Eclipse 500

As a guy who spends 90% of his time above FL310, I have some different
concerns about the Eclipse and VLJ's (very light jets) in general.

Class A airspace continues to become saturated as airlines have added,
and continue to add, RJ's. Also, the success and increase of jet
fractional ownerships and corporate jets has changed the demographics of
the upper flight levels since 9-11. To make room for all this traffic,
the US has gone to RVSM, but the ATC system is STILL old fashioned in
the way they handle all this traffic and pilots that fly up there must
be very diligent! It's not the controller's fault, it's the government
and their reluctance to upgrade an antiquated system.

With the explosion of RJ's and the sad fact that the airlines flying
these aircraft are unwilling to pay their pilots a decent salary for
flying them, the experience level and hiring criteria has been greatly
reduced. The FAA, NTSB, and aircraft insurance company's are realizing
that this is causing safety concerns and has contributed low experience
in the cockpit to some recent RJ incidents. High performance aircraft
and low experienced pilots is a dangerous mix.

My concern with VLJ's is that pilots with hefty bank accounts can afford
them, but all the training in the world won't make up for the experience
they need to fly them safely. That can only be obtained one way...by
actually flying. You can fly a simulator all day for many days, but it
is no substitute for the "real" thing.

This isn't something new, we have seen this scenario from the early
years in aviation. ie. the "more money than ability" saga with piloting
airplanes. The only worse scenario is the "more money and EGO than
ability" saga. The Beechcraft Bonanza was sort of the "VLJ" of the 60's
& 70's...if you know what I mean. (even though is was / is a great
airplane)

The airlines have handled this experience problem by hiring experienced
pilots to begin with, putting these pilots through stringent training,
and then pairing them up with 1 or 2 experienced pilots in the cockpit
as they began their career. Usually a new pilot at the airlines waited
and flew as a copilot for 8-12 years before their seniority allowed them
to move up to the Captain seat. By then, they had a fair amount of
experience and were ready. Unfortunately, this won't be the case with
the VLJ revolution.

Hopefully my concerns will not bear fruit, but I am very skeptical about
this new era we about to enter with very high performance aircraft,
flown by very low performance pilots, in a very overloaded environment,
and controlled by a very old fashioned ATC system.

Best,

BJ



Neil Gould wrote:

Hi all,

I was very impressed by the article on the Eclipse 500 in the latest AOPA
magazine. After so much skepticism, criticism, and so forth, it appears
that the promised aircraft is about to be delivered. I was particularly
impressed by the description of the development process, and by the
comprehensive training program that is being created. It's nice to see
such forward-thinking being implemented in today's GA environment.

What is your reaction to this plane?

Neil