Aircraft Now In Service At ERAU, And There's A New Training Video From King Schools

Cessna has announced several developments for the Model 162 Skycatcher, led by the availability of Garmin’s pathways guidance capability for the G300 avionics suite.

Pathways brings G1000-like features to Cessna’s light sport aircraft. The synthetic vision feature simplifies navigation by displaying a three-dimensional, perspective view of the flight path on the primary flight display. Enroute legs are displayed as a series of outlined windows, making it easy for pilots to follow the highway in the sky. This new feature will be standard by the end of the year with retrofit availability to follow.

Cessna has received approximately 100 Skycatchers from Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, where fabrication and assembly take place. In conjunction with its reassembly site at Yingling Aviation in Wichita, KS, Cessna has delivered some 45 Skycatchers to customers.

One customer who has taken delivery is Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The school’s flight teams on the Prescott, AZ, and Daytona Beach, FL, campuses are the first to compete using Skycatchers. ERAU will participate in short-field and power-off landing competitions in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association Safety Conference in May.

In other program news, King Schools has released its Flying the Skycatcher DVD training program, the official pilot transition course used in Cessna Pilot Centers worldwide. The DVD program covers all the critical phases of flight as pilots fly along with John and Martha King for 25 maneuvers.

Announced in 2007, the Skycatcher features the Garmin G300 avionics suite and a Teledyne Continental O200D engine. Priced at $113,500, the two-seat, single-engine aircraft has a maximum cruise speed of 118 knots with a maximum range at 6,000 feet of 440 nautical miles. Fabrication and assembly is centered at Shenyang Aircraft Corporation in Shenyang, China. Aircraft are shipped to Cessna’s U.S. reassembly site.

FMI: www.Cessna.com