The International Cessna^® 170 Association

The base price of the (made in China) Skycatcher is approximately $105-113 Thousand. Cessna says that American labor would add $70 thousand.

Chinese labor is very close to slave labor. They can afford to spend a lot on hand work.

I would of hoped that Cessna would have worked automation to keep manufacturing costs down. Afterall, there is now a Cessna glass plane being made in Oregon. Or is that going to be moved also?

I do not believe in slave labor and I cannot support Cessna's direction.

Bill,
You are right about our culture. A friend of mine owned a hardware lumber store in the small town just south of where I live. He patronized the local independent gas station for the 30 years I've known him even though it was always the most expensive gas around. He was even part of the station "liars bench" each morning before he went to work. How was his loyalty rewarded? When the station owner needed a new roof he drove 60 miles to big box lumber store and ordered his shingles. Needless to say that was the last gas pop etc. that my friend ever bought there. My friend has closed his store and gave up on his dream. The gas station has now been sold to a convenience store chain. What bothers me is this is just every day life now in rural America.

Mick,
Isn't that the truth!!!!!.....yet out here in podunk America, the walmart parking lots are full.....Go figure......

N2540V,

If I'm not mistaken, the composite structure of the planes made in Oregon was already being made in the orient. (The Philippines, I think)

There is a gunsmith by the name of Coyote Cap who lives in Minn. and is an avid cowboy action shooter. Only guns designed before the year 1900 can be used in the cowboy action matches.

The old original Winchester shotguns such as the 1887 lever gun and 1897 pump are eligible to be used but are hard to find in good condition. Coyote Cap decided he could have new Winchesters made in China and save some money at the same time for the customers that would be buying them.

He did that. Had them made in China. The workmanship and quality control on the materials were so poor the guns were either rejected or had to be totally dismantled and reworked in order to be usable.

I hope Cessna has better luck with their program.

I seem to remember that the Columbia airplanes acquired by Cessna were powered by Continental engines.Is that correct?
If so, it will be interesting to see if they change them to be Lycoming powered since parent company owns both Cessna and Lycoming.

N9149A wrote:It's neither a brother or a sister in my opinion. If you even consider it part of the family it's obvious it was adopted.

Parts & materials supplied by Cessna, assembly in China? FWIW, to me that means that genetically it is a Cessna. In-vitro conception, perhaps, and clearly brought to term via a surrogate mother, but still... not a foreign adoption.

That's not to agree with Cessna's choice. Hiring a surrogate mom when one has 'business reasons' for not carrying oneself is morally questionable at best.

As to quality: This ain't a cut-rate Thomas the Tank Engine toy. I gather these SAC folks help make Su-27s. I suspect they can put this plane together just fine.

Whether America's many nativist pilots will buy/fly them is another question.

Cessna tries to make this a quality-assurance argument. But that's not my objection.

I imagine that in order to meet U.S. and ICAO certification requirements the airplane will have good quality (for whatever quality-level a cheap airplane is supposed to meet.)

The problem I have is the technology and labor transfer to a foreign country that does not subscribe to similar human-rights philosophies as we embrace. The loss of potential U.S. jobs is another major objection I have to Cessna's corporate decision. It smacks of "profit no matter what or who" it hurts. (And it's partially the result of foreign investment into American companies. Those foreign investors are not especially concerned with keeping jobs in America.... witness the Daimler Benz/Mercedes debacle with Chrysler, instigated with blatant and fraudulent disregard of truthfulness with regard to acquisition laws and U.S. interests.)


A major reason Japan has made such a remarkable economy for themselves (after a great deal of help from us, of course) is their national pride in keeping so much of their work in Japan. They have tended to export jobs only to outside countries where the market exceeds their own capacity. Example: Toyota (full sized) trucks being built in San Antonio makes a great deal of sense.... because those vehicles do not sell in Japan or many other markets and they avoid shipping, while still reaping profits from a product their own workers mfr the sub-assemblies for, yet cannot assemble competitively due to wharehousing/shipping costs. (Less than 4 hours of actual assembly-labor go into each vehicle..... there is much less interior appointments than all-passenger vehicles.)

It will be interesting to see how much other work Cessna will send to China if this deal works out. Maybe their Citation Jets?

gahorn wrote:Cessna tries to make this a quality-assurance argument. But that's not my objection.

[...]

The problem I have is the technology and labor transfer to a foreign country that does not subscribe to similar human-rights philosophies as we embrace. The loss of potential U.S. jobs is another major objection I have to Cessna's corporate decision. It smacks of "profit no matter what or who" it hurts.

[...]

Yes, others here raised the quality concerns, not you, and the way I wrote my post made it sound like I was responding to you about that. I agree with you that quality is not the issue at hand.

I also agree with your concern about benefits to the PRC at the expense of the US for pure financial reasons; that's why I said it was morally questionable at best.

.

Actually, it is Cessna who manipulated the discussion. In their original feedback-option at their corporate website, they initiated an official statement that quality would not be compromised and that consumers should not be concerned about it blah, blah, blah.

They very successfully steered the public discussion to the arena they knew they had a strong argument.... quality controls.

For that reason, (and not because you also mentioned it) I wanted to re-direct eveyone's attention to that which I felt we should be more concerned.

Thank you.

Howdy All,

It ought to be a real Hoot to decypher the POH....from the PRC...for the FAA and then for the PMC of the TIC162A

Just thinking of you George and all you do.....

Richard....

3958v,

Darn....you beat me to it! That's what get's my goat.....the head honcho's whining THEY aren't making enough money so have to ship manufacturing overseas. Well, if they weren't such greedy SOB's in the first place maybe there wouldn't be so many disgrundled workers in the US. Multi-million dollar salaries while the average worker barely survives in todays world.

ARGHHHHHH