Hi guys,
Yes - sorry speedbird59, we have hijacked your thread, but I didn't think you would mind, since we are here to create discussion.
Also we have all been at your stage, so please don't feel left out - do you have aspirations for an aviation career, or is it a hobby?
To answer your question about J41 - I have never flown it, but I have flown in it and will gladly give my observations. It is a great performer - it certainly goes, and leaves the Dash-8(SAX again) standing. They TAS at about 280 knots. Also the water meths injection(not standard on a J41, but we have 3 or 4 so equiped) gives it great short field performance. We use it at Nelspruit, which has a 900m runway & temperatures routinely hit 30 deg C
On the down side, BAe have put out a SB that reduces performance on J41 with props that have over 6000hours. This translates into a payload loss of just over 600kgs which is a lot on a 29 seat aircraft(this can be upto half the available pax load at times) Also another problem is the the J41 is the only aircraft that uses a certain model of Macauley prop. Since the J41 is no longer in production we cannot obtain any more props. This has seriously damaged the viability of the J41 in our operation, and I suspect that if BAe cannot come up with solutions, then the J41 may be on it's way out even faster than anticipated.
The Claw, I think you may be right about SAX, however at least one friend of mine that flies the CRJ claims that they are a valuable asset, since there is a big waiting list, and the rand/dollar exchange rate - blah, blah blah. I dunno if it's true.
Also, just to do a bit of rumour mongering. There is a strong possibility that SAX & Airlink will merge sometime next year. The experts are doing their homework and I think they will go ahead if they can iron out all the potential problems.
Regards
