The Eclipse 550 is the continuation of the Eclipse 500 very light jet, which was one of the first very light jets that was ever commercially produced. The plane was built with owner-operators / lower operating costs in mind and needed to be single pilot capable. Thus, the Eclipse 500 was certified to be flown by a single pilot. The Eclipse 550 continues with this capability. The Eclipse 550 Jet is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to be flown by a single pilot, without a second in command pilot needed (copilot). In order to fly the Eclipse 550 with only one pilot, the pilot must be certified with the Eclipse EA-500S type rating certificate and certain equipment must be fully operational and available. The equipment that must be working / operational are the autopilot, headset microphone and the transponder ident button that is located on the left sidestick control. The quick reference handbook (QRH) must also be available in the cockpit. As long as these conditions are met, the Eclipse 550 can be flown by a single pilot.

As stated above, an Eclipse 550 single pilot aircraft must have a pilot that is certified with the EA-500S type rating. To learn more about this rating visit our Eclipse 550 Type Rating page.

More information on the original Eclipse 500 very light jet is available in the Eclipse 500 section. Also be sure to check out the other pages about the aircraft here on FlyRadius. The links are located on the menu.

Above Eclipse 550 (actually an Eclipse 500 jet) Photo by Alec Wilson on Flickr and Wikimedia Commons. Photo (only) released under a Creative Commons license.