Flying the G-III - the Good, Bad and Ugly

[G4G5]

IMHO The GIII is still the prettiest corporate aircraft ever built. I just wish that I had the opportunity to fly a straight pipe GIIB, now that was an awesome aircraft.

I have been an A&P on all of the big 3. As far as Challengers, I was always impressed with their electric flaps. Althougth the ones on my Cessna 172 work better. That lower avionics bay is for the birds.

 

[Gatorman]

sheeesh G5Flyer

Gee, I did not mean to get you upset about a GIII, I just said that I perfer to work on Challengers and made a couple funnies about the designing of the aircraft. I even said the guys liked them.

But if you need to know the truth about customer support between the two companies....
Since I worked at GAC in the planning dept for a time I can tell you that the only reason that you are getting good C/S from them is that you are tooling around in a G5. If you were to want maintenance on a GII/GIII....you will have to wait until they feel like working on one before they will call you back.

I have had to deal with Bombardier for the past 14 years and except for that very ugly period in time when Gulfstream bought KC Aviation, I never had a problem with engineering, part sales or customer support.
Since then, I have taken up work at another repair station with several of my old KC friends and we banter back and forth at which aircraft is the better. While the Falcon representive of our group holds his hands behind is head, kicked back in the chair laughing at us saying, "Falcons just don't have that problem"

 

[TIS]

I had to reply to this:

"While the Falcon representive of our group holds his hands behind is head, kicked back in the chair laughing at us saying, "Falcons just don't have that problem""

No they have other problems - and they're in FRENCH!

My wife had one awhile back whose feet wouldn't go away. The problem: ONE microswitch had gone bad. Had to make an overweight landing and everything because of one microswitch. MmmmHmmm ... that's some fine engineering.

They're pretty though!

TIS

 

[TAG2]

Gii Mx

But if you need to know the truth about customer support between the two companies....
Since I worked at GAC in the planning dept for a time I can tell you that the only reason that you are getting good C/S from them is that you are tooling around in a G5. If you were to want maintenance on a GII/GIII....you will have to wait until they feel like working on one before they will call you back.

I have not found that to be the case most of the time. Our most recent mx experience with Savannah is going on as we speak. Gulfstream bent over backwards to accomodate us with our ever changing schedule so that their schedule would work with our boss's schedule. I did notice a little bit of an attitude at the Longbeach Service Center a few years back when we taxied up with an "old" airplane as many of those guys had never even worked on one.

I must say, the GII/GIII is an awsome airplane to fly and will put a smile on any pilots face as he climbs to 390/410 in less than 20 minutes at 300 kts./M .80. They are extremely reliable and very redundant. They only negative I can think of is these fine machines are being phased out by technology (RVSM) and idiots that buy a house near an airport and then don't like airplane noise. Corrosion also becomes an expensive issue for these aircraft.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Falcons are great if you operate out of 4000' strips or live in Apsen, that is where the legendary performance comes from. Other than that Falcon performance SUCKS compared to the other big 2 (Gulfstream and Bombardier) - and pretty?? aint nothing pretty about a Falcon when its parked next to a GV....

Now, reliability, - this one the French HAVE figured out. They just run and run..and thats a big plus.


"We do with finnesse what Gulfstream does with power"....Dassault


thanks, I'll take the power.

 

[TIS]

The landing gear thing was just ONE issue

There are many others!

TIS