Todos
← Back to Squawk list
Cessna Skycatcher - According to Cessna they have no plans
Seems to me Cessna would have been better off lobbying for the C-150 and C-152's to be ruled into the LSA category versus spending the funds to manufacture the 162 (www.avweb.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I spoke with a couple of mechanics who worked on them for a flight school. They unceremoniously referred to the Skycatcher as "junk".
does it sound like Scott Ernest is only interested in Cessna's jet business? No real answers about how the 162 line could work, and no discussion about the Jet A piston line.
that's where the money is. For now...
The American business model these days only works on high-ticket items. There is no profit (none, I repeat none) in low-quantity, consumer-grade anything. Especially if it's made by American workers. The prez was just being straight-up business honest. Such is life. With the current FAA thumbscrews, a litigious society, continuing high-wages, and a thorough lack of interest by the Xbox generation, it's pretty amazing Cessna exists at all.
150 and 152 proven planes should be in lsa class. I know a bank that did not want to make small loans and went broke. Cessna needs to make the small planes to teach people to fly and love air planes so they will have more people to fly and buy planes. Every one started someplace.
Cessna missed the point of an LSA. The Light Sport market was to create an inexpensive means to own an aircraft. Why would any one by a 162 for that price when there are hundreds of LSA aircraft out there for under 30K. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that one out, just talk to any red blooded GA pilot.
Cessna's effort toward a diesel engine won't go far. I spent a significant amount of time talking with the Continental guys at Fort Worth. Their diesel engine is far superior than the gizmo Lycoming is creating from scratch. It was already proved with great success in the DA-42 before the original manufacturer's owner killed the company.
Throw in the fact those engines started out being headed for a Mercedes and it's obvious the Continental powerplant has great potential for replacing gas engines, especially at schools.
The downside is those engines will never make it into a Cessna glass panel bird. Garmin won't revise the software for monitoring the engine without Cessna's blessing and Cessna isn't giving it. One could call that a Textron conspiracy. They want the Lycoming engine even if it is inferior.
Throw in the fact those engines started out being headed for a Mercedes and it's obvious the Continental powerplant has great potential for replacing gas engines, especially at schools.
The downside is those engines will never make it into a Cessna glass panel bird. Garmin won't revise the software for monitoring the engine without Cessna's blessing and Cessna isn't giving it. One could call that a Textron conspiracy. They want the Lycoming engine even if it is inferior.