New C4 4-Place from Flight Design

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.
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??? The post above said the first test flights were going to be in June of LAST year?

What happened?
 
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."
 
It's definitely a winning design, if those specs are anything close to reality.
 
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.

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. :mad2:
 
"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."

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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If the specs hold and it comes in with the speed predicted,it will be a big seller. Now that it's had a test flight,you can expect it to be produced.
 
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.

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!
 
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!
 
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!

Are they really that big or is it a fairing covering tubular steel like Cessna uses?
 
It's a cute airplane, but I wish there was a liquid-cooled, FADEC engine to power it. Diesel or not. The 912iS is decades ahead of IO-290 they're putting into this thing, but it's not powerful enough.
 
??? 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.

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?
 
What's up with crazy long exhaust pipes??!! Is that just a German noise reduction requirement?
 
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.
 
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?

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.
 
What's up with crazy long exhaust pipes??!! Is that just a German noise reduction requirement?

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.
 
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.
Yeah, but can you buy a Mooney or Bo with an airframe chute? Your example works with an old SR-20 though.
 
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