SkyCatcher Delay?
Cessna made some news recently when they delivered their first 'production' C-162 SkyCatcher to Rose Pelton, the wife of Cessna's CEO. According to Plane and Pilot Magazine, Cessna has over 1000 orders for SkyCatchers so you would think they would have firewalled the throttle on the assembly line and started cranking airplanes out as fast as they could...especially in a rough economy when the company needs all the cash it can get. Strangely, that was not the case.
As reported by the AOPA, Cessna is now delaying deliveries by 6-10 months!
Why you ask? After the second spin test crash, Cessna made some design changes to the airplane. Apparently though, nobody bothered to prepare the tooling/assembly line in China to produce aircraft with those changes. Cessna has to wait for the factory to be updated before they can start pumping out their hot ticket item in quantity.
Overall, I think this is a good, honest call for Cessna to make, but it troubles me a little. I'm glad they didn't rush things as happened with the Eclipse 500. It was a great plane with great potential, but it was rushed to the market without the polish it needed to be have long-term success. It looks like the aircraft might make a comeback, but it was a rough road that didn't serve the customers well and cost the business owners millions. I'm glad Cessna is taking the time to make sure their product is absolutely ready before they put it on the line.
At the same time, the modifications they made after the second spin test happened a while ago. It should have been abundantly clear tot them that they'd need to re-tool a bit at their factory. They have over 1000 aircraft on order. That is unheard of! Even though a SkyCatcher costs a lot less than one of their bizjets, it is a great product that will bring them steady income for years, if not decades. Did they just fail to plan this far ahead or did they fail to do this because of miscommunication between Cessna America and Cessna China? In the former case, I'd be really worried about the company. In the latter, I worry a lot about the idea of building American aircraft in China. Sure the labor might be cheaper, but it's tough to exercise the control needed to keep things moving and give good customer support.
Case in point: the Blanik L-23. The L-23 has become one of the most popular training gliders of all time. It's an outstanding aircraft that does its job well; however, customer support from the Czech manufacturer is awful. I've seen broken gliders sit for weeks and months waiting on parts or repair approvals from the factory. Since that factory is so far away, it isn't like customers can show up on the doorstep and demand some service. I sure hope that Cessna has some specific strategies planned to support their aircraft because flooding the training market with 1000 of them will come with a huge burden of support and spare parts. If everything takes an extra 6-10 months, they'll never sell 500 aircraft, let alone 1000+.
If anyone can do it right, I figure it's Cessna. I'm looking forward to seeing them make it happen. Maybe I'll even get to fly one in a year or so.
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Comments
Beginning of the end
Having seen and sat in the Cessna Skycatcher. I think that Cessna's investment in the Skycatcher might be their downfall. Cessna, though they have a good economic base, has tried to play their old games in the new light sport world and I think this might spell the beginning of the end for the design. They are not the biggest company in the light sport world, and they are not even making money yet. They are far behind other designs and I doubt they will ever catch up.
To compound the situation, both Skycatcher prototypes have crashed and Cessna has neglected to explain either one to the aviation community's satisfaction. I spoke with a Cessna employee who told me the cause of the crash was close hold information in the company, but that the "design is safe". In a world where everyone understands a thing or two about engineering and the physics of flight, a simple statement like that without reason is not sufficient.
I for one would not buy a Skycatcher. There are cheaper, better designed light sport aircraft available for less money that don't have a withheld safety and crash record.
Pipersport delivery timeline?
When's that PiperSport showing up? Oh yeah, April... which puts it between 4 and 10 months ahead of the SkyCatcher now. I wonder how many orders Cessna will lose out of this provided Piper keeps their schedule?
Good Call!
The Piper offers 110 pounds greater useful load and 130 nm greater range...and a much earlier delivery date with years of trouble-free flying. That's definitely some stiff competition.
I'd also like to see Piper succeed where Cirrus abandoned the LSA. The Cirrus SRS was the exact same idea as the Piper Sport. They could have been stealing market share from Cessna here, just like they're trying to do with the SR-22. Instead, they decided to focus on half-million dollar airplanes. I hope Pipers concept works and leaves Cirrus wishing they'd taken advantage of the opportunity they had.
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