A sad day for Eclipse

[byork 2,259]

Eclipse just went Chapter 7 (liquidation)This is a sad day as a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on this.Did anyone ever make an Eclipse 500 for FS?Cheers,

[michal 44]

Yeah, if the only life line for Eclipse was some Russian bank which itself had to be bailed out because of bankruptcy - that did not bode well for the Eclipse project.The editor of the FLYING magazine wrote a great editorial about this whole debacle. It is worth reading, it has some big lessons industry should derive from this.I wonder what it means to current Eclipse operators. There are over 200 of those planes out there .... what will happen to the value of their aircraft, will they avionics ever be fixed, etc.

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Yeah, if the only life line for Eclipse was some Russian bank which itself had to be bailed out because of bankruptcy - that did not bode well for the Eclipse project.The editor of the FLYING magazine wrote a great editorial about this whole debacle. It is worth reading, it has some big lessons industry should derive from this.I wonder what it means to current Eclipse operators. There are over 200 of those planes out there .... what will happen to the value of their aircraft, will they avionics ever be fixed, etc.

I would be dumping mine so quick.I think I would have dumped mine right when they handed me the keys.

[michal 44]

I think I would have dumped mine right when they handed me the keys.

That would be smart, or even smarter never take delivery and absorb loss of the deposit (around $150,000). There are people selling Eclipses on controller.com and some of those ads look strange - some are selling airplanes not yet built, one guy is askingonly $25,000 over the deposit, whatever it means. All planes that were actually built (S/N below 260) have very few hours on them but prices vary widely, makes you wonderwhat is going on.

[michal 44]

I will only add this that I just found on the web:Company insiders also believe the FAA will move quickly to ground the entire Eclipse 500 fleet because no entity will exist to support the Type Certificate.That begs the question - could they get back to flying under "experimental" certificate? Anyone knows if this is possible?

[michal 44]

Eclipse Heads Into Chapter 7 LiquidationDear Eclipse 500 Owner,As you must be aware, Eclipse Aircraft Corporation has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the last two months. In the last few days events have unfolded that will take the company into Chapter 7 liquidation.The future utility and value of our aircraft is now in serious jeopardy. If we as owners do not take control of these events, we risk having our planes grounded, become unserviceable, and ultimately become worthless. We can no longer rely on someone else.The only way the owners can be assured of the continued use of their aircraft is to come together as a group and as a group participate in the creation of a successor organization that will have full control of the serviceability, modification, and long term reliability of our airplanes.Today there are a number of outside entities that are

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Eclipse just went Chapter 7 (liquidation)This is a sad day as a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on this.Did anyone ever make an Eclipse 500 for FS?Cheers,

I helped make an Eclipse 500 using FSDS 2--nothing too fancy, but it did have a virtual cockpit and cabin. Dave Eckert lended an old model, I upgraded it to reflect the changes Eclipse made midway through development of their aircraft. I believe my Eclipse is still available at Flightsim.com. I have thought about updating it for FS-X, but given the demise of Eclipse I probably won't. I feel sorry for both the people losing their deposits, and for those who own Eclipse jets--there are about 100 or so flying now, I believe. I think Eclipse placed a lot of their "eggs in one basket" so to speak on the Dayjet contract. When Dayjet went down, I felt Eclipse was doomed at that point. No one can plan to run a business on a "best case scenario". When they went from a planned 100's of aircraft a year to a trickle, that was it.There's a couple of other Eclipse knockoffs for MSFS. One did not resemble the real Eclipse in size--it was bigger, had more seats, but it had the general shape of the Eclipse. The other was a payware aircraft and it was not sold as an "Eclipse 500" since Eclipse did not want their name associated with payware projects, or at least I understood it that way. The payware project looked quite nice, but if I were going for a VLJ simulation (and could afford to buy it), I'd go with the Flight1 Mustang instead now. They have the best staff, best designs, and best attitude IMHO in payware today. The Mustang's probably my next payware purchase after I pay off the new system :) So expect my Flight1 Mustang screenshots, 3rd qtr, 2011. Regards,JohnEdit: An inquiry on the FAA's database shows 264 Eclipse jets registered.

[michal 44]

Edit: An inquiry on the FAA's database shows 264 Eclipse jets registered.

Actually customers received keys and were able to take possession of 259 Eclipse jets.The S/N 260 was fully paid for and ready to be picked up in the morning of the bankruptcy declaration in November. The customer received the keys with the bill of sale but was then not allowed by security people to leave with the jet, you can only imagine his anger. He filed a separate lawsuit against the company.

[n4gix 4,947]

Actually customers received keys and were able to take possession of 259 Eclipse jets.The S/N 260 was fully paid for and ready to be picked up in the morning of the bankruptcy declaration in November. The customer received the keys with the bill of sale but was then not allowed by security people to leave with the jet, you can only imagine his anger. He filed a separate lawsuit against the company.

If it was in fact fully paid for, then security had absolutely NO justification in preventing the owner's departure with the aircraft. Period. Aside from the civil litigation, this would be a case for criminal prosecution: Grand Theft Aircraft... :(I've googled a bit and found this very interesting blog:http://eclipseaviationcritic.blogspot.com/...th-eclipse.htmlIn one of the site owner's replies to comments, he wrote this interesting observation:"3. Yes, there are a lot of shaky start-ups out there. But IMO, only Vern Raburn has a well organized propaganda campaign who in concert with cooperative media types (like Capt Zoom) intends to issue a google size IPO and let John Q. Public in on the greatest aviation scam in the world."

[mgh 89]

If it was in fact fully paid for, then security had absolutely NO justification in preventing the owner's departure with the aircraft. Period. Aside from the civil litigation, this would be a case for criminal prosecution: Grand Theft Aircraft... :(

That's not necessarily the case. Generally when a company folds, customers who have paid for goods which have not yet been delivered don't get them. They remain assets of the company. The customers become creditors of the company and take their chance with other creditors. They are treated as having made an unsecured loan to the company, and will rank after those creditors who have secured loans.http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/sto...tml?jst=b_ln_hl

[michal 44]

mgh is probably correct above.Father Bill - the bankruptcy judge ordered Eclipse Aviation to maintain and insure jet #260 and was supposed to rule later on its fate when Chapter 11 went through, the judge was also supposed to rule later on deposits made by Eclipse 400 customers - their money was once promised to be held in escrow (turned out to be another lie by Eclipse). Now with the Chapter 7 coming who knows what's going to happen and and what will be the fate of #260.I do however have little pity for Eclipse 400 customers. To give money to a company that was visibly going under, with all the lawsuit left and right filed against them for unreturned deposits and failing to deliver their first product (500) in the shape promised by the contract you have to be a real roulette player.Yeah, that blogspot is a phenomenal source of info.

[n4gix 4,947]

Thanks for the clarifications, both of you... ;)Considering that the quote from that blog was made in 2006, I can only conclude that anyone placing a deposit at any later date is guilty of not having done due diligence (i.e., they didn't do their homework!)......in that respect alone, I'll agree that there's little justification for pity. :(

[michal 44]

Found this very interesting and very fresh article on legacy of the Eclipse jet.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...6gJXjgD96LEOR00And this quote from its founder Vern Raburn:Raburn said what sunk Eclipse was "gross mismanagement" of the company's inventory, which ate up cash, and its inability to finish the aircraft. For example, the jets lack equipment that allows them to fly in wintry weather.Mismanagement of the inventory? He probably means cash and manpower?. And wasn't he as CEO for over 8 years directly responsible that such mismanagement never occurred?. This admission sounds very strange. Also he blames dishonest and inefficient "aerospace supply chains" yet as is pointed out the same supply chains work just fine for others.