February 6, 2003
PAC 750XL Update
Greetings,
We had a good time at the PIA show. The PAC 750 Xlerator simulator was great fun. It was the first time I had really played with it, finding that it would form a con trail
above 25,000 feet!
The guys at X-plane did a great job. Word is that they are going to add floaters and you can turn them loose. The simulator can be obtained from www.x-plane.com
As mentioned prior to the symposium, there has been a price increase due to the US dollar exchange rate. We will honor the $899,000 price until Feb 7th, 2003 for those
folks who wanted time to review the escrow agreement.
The new price is $995,000.
The spread sheet from Skydiving Cost Comparisons will be updated. Due to the very low interest rates obtainable, the spread sheet should reflect an 8% rate rather than
10%. This little bonus is offset by the insurance rate which is now closer to 4.0% from 2.4%.
The good news is that the break even load goes from 7.0 to 7.5 jumpers ( better round that up to 8 ), and the break even hours is now 311 for the financed aircraft. This is
still 100 hours lower than the 208, and 2 jumpers less. That's 6 hours per week averaged per year, or about 23 loads per week. This is very efficient.
And once the Xlerator is paid off, we project a break even load of 4 and break even hours at 170.
Speaking of efficient, when we were in Jacksonville, we noted that avgas was over $3.00 per gal, and jet A was a little under. The Xlerator will be making money compared
to any other aircraft in a high fuel price environment.
$50,000 deposited in a refundable escrow account secures a production number. Upon FAA certification you can move forward with the purchase with $130,000 to fund
the 20% down payment, or cancel. If you cancel you can either take the refund, or sell your production slot. For those who purchased at the $899,000 price, your $50,000
will be worth $96,000 more due to the price increase. And for those who got a production number for $10,000, we appreciated the early support, and things are looking
good. As is most often the case, the "launch" customers get a good deal. The last one I recall was the TBM 700 intro price. It was about $400,000 cheaper, gulp.
Things are presently moving well with the plane. We are hearing from the factory that the certification folks from the National Test Pilot School are really impressed with the
aircraft. The Certification flights will be over in about 20 days, and the Xlerator will be temporarily certified into the Restricted category for the ferry to California and the
noise tests.
The tentative plan is for that to happen in April. This plane has a home and will go straight to work, upon achieving certification into the Normal category. Subsequent serial
numbers will go straight to their homes.
Hope you have a good season lined up, and we really wish we had the plane here today, as a lot of folks are getting ready for the summer and are desperate for the XL.
Please call us if you have any questions.
Kind Regards
Philip Esdaile
Utility Aircraft Corporation
PO Box 1235
Woodland, CA 95776
USA
(530) 750-3226
www.utilityaircraft.com
