Hi Nooby, yes the gross weight increase is a big issue, and the use of the forward baggage compartment floor is another big issue for operators who have aircraft without the aux fuel tank. While in Vergiate I got the distinct impression that the engineering department at Agusta was focused on the Japan Coast Guard contract as it is 20 ships in a 2 year delivery schedule. One look at the JCG machines and you can tell there is a heck of a lot of new mods specific to their mission requirements and the approvals for these mods are going to take a lot of manhours and paperwork.
Also too If your going there to go over a new machine be very thorough with the paperwork as I found several errors on the Equipment list and Chart A / Chart C
Last edited by AB139engineer; 1st Jan 2008 at 07:48.