Are Skycatchers still supported at all?

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Todd82

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Todd
Simple question. Is Cessna/Textron supporting the Skycatcher for parts at all at this point or is it a total orphan like other LSA's whose companies have folded?
 
Shades of the Cessna "Skyhook!"

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You can get parts. I just put a brand new cylinder on one last month. Expensive, but available. Very expensive.
 
Salty said:
You can get parts. I just put a brand new cylinder on one last month. Expensive, but available. Very expensive.
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A cylinder was Continental with no Cessna involvement?
 
Todd82 said:
A cylinder was Continental with no Cessna involvement?
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True, I suppose, but the cylinder is specific to the 0-200D used only in the skycatcher.

I’ve also recently installed number of skycatcher parts such as exhaust shroud.

Can’t emphasize the “expensive” enough though. The adsb out solution from Cessna was a gdl-82 and accessories for six grand.
 
Salty said:
Can't emphasize the “expensive” enough though. The adsb out solution from Cessna was a gdl-82 and accessories for six grand.
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Ew. That's kind of what I'm afraid of, being an LSA any "mod" even if it's just replacing broken avionics (that bastard child baby G1000 comes to mind) needs to be approved by the manufacturer unless you're replacing with the same exact product. And if Cessna basically abandoned it, uh oh. Similar horror stories from out of business LSA's when they had to do ADSB.
 
Todd82 said:
being an LSA any "mod" even if it's just replacing broken avionics (that bastard child baby G1000 comes to mind) needs to be approved by the manufacturer unless you're replacing with the same exact product
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Or, convert it to E-LSA, then you can do pretty much anything you want without anyone approving it.
 
We replaced the mfd a couple years ago. That was actually easy and pretty cheap. It’s essentially a g3x pre touch. $300 I think
 
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My flying club has a couple of Skycatchers. One is showing no current squawks, and the other one is grounded. I'm guessing that the reason for the grounded one is that they don't get flown much, so the club may feel that it's not worth buying whatever expensive part it needs.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Or, convert it to E-LSA, then you can do pretty much anything you want without anyone approving it.
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In my opinion, that’s where all the LSAs will end up anyway. Might as well put them there now and reap the benefits.

Experimental or not may not help depending on what is broken though. Perhaps there will be some used components to cover those things.
 
The benefit of Special is using them for instruction.
 
Salty said:
We replaced the mfd a couple years ago. That was actually easy and pretty cheap. It’s essentially a 3gx pre touch. $300 I think
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Ive always understood the same. I’m surprised it was that cheap to replace but that’s good news.
 
To be dead honest going E-LSA and putting that "Experimental" sticker will scare off my wife, scare off my sister from letting my little nephew from me, etc. We went to a fly in in the fall and my wife loved the looks of the Vans RV's but when she saw the word Experimental it was like poison to her "I'd never ride in that"

I don't think I'd beat that stigma, as BS as it is.
 
Todd82 said:
To be dead honest going E-LSA and putting that "Experimental" sticker will scare off my wife, scare off my sister from letting my little nephew from me, etc. We went to a fly in in the fall and my wife loved the looks of the Vans RV's but when she saw the word Experimental it was like poison to her "I'd never ride in that"

I don't think I'd beat that stigma, as BS as it is.
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Just tell her you were “Experimental” when you were dating. I assume that worked out for both of you.

Cheers.
 
X3 Skier said:
Just tell her you were “Experimental” when you were dating. I assume that worked out for both of you.

Cheers.
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Just need to be careful on the wording there. Don't say "I experimented in college" lol
 
Yes, you're vulnerable there. When you get married she'll tell you you have to give up experimenting.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Hard to see this: https://www.bydanjohnson.com/cessna-literally-scraps-remaining-skycatchers/
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Discussed when it first came out:

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...crushes-remaining-skycatcher-inventory.99928/

As I commented then, "One story is that a large shipment of aircraft were improperly packaged for shipment and had bad corrosion by the time they were unpacked in the US. This picture was posted to Facebook, and is claimed to be the aircraft that are being destroyed. Note they're all sitting on the bottoms of crates, with plexiglass still covered, paperwork taped to the windshield, identical lifting straps installed on the wing roots, and the closest airplane, at least, sitting with dessicant plugs in its engine."

Ron Wanttaja
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Or, convert it to E-LSA, then you can do pretty much anything you want without anyone approving it.
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Except use it commercially, like rental or flight instruction. Might not matter to the current owner, but could affect resale value.
 
wanttaja said:
Discussed when it first came out:

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...crushes-remaining-skycatcher-inventory.99928/

As I commented then, "One story is that a large shipment of aircraft were improperly packaged for shipment and had bad corrosion by the time they were unpacked in the US. This picture was posted to Facebook, and is claimed to be the aircraft that are being destroyed. Note they're all sitting on the bottoms of crates, with plexiglass still covered, paperwork taped to the windshield, identical lifting straps installed on the wing roots, and the closest airplane, at least, sitting with dessicant plugs in its engine."

Ron Wanttaja
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I forgot about that thread. When I re-read it I found the article that said they did salvage parts, then scrapped everything else.

https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article121267978.html
 
I bought one as my first airplane and loved it. The G300 is amazingly capable (I had the integrated Garmin autopilot which was very rare). Never had any problems with maintenance but then again nothing broke. There’s nothing to break, it’s such a simple airframe. Super fun to fly too. Lots of negative commentary about the 162 online but most owners love them. And yes, Textron still supports them. In fact they released a service bulletin to allow for the installation of ADSB about a year ago.
 
Rick182 said:
I bought one as my first airplane and loved it. The G300 is amazingly capable (I had the integrated Garmin autopilot which was very rare). Never had any problems with maintenance but then again nothing broke. There’s nothing to break, it’s such a simple airframe. Super fun to fly too. Lots of negative commentary about the 162 online but most owners love them. And yes, Textron still supports them. In fact they released a service bulletin to allow for the installation of ADSB about a year ago.
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I had a lot of fun flying one most of the time during my two years of exercising sport-pilot privileges. (I also flew another type of rental LSA during that period.)
 
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