Originally Posted by
oldchina
If you want to know more about how competitive selling aircraft is ...
... don't believe anything anyone tells you about discounts.
Are you saying that I'm telling lies about the BMA deal? Anyway it's not
just about discounts and that is the point I was trying (obviously unsuccessfully) to make. The competitor(s) will use every trick in the book to try to wrest the sale from you. In one case the competitor put the accident record of the aircraft we were trying to sell in front of the president of the airline the day before we were due to sign the contract. In my world it's difficult to have respect for people like that. KnC is entitled to his opinion, but if you were in BAC Commercial, then you would know that discounts don't always mean money
per se. It can mean additional equipment or spares, a part-exchange deal, a longer contract for the product support engineer(s), the list is virtually endless. You will also be aware that not everyone wants to pay with money, so discounts are somewhat difficult to calculate when you're trying to work out how many pineapples/barrels of oil or cu. m of gas to buy in exchange for the aircraft!
Anyway, KnC has made his points and the record speaks for itself. I shall not comment further.
Dave Reid:
The mod mentioned in the TC (JDM30039B) was to shorten the nose leg, so that one wouldn't have improved the prop/ground clearance. Presumably a prior mod had lengthened it from the original design.
That's correct. I can't quote the details, because I was not directly involved, but I do remember that the prop to ground clearance was a problem in the initial design stage.