, or against, their success at this point, but
we're beginning to believe that the odds are about as even as
they're ever going to be... especially with the hint of news that
we expect to be reporting over the next few days and weeks. In the
meantime, though, the rumor mongers, the pundits, and the friends
and the foes, are going to have a field day, one way or another
until sometime in 2006 when (we hope), Eclipse 500s start rolling
off the production line. In the meantime, we'll keep our eyes
open, and our word processors at the ready... FAR more news to
come….