In the wildly edgy television series, The Wire, there’s a classic line for a would-be challenger: “If you come at the King, you best not miss.” Somehow, that seems to apply in the light sport market as a multitude of manufacturers wait and wonder what Cessnas going to do with its Skycatcher LSA. The wait part is over and the wonder soon will be. Cessna is now poised to deliver the first of its 162 Skycatchers by the end of 2009. During 2010, it will ramp up production to begin delivering the first of more than 1000 aircraft it says are on order. We got our first look and demo flight prior to AOPA Summit at Tampa, Florida, in early November. The aircraft presented to us what Cessnas Kirby Ortega called “P1,” or the first production compliant airplane. In other words, what you see is what you get, minus some wiring harnesses left over from last-minute testing. The airplane was built in Wichita, although the entire wing assembly-complete with control surfaces-was built at Cessnas Shenyang, China, contractor. The first production version flew in China in mid-September. Impressions? The airplane is exactly what Cessna always said it would be and what LSAs are supposed to be: light, a fast climber, easy to fly, but no frills and edginess. The cockpit is as spare as a 1940s training airplane, albeit one with a Garmin glass panel and a spacious baggage compartment with a skylight.
Basics
We were so expecting the Barney purple paint job Cessna sported on the prototype it showed a couple of years ago that we looked right past the Skycatcher on the ramp. In white with swooping graphics, it looks sleeker. Since the prototype appeared, Cessna has made semi-significant changes to the airframe. It dropped the pinched down wing in favor of a slightly thicker airfoil that provides more lift through the center section.
The tail has been redesigned following Cessnas much-