My first flight was amazing. Flying a caravan for 2.5 years has made me accustomed to the feel of a slow, heavy turbo-prop. I have always thought the Caravan was fun to fly but the Eclipse in just one take-off completely reshaped my idea of how a plane should feel.
The best part of the flight on Tuesday was the take-off followed by the climb-out. In the Caravan you slowly increase the throttle and then your co-pilot sets just the right amount of power. It is a slow, delicate process. In the Eclipse, once you are straight on the runway you simply shove both Thrust levers to the forward stops and the computer figures out you want lots of power so that's exactly what you get.
I don't know how fast it takes to accelerate from 0 to 100mph but it seems like it happens in around 5 seconds. I was having so much fun just feeling the rush of power and the speed at which it climbs I was screwing up all my call-outs.
The above video is the official video from Eclipse. I hope to add some of my own video of my own experiences with the little jets in the next two weeks.
