|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jet-Alliance In The News |
 |
|
 |
Eclipse delivers first customer Model 500By Harry Weisberger After an extended gestation period and months of uncertainty about first delivery, Eclipse Aviation delivered its first production very light jet (VLJ). When the FAA awarded an airworthiness certificate for the first production Eclipse 500 in the closing hours of last year the Albuquerque, N.M.-based tyro airframe manufacturer immediately initiated a virtual “delivery” in which the co-owners completed the documents via fax. The aircraft registration was transferred to David Crowe (the first to place a deposit for an Eclipse 500 in 2000) and a California-based fractional ownership operation, Jet-Alliance. Crowe and Jet-Alliance CEO Randall Sanada arrived at the Eclipse plant for a formal delivery ceremony on January 4. As the first customer, the Crowe/Jet-Alliance partnership paid $995,000 for this Eclipse 500 plus $82,000 worth of optional equipment. At press time Eclipse was still awaiting its FAA production certificate, necessary for the company to issue airworthiness certificates under its manufacturing authority. Until it receives that document, FAA inspectors must process each aircraft’s airworthiness certificate. An Eclipse 500 going to an unidentified private operator was expected to be the second aircraft delivered. Eclipse 500 S/N 2 will be delivered to DayJet when the airplane has been signed off as suitably equipped for Part 135 ops. Eclipse Aviation reports a deposit-secured backlog of more than 2,500 aircraft and has a goal of building 1,000 aircraft a year (four per day) when it ramps up to full production. It plans to support that rate at a manufacturing facility expected to be completed by 2010 across the Rio Grande on the Double Eagle II Airport. Albuquerque’s Sunport International Airport is the current base for Eclipse production and administration activity.
Shareowners Lining Up Sanada said that Jet-Alliance will use its affiliate, Camarillo-based based Channel Islands Aviation, to operate the fractional and charter/management fleet under the Channel Islands Part 135 charter certificate. Channel Islands will maintain operational control and provide flight crew for 135 operations and for Part 91 flights where a mentor pilot is required to accompany an owner-pilot. Jet-Alliance is offering Eclipse 500 shares for as little as $95,000 for a one-sixteenth share plus $2,000 per month and $788 per occupied flight hour. Jet-Alliance has three other Eclipse 500 delivery positions in its own name and, Sanada said, plans to team with a number of prospective Eclipse owners who, like David Crowe, have been attracted to the fractional ownership option. He added that Jet-Alliance has a waiting list of approximately 800 for Eclipse 500 shares, and that 29 have supported their interest with deposits. Many of the names on that list, clients of Sanada’s wealth advisory firm, constitute a ready-made customer base. Sanada said he expects Jet-Alliance to sell an average of eight shares per aircraft. Sanada and Crowe share a similar piloting background, one that is expected to prove common among Eclipse owner-pilots. Both have logged about 400 hours of pilot-in-command time in high-performance piston aircraft and have private pilot licenses and no instrument rating. Crowe has been operating a Bellanca Super Viking out of Magnum Aviation at San Martin Airport in Santa Clara County, south of San Jose. He has upgraded the 300-hp single extensively, including an electronic flight instrument suite. “I expect the glass cockpit in my Bellanca to make it easier for me to transition into the Eclipse,” he told AIN. Crowe, who has flown in a preproduction Eclipse, added that it handled “virtually the same as a Super Vike.” Sanada, a pilot since 1993, recently sold the Piper Lance he had been using to commute between the Los Angeles area and the Big Bear Lake airport (7,000 feet msl) in the San Bernardino Mountains.
|
|
|
||
|
Jet-Alliance is not a Flight Services Provider. All transportation services are provided by a federally licensed direct air carrier. |
Jet-Alliance, Inc. 3390 Auto Mall Dr., Westlake
Village, Ca. 91362 |
website by: Dianella.com |
