flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
Looking at this airplane at Oshkosh again this year, I just can't help but think... What's the catch?
Aside from it being owned by Textron, who is not known for being particularly successful with piston GA in the last 20 years, it seems like this is as close to the perfect airplane as one can get.
It has more ramp appeal than any other new airplane IMO. Very sleek and sexy. It also appears to have a view of the outside that is maybe almost as good as the DA40, which is so good it doesn't even feel like you're flying in an airplane.
It's even faster and more efficient than my Mooney. 180+ knots on 11.5 gph. And it has a nice wide cabin too - 52" at the shoulder, I measured it myself. (Yes, I carry a small tape measure in my pocket pretty much all the time.) And a HUGE back seat. And direct entry to 3 of the 4 seats, with a similar setup to the DA40 with a back door on one side.
Modern avionics, but it's all the retrofit stuff (G3X, GFC500, etc) instead of the "Integrated" stuff, so you can upgrade it in the future without factory approval.
It's got a chute. It's got 1100 pounds of useful load. It's not certified yet, but they said they expect that to be done in a year and the certified version to cost $800,000 euro so it's cheaper than a Cirrus and will outrun it on less fuel with a bigger cabin.
In a world where the laws of physics apply to everyone, and every airplane design seems to have compromises... I just can't find any on this thing. Has Pipistrel finally invented the perfect airplane?
Aside from it being owned by Textron, who is not known for being particularly successful with piston GA in the last 20 years, it seems like this is as close to the perfect airplane as one can get.
It has more ramp appeal than any other new airplane IMO. Very sleek and sexy. It also appears to have a view of the outside that is maybe almost as good as the DA40, which is so good it doesn't even feel like you're flying in an airplane.
It's even faster and more efficient than my Mooney. 180+ knots on 11.5 gph. And it has a nice wide cabin too - 52" at the shoulder, I measured it myself. (Yes, I carry a small tape measure in my pocket pretty much all the time.) And a HUGE back seat. And direct entry to 3 of the 4 seats, with a similar setup to the DA40 with a back door on one side.
Modern avionics, but it's all the retrofit stuff (G3X, GFC500, etc) instead of the "Integrated" stuff, so you can upgrade it in the future without factory approval.
It's got a chute. It's got 1100 pounds of useful load. It's not certified yet, but they said they expect that to be done in a year and the certified version to cost $800,000 euro so it's cheaper than a Cirrus and will outrun it on less fuel with a bigger cabin.
In a world where the laws of physics apply to everyone, and every airplane design seems to have compromises... I just can't find any on this thing. Has Pipistrel finally invented the perfect airplane?
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