Other than adding anti skid brakes to the iFMS planes, they are all now stuck where they are.

Other than adding anti skid brakes to the iFMS planes, they are all now stuck where they are.

Spent Christmas in Mazatlan - very nice place and fun times. Old town square was fantastic Saturday night.

Angel- do you go to Cuchupetas in Villa Union near the Mzt airport?

New Eclipse offered upgrades to owners (under moderately coercive terms as I recall) but has ceased making that available. Mason offered some sort of little red hen justification for cessation of upgrades.

My guess is that Eclipse is planning to sabotage the early planes, scoop them up at very low prices, and then refurb/total eclipse them once they have a group of planes to do simultaneously.

I can imagine the non-supported planes will quickly get near zero value. There's almost nothing of value on the plane that is used in any other airframe. The engines are EA500 only and there can't be much market for mid-time engines yet.

New Eclipse offered upgrades to owners (under moderately coercive terms as I recall) but has ceased making that available. Mason offered some sort of little red hen justification for cessation of upgrades.

My guess is that Eclipse is planning to sabotage the early planes, scoop them up at very low prices, and then refurb/total eclipse them once they have a group of planes to do simultaneously.

I can imagine the non-supported planes will quickly get near zero value. There's almost nothing of value on the plane that is used in any other airframe. The engines are EA500 only and there can't be much market for mid-time engines yet.

Yes! Have you been there? I love the food served in that restaurant. Another good one is Los Arcos near El Cid. I need to go back soon.

They are doing this now. It's a smart business move. Just 2 weeks ago Mike Press personally negotiated the deal and wired the $ for serial number 3. It was a 1.0 pre-ett in as delivered state. It will either be a total eclipse or a 550 soon!

Yes, usually stop by on our way to/from Tepic. Los across, farllon in mochis, all delicious. Mariscos from the w. Coast of Mexico are one of the world's under appreciated delicacies. I had a robalo sashimi in culiacan last month that I still have dreams about.

Sorry for th thread drift.

1.0 pre ETT first 40 planes delivered. slower, less fuel, lower gross weight, avidyne avionics (nothing works- inop stickers on everything. autopilot is not more than a wing leveler. no gps, no de-ice, no radar, etc) There are only a couple of these still flying in that config.

1.0 ETT extended tip tanks and speed mods

1.3 upgraded de ice but no fiki, newer screens

1.5/1.7 I lumped these together because they are basically the same. This is where the jet was more or less finished. I believe these are the best configurations. dual garmin 400s coupled to the aircraft's PFDs. you have moving map, a much better (and coupled) autopilot, FIKI, wx radar, traffic, etc. 1.7 adds plates on the mfd but nobody uses them because they are way overpriced.

iFMS/Total Eclipse gamins are removed, ISS FMS fitted, few extra goodies. There is the SEP on top of that which adds anti skid brakes.

Then there will be the 550.

The last airworthy and flying pre-ett plane I know of just sold for $400,000. (I don't have any recent 1.3 sales where I was privy to the contract price.) 1.5 and 1.7s are trading hands around $900,000. iFMS upgraded and Total Eclipse you can pay up to $1.3m.

They are doing this now. It's a smart business move. Just 2 weeks ago Mike Press personally negotiated the deal and wired the $ for serial number 3. It was a 1.0 pre-ett in as delivered state. It will either be a total eclipse or a 550 soon!

They are WAAS. No negative. It's the best config in my opinion.

They're 400W's, already WAAS. It's a nice, very functional package.

The buying up of early unupgraded Eclipse 500's as raw material for the Total Eclipse product isn't anything new; that was part of the business plan from day one. It started with acquisition of the DayJet planes (which were mostly early planes) right at the outset and provided the company with the ability to produce an "almost new" airplane at a profit.

The company offered heavily-discounted upgrade pricing to original owners of Eclipse 500 aircraft. Combined with an initial acquisition cost for the earliest planes as low as $800K, that meant that the all-in pricing for an original owner to wind up with a fully upgraded jet was not unreasonable. The point is that the company did *not* try to force early owners into abandoning their planes ("sabotage" as someone wrote earlier).

But of course some people elected not to do the upgrades--the plane is, after all, still pretty usable without upgrades. And, in time, some of those people sold their planes. Where the upgrade policy was most widely viewed as unfair was among guys like Ted who bought an early version of the plane for a cheap price from an original owner and then discovered there was no financially viable way to upgrade it. Eclipse felt it had an obligation to original owners and accordingly discounted their upgrade costs. But it had no obligation to help the guys like Ted pick up a jet on the cheap, upgrade it on the cheap, and then sell it at a profit in competition to the company's own upgraded product.

Ken

Ken- I resent your post. This is nonsense and you know it. I never had any intentions to upgrade that first Eclipse. This is a well documented fact. EAI does not understand the concept of individual property. Manson said 'You need to upgrade the jet or else sell it to somebody who will.' Eclipse has been pushing the FAA to issue AD's on the 1.0-1.3. They were successful with one, but really want a FIKI AD. Again, this is nothing new. Why do they care if these airplanes are flying around? They say it is about safety, but what it is really about is those owners never wrote big checks to 'new' Eclipse and they are not happy about it. It would be like Beech telling owners of legacy Bonanzas that the all had to pay an exorbitant fee to upgrade their planes to G1000 'or else sell the planes to someone who will pay' Could you imagine the outrage?

I loved the 1.0 so much, that I ended up buying a 1.5. It's a great airplane. I just made flights in it yesterday and today and had a smile on my face for both flights. However, my emotions don't change the facts. I have been honest here and told both the good and bad to Eclipse ownership, while your posts have been one-sided.

Thats nonsense from Eclipse, I would never buy an aircraft from them the way they run there co. They should work with the owners to upgrade these first sn not render these obsolete like a pumpkin.
Socata still supports the first TBM A model they sold in 1991.