The Eclipse 500 type rating has two official ratings called the EA-500S type rating or EA-500 type rating by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The EA-500S type rating is for those who complete the type rating practical test as a single pilot. A pilot with the EA-500S rating can fly the Eclipse 500 aircraft by themselves, with no second in command pilot, if the autopilot, headset microphone, the transponder ident button on the left sidestick are operating normally and the quick reference handbook (QRH) is available.

The second type rating is the EA-500 type rating. This rating is obtained by completing the type rating practical test in the jet with a second in command as a crew member. A pilot who gets this rating must fly the Eclipse 500 very light jet with a second in command pilot. Also the limitation "Second in Command Required" will be placed on the pilot's airman certificate.

Providers Overview:
The Eclipse 500 type rating is available from many type rating providers, however Eclipse Aerospace offers the official Eclipse 500 Type Rating. Eclipse Aerospace offers the following type rating courses for the Eclipse 500 jet: initial type rating, differences course for the Eclipse 500 type rating and the recurrent type rating course. The initial Eclipse 500 type rating course includes the following: Jet Basics, flight skills, emergency situation training, and the Eclipse 500 type rating training plus a mentoring program. The Eclipse 500 type rating test is administered and issued by the FAA and the test material covers the same information as the Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating and can be used toward a ATP rating/license. Eclipse 500 Simulator training is provided by Simcom in Orlando, Florida on Eclipse 500 Simulators (Full motion Level D). SIMCOM has placed an updated Eclipse 500 / Eclipse 550 simulator in their facility that has the new AVIO IFMS avionics. All of the above type ratings are available directly through Eclipse Aerospace. The Eclipse 500 type rating cost is currently unknown to Sun Airlines, however Eclipse Aerospace offers the type rating at an extra cost for buyers of their Total Eclipse 500 aircraft. There are also there are other companies offering Eclipse 500 type ratings. Other companies that provide the type rating must have their training be equivalent to the Eclipse Aerospace accepted or approved type rating program.

Other Type Rating Providers:

Professional Flight Training, Inc. / Aviation Training Center, located in Scotia, New York, provides type rating training for the Eclipse 500 jet. Al Itani is the Chief Flight Instructor and is the flight instructor for the Eclipse 500 at the company. For more information on their services, visit their site.

Greg Webster at eclipse500.com provides type rating training for the Eclipse 500. He is an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) for the Eclipse 500 and is located in California. More information can be found at their website here.

If your company provides type rating training for the Eclipse 500 jet, contact our aviation resources team to learn how you can get listed on this page at no monetary cost.

More information on the Eclipse 500 rating is located below the photo.

 

Eclipse 500 Type Rating Page Photo a photo of the cockpit

Above Eclipse 500 type rating page photo by hyku on Flickr. Photo (only) released under a Creative Commons License.

Overview on what the type rating covers:

The FAA's Flight Standardization report on the Eclipse 500 states what the Eclipse 500 type rating training must cover. Below is some of the information on the type rating from that report.

  1. Minimum of 16 hours of flight training.
  2. Ground training time has no minimum hours.
  3. The Eclipse 500 jet displays speed in knots equivalent airspeed (KEAS) instead of knots indicated airspeed (KIAS). All speed references are in KEAS. This is due to the Eclipse engineers correcting indicated airspeed for sensor and position error and then further correcting for compressibility errors.

What the Eclipse 500 type rating covers:

  • Takeoffs
  • Approach and Landing Minima
  • Circling Approaches
  • Landings
    • Rejected Landings
    • No Flap Approaches
  • Inflight Maneuvers
    • Steep Turns
    • Stalls
    • Unusual Attitudes
    • Emergency Descents
    • Engine Shutdowns In Flight
    • Simulated Engine Failures
  • Ground Training
    • Overall coverage of all aircraft systems
  • Systems Integration Training on Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT), Flight Training Device (FTD), simulator or in the jet.
  • There are also many more areas that are not mentioned here.

Also as a side note the Eclipse 500 type rating is also called the Eclipse EA50 type rating, Eclipse EA-500S type rating and the Eclipse EA-500 type rating.

To find out more about the Eclipse 500 aircraft visit the other pages on the Sun Airlines site, listed below.