Cool, you should be taking delivery in 2020 or so.
New C4 4-Place from Flight Design
- Thread starter CT4ME
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Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
FYI... According to Dan Johnson, the Flight Design C4 had it's 1st test flight April 9th, sporting a Hartzell 2-blade prop. The company is still projecting a price of $250K.
??? The post above said the first test flights were going to be in June of LAST year?
What happened?
When has any of these programs come in on time?
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
Among other things, they wanted to take advantage of the "part 23 rewrite", which the FAA has managed to delay by a couple of years.
"Flight Design USA President Tom Peghiny said that if the Part 23 revision is significantly delayed, by federal budget cuts or other reasons, the company will explore certification of the C4 under the little-used primary category, though Part 23 remains the preferred option."
"Flight Design USA President Tom Peghiny said that if the Part 23 revision is significantly delayed, by federal budget cuts or other reasons, the company will explore certification of the C4 under the little-used primary category, though Part 23 remains the preferred option."
Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
It's definitely a winning design, if those specs are anything close to reality.
Name one plane that delivered pre certification claims.
Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
True that!
fiveoboy01
Pattern Altitude
I thought it looked good in the picture in the OP. That image a few posts up, gross.
Kent nailed it on the panel(yuck), and I'll bet $5 that the price will be in excess of $250K.
Kent nailed it on the panel(yuck), and I'll bet $5 that the price will be in excess of $250K.
Exactly. Price usually doubles and performance take a huge hit.
Dav8or
Final Approach
No doubt. It sounds like they were really counting on a Part 23 re-write to happen in a timely fashion and that it would come just in time for them to get their new plane out the door with less hoops to jump through and therefore big savings.
Silly foreigners. They just don't understand American politics and government. They thought that if congress ordered a federal agency to do something, that they would actually have to do it.
zaitcev
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Pete Zaitcev
If that happens, the C4 would be the first 4-seater Primary category airplane ever, under auspices of FAR 21.24(a)(1)(iii).
But I expect FD to change their minds when they find that flight instruction on Primary category airplanes is not permitted except "under special circumstances". Nobody is going to buy a Primary category airplane in the U.S. It's true that Cessna wanted to certify Skycatched in Primary, but they only wanted to do that in order to exploit a reciprocity loophole for the sales outside of the U.S. And FD are going to apply to JAR rules anyway, so they don't need this kind of trickery, while they do need the U.S. market. My prediction is, they are going to suck it up and certify under FAR 23 with the resultant bump in costs and the delay.
Note that 3I (tripple-eye) certified Sky Arrow under FAR 23, Normal category. So surely it's not impossible. Just costed enough to help 3I to go bankrupt (the Sky Arrow is rescued by Maghani Aero, who even restarted production).
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flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Not "only". The last Oshkosh where they were still trying to sell Skycatchers, they were saying they were going to certify in Primary to have a higher weight limit because the useful load was only ~400 lb. IIRC and they were missing out on a lot of sales to people who wanted to do things like take an instructor along or carry fuel. You really couldn't do both!
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
Test Flight images, sans pants...
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
I wonder why the main landing gear legs are so massive? Even if they are composite, they are three times as massive as the fiberglass springs in a Corvette. If they're metal, they're bloody huge!
Jeff Oslick
Final Approach
Are they really that big or is it a fairing covering tubular steel like Cessna uses?
pikespeakmtnman
Pre-takeoff checklist
It's a fairing.
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
??? The C4 is using the IO-360-AF... 180 hp w/ 2200 tbo. The diesel engine has not been announced.
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Seriously? I would expect a way better shape out of a fairing.
Dav8or
Final Approach
Me too! I don't think it's a fairing. I think it's just a big ol' slab of composite plastic. That's my guess. Is this plane supposed to have a CAPS type system?
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
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Dav8or
Final Approach
What's up with crazy long exhaust pipes??!! Is that just a German noise reduction requirement?
Don't know about that, but I like that the outlets are behind the cabin air intakes. I do wonder how that will affect a PowerFlow installation, though.
Jimmy cooper
En-Route
I agree! A quarter of a million for that thing?! I'd buy a nice used mooney or beech bonanza for a hundred grand before I'd go for that.
That's what I think it is as well, I'm guessing they did a thin skin foam core to save weight and had to make up the strength with bulk/geometric advantage.
2 potential issues, noise and scavenging. They likely have a tuned pipe on it, and they tend to be long with these high cylinder displacements. The way to figure out where to cut them off is with a crayon or yellow lumber keel. Mark down the le the of the pipe and run the engine hard. Where the wax is still visible, cut that part off.
And yes, Germany has some interesting exhaust rigs around to deal with noise, but they are not ubiquitous. Lots are same as here.
zaitcev
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Yeah, but can you buy a Mooney or Bo with an airframe chute? Your example works with an old SR-20 though.