Silver Wings said:
Maybe BUSINESS to all the bitchin pilots here is all about wearing shades, eatin bbq and trying hard to hang onto the cool :-(
OF COURSE its all about the BBQ!
But seriuosly, good thoughts there silverwings, and I'm not gonna flame. Having spent time in both the airline 145 and the Legacy, it's a verry different bird. The big complaints about the RJ are noise and cramped quarters, right? Since the Legacy isn't built as light as possible to eke out every ounce of FAA-reweighted payload, sound insulation is actually used. It's amazing what a difference a few hundred pounds of noise blankets makes..
On the space issue, all I can say is DUH!! Anybody been on a CRJ lately? I don't see anybody bitching that a Challenger 604 or Global is cramped, but the POS CRJ has to be the least comfortable airline jet in existance, even worst than the ERJ. It's 4-across with only 16 inches more cabin width than the Embraer. My point is, whether it was a corporate plane converted for airline use or an airliner converted to corporate doesn't matter (except for the added benefit of airline-spec durability) Any plane originally designed for 37 people now fitted with a 15 seat interior will be quite roomy, and shouldn't be judged by those that have only seen the airline version.
Now, in my current life as an airline 170 driver, I have to say that I'm ecstatic about the forthcoming Lineage. I'm not going to call it a BBJ killer because it's not. The Legacy was never meant as a G-5 killer, either. What the Lineage will do is provide a giant cabin for 4000 mile missions like US-Europe, US Transcons, Europe-Mideast, etc.
If you're truly going halfway around the world like NYC-Perth all the time this may not be the best ride for you, but if it's a once or twice a year event, you're paying for a lot of unneeded capability the rest of the time. Any plane is going to require a tech stop, and the question just becomes 2 stops vs. 1 in the big G or BBJ. The time difference will be minimal since the 170 is as fast as the BBJ, and may even be able to do it in the same time since it can use HSC with the two stops rather than LRC and one-stop, and still burn less gas than the Boeing.
The Lineage will come from the factory with CAT III capability via HUD and/or Autoland (customer choice, both available and certified), Chart-View available on the Epic map displays, Autothrottles, any comm setup desired, whatever layout you can design, and a truly quiet interior.
The software issues referred to a few posts back are gone now. I can bring a 170 from totally cold to ready to push in 8 minutes, without the help of a mechanic. On the odd occasion that something does go goofy on the startup, a reboot cures it 99% of the time. Since a responsible crew has the plane powered up and ready to go before the boss gets there anyway, it's not an issue.
BTW, the current record longest thread is here:
http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=35874
134 pages and counting.
77 pages, do I hear 77??
..CT