Cessna Skycatcher and Facebook

[Autothrust Blue]

But this topic has been beaten to death. Go have fun flying whatever you want to fly. I, personally, can't wait to get our Skycatcher.

Oh, don't get me wrong - can't wait to try it out since a lot of folks I know (and trust on matters of aeronautical judgment) rant and rave about it. I just question whether I would buy one...presuming, of course, I was well-funded enough.

 

[KSCessnaDriver]

Quoted directly from your link:

Sure, it helped, but by no means did Cessna entering the market make it take off. They sat on their hands so long, and then didn't put any real resources into the plane. Here we are 7+ years after the sport pilot rules came out, and they finally get airplanes out there. If they really thought that they could have taken the market, the plane would have been out years ago.

I just found this out when I went to the Cessna headquarters last week. There are no "FAA/PMA" parts for ASTM light sport aircraft. Nor can you fabricate a part or get field approval for it. If something breaks, the only way to fix it is to get the part from the original manufacturer.

If you can't get a part (like if the manufacturer goes belly up), you're SOL. The only way to keep the aircraft flying is to reclassify it as experimental...not exactly a viable solution for a flight school.

I'm confident Cessna will last in to the future...Remos, Tecnam, and all the other LSA manufacturers...who knows.

Yes, that's true, but the benefit of running ASTM rather than Part 23 is the much easier requirements to get the planes certified. Heck, you can probably run a company building planes as an S-LSA with a handful of employees.

And speaking of companies lasting. I wouldn't be too worried about the companies from Europe going away anytime soon. While the numbers delivered here aren't that high, they have sold these airplanes there for much long in some cases. Tecnam has been around since 1948. By no means are many of these companies inventions of the last 6 years. Heck even Remos has been around for nearly 20 years now.

But long story short, does the Skycatcher have a place? Yes. Do I think Cessna took the wrong route in designing and building the plane, yes. They gave up serious load to get an engine that is older than dirt. But hey, its their plane, they can do what they want.

 

[swisspilot]

I'm confident Cessna will last in to the future...Remos, Tecnam, and all the other LSA manufacturers...who knows.

Tecnam has been around since the end of WWII, the LSA is just a small segment of the company maybe (3-5%). Tecnam is one of the world leaders in aircraft parts, they make parts for Boeing (fuselage parts of the 787!!!!), Agusta, Bombardier, Dassault, ATR,...They are also big in military aircrafts, they produce part of the C-27 Spartan fuselage and do many components for the Aermacchi jet trainers.