https://www.echelonflightsupport.com/lx7-20a/

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the Echelon LX7-20A? I know they are taking Lancair donor planes and remanufacturing firewall forward and adding a remanufactured PT6. Also changing to a symmetrical wing resulting in a lower stall speed.
They are touting 285 knots. All for the price of a new Cirrus.

Happy Easter,
Jeff

Its actually RDD that's producing them. The changes to the wing make it a lot more intriguing than a IV-P. Pretty sweet looking IMO.

http://www.lx7aircraft.com/

LX7 Payload with full fuel - 320lbs
N141DP recently was zipping along at 290KTS @ FL210. Planned was 255KTS. That is downright zippy!
LX7-20A Payload with full fuel - 344lbs - A pilot and her husband plus an overnight bag.

I saw the aircraft at OSH last year and visited with them; very nice airplane with excellent fit and finish. Garmin G3X avionics. RDD is a legit engineering firm which designed and worked on the Perlan high altitude glider. The range on those aircraft is crazy long, especially the piston version (assuming anyone wants to sit in a Lancair for that long) - its over 2000 nm. Even the turbine version has a 1500 nm range. What I can't really tell is how many have been delivered and are flying. There's almost no discussion of them on LancairTalk, which is interesting. Would be very interested in any PIREPs.

I would love to learn more about these, but the information is so limited, the guy who built my airplane is having one built, he sent me a picture of it, i'll post it up so you guys can see into the factory

its gorgeous

looks like they have plenty of customers, enough where they don't have to focus on marketing, I would change the thread title though to remove the "Echelon" branding, that's just a middleman/broker who has some ties to RDD to secure you build slots

At least that's my understanding

I have never heard a negative word spoken about RDD, just the usual complaints of cost and lead times, but, you get what you pay for right?

Fast, cheap, reliable- pick two!

My neighbor has an RDD ES-P and it's pretty close to being perfect fit and finish.

This is an extremely neat airplane.

http://www.rddent.com/lx7.html

Here you go.

Have you flown it? Curious your thoughts between it and straight IVP

Have you flown it? Curious your thoughts between it and straight IVP

The LX7 does come standard with a BRS, if memory serves. And the aerodynamics are different relative to a standard IVP/IVPT. Much lower stall speed apparently.

I took for one a for a test flight a month ago. I had been flying both a TBM 850 and SR22T
for several years but when insurance when stupid last year I sold my TBM. Obviously the TBM spoiled me and as I typically fly 600-700 nm legs I like to fly high ti pickup the jetsteam. I just found it taxing to be on O2 all the time and wanted to get something pressurized, as quick as a TBM but didn't need a 6 seater as i fly 90% time by myself.
Thought about and Evolution and have been watching Dave Van Horn's build ( that going to be about a perfect evolution as you can get when its all done ! ) Anyway I'm worried about whether Evolution will be around so I thought the LX7 would be a great alternative. Here's my thoughts and observations. We hit 277 TAS at FL250 max ( i thought it would go faster ) Fit and finish is not quite there yet: Example the cowling has quick release fasteners ( similar to a TBM but no hinging ) yet there was also a whole bunch of screws on top of that the have be unscrewed defeating the purpose of the quick release fastners. AP doesnt do a very nice IAS climb ( porpoising ) Fit and finish was OK but not TBM standards
The spray bar for wind shield deice was't very effective and the back seat is about as use full as a 911 Porsche backseat. Also It needs a -28 PT6 minimum or better yet a 135A but at that price was over 1 million for an experimental using a donor airframe. Ended up buying an Total Eclipse for 1.25 which I think is better value. The -20 engines can be found for nothing so as far as I'm concerned the price should be around 750K with -28 but not more than 800 with every option you could think of.

Please Tell me More about your experience with the total
Eclipse

Still working on getting my Conversion from CDN to US
I’ll be flying at end of May and will post how it went
And how the eclipse compares to a TBM

It'd be weird to get the fixed gear option for something like this.

I think the -20 (or a -28) are great performance for their price. Speed in the 275 range is awesome if you're doing 25 gph.

To the point about full fuel capacity--pay attention to how many hours of fuel that is. 180 gallons is over 6 hours of fuel going balls to the wall. I think the plane has great useful load and range considering the cabin size

Ok so I was asked for my thoughts on the Total Eclipse
Ive now been type rated and have 50+ hours under the belt
It's a fantastic little plane: Like every plane Ive flown there are
always wants. A little more performance from flt level 25 and up
would definitely help the slow climb. I do love the fact that at 390
your going 360 kts on 50 gph. Because the avionics are much more
integrated into the air frame than most there are a few electrical
gremlins that come and go for no apparent reason. I operate the plane
out of a 3000' runway and as long as you short filed skills are up to par
it's very doable if your 1 or 2 people on board. Never have tried with 4 people
yet but it would definitely have to be on a cooler day. Overall very satisfied
and am anxiously awaiting them to emerge from Chapter 11 as it would help
keep maintenance costs in line. The IS&S avionics are OK but are no where near
Garmin