Proline 21 Very Nice. Epic? Me don't know.
Bombardier support -- PATHETIC (Don't take my word for it, read the latest AIN and Pro Pilot surveys) .
The CL30 is a sexy airplane. Trust me, it performs much better than a G200 if you are going anywhere hot and high.
The CL30 does not have INS (or IRU) available even as an option. While those things suck for Nav anyway(5.6 miles off course...yada yada), if you are out over the big blue and you lose your GPS, you will love them like that Farrah Fawcett poster you used to have on your wall.
imp:
Many of the things that were standard equipment on the CL30 were RIDICULOUS airline spec B.S. No HF, single Nav comm, single FMS, etc... Are they so F'n Stupid that they don't realize that they are selling to Fortune 500 customers? A. YES THEY ARE. They were just trying to make it look like their aircraft was cheaper than the Galaxy / G200. Imagine BMW offering a 7 series with cloth seats, no power windows or door lock, no CD, no Navi, no HID, and a manual tranny. That's was your base price CL30 $17.5 Million thank you very much.
Now, many of those items are standard equipment, so we can quit playing games with the French Canadiens. You always got the feeling like they were trying to treek zee stuuupeed Amerikaans. And they probably were. The CL30 is STILL having teething pains 6 years after certification (which is unacceptable). If your boss does not like being stranded in BFE, get the G200 or you will be unemployed with a CL30 type rating.
The problem is not with the aircraft (it really is a great machine). The problem is with Bombardier. They refuse to acknowledge that their masterpiece could possibly be flawed. Eeeet mussst be summmtzing zat you are doing wrong. Oh, did I mention their training sucks? Ask anyone who has flown that sim. It is unreal that the FAA certified that thing to cat D.
It is a more complicated aircraft than the G200 Avionics and certification wise. Perhaps it is too complicated for a company like Bombardier to support. I know one thing for sure. While I love the CL30 I would NEVER buy a Global. At that price range, there is no excuse in the world that would placate a competent CEO as to why he is stuck on the ramp in BFE and it may be a few days. These things are Time Machines for weathly high powered people. If you take that away or put it in doubt, you have lost your reason for existence.
I would not buy a G200, but I would definitely look at a G250. Talk to a Gulfstream salesperson. They can probably craft a deal to get you into a preowned G200 with a promise of an early delivery on a G250 (I'm guessing / hoping it's gonna be the same type rating?). I think that the Hawker 4000 might be a great aircraft too (Honeywell Avionics - but at least current gen.) Maybe Raytheon was too cautious and should have rushed that plane to market like Bombardier did with the CL30.
