Gulfstream G-550 Return On Experience Required

[ANTI-ICE ON]

Greetings to all,

I am currently conducting a business aircraft comparison for a corporation in the process of selecting 1 aircraft for purchase, and would like to have the return on experience from G550 Operators, Pilots, Engineers and Mechanics.

I would indeed appreciate your FACTUAL and OBJECTIVE opinion on the following:

1) What kind of issues would you foresee in regularly (everyday) operating a G550 with 14 to 16 passengers ?

2) What range can you get out of a 550 with 14 to 16 passengers and their luggage (with commercial operations fuel reserves) ?

3) What is the maximum baggage floor load limitation of the G550 (if any) ?

4) How challenging would it be to load / unload all those pieces of luggage several times a day ?

5) What would be a reasonable minimum turn around time on ground ?

6) As opposed to the Legacy, Lineage or Challenger 850, which design are based on initially extremely reliable “airliners”, is the G550 conceived for intense everyday operation (3 to 4 flights per day) ?

7) What are the main and recurrent maintenance issues that you have faced with the G550 ?

8) What were the main causes for aircraft on ground ?

9) How many days a year of immobilization (maintenance or other reasons) per month / year have you experienced on average ?

10) What are according to you the operational pros / cons of the G550 ?

11) If given the choice what other aircraft (with somewhat of a comparable range) would you rather operate / fly in the given conditions above (14 to 16 passengers everyday) ?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

A/I On :ok:

[lanef300]

Hi!

Regarding limitations and range, you may find interesting informations and charts there:
SmartCockpit - Gulfstream G550 (http://www.smartcockpit.com/plane/gulfstream/G550/)
Hopefully people with more knowledge about the plane will be able to answer your questions...

Fly safe!

[canadairguy]

A/I On
I presume you're being compensated for your comparison. It seems pretty cheeky to ask someone to provide all the data - or "factual opinions" as you refer to it, without offering to share that compensation. :hmm:

[ANTI-ICE ON]

Hello lanef 300,

Thank you for your reply. I shall have a look at the link you provided and go from there.
Happy landings to you.

Canadairguy,

To answer your question, NO I am not compensated for my study, therefore unable to compensate you for your very constructive inputs, such as the one you provided today...

Being totally aware of the current world situation, I totally sympathize with my colleagues in the industry going through a rough time and hopefully it is not your case. Otherwise, trust me you'll find it pretty hard to make a living out of getting paid for answering some basic questions on an aviation forum.

Moreover, I have on many occasions through my career in aviation provided my help to fellow aviators and found out that many of them did the same in return without systematically asking for a compensation. It turned out to be very beneficial for both sides.

I wish you all the best.

A/I On.

[smallfry]

I have to say I do agree with Canadair guy.

However, I will give you some info.

The crucial thing you did not tell us is what sector length you are looking at, and what is the baggage - that needs to be unloaded and loaded 4-5 times a day? The Gulfstream baggage door is 2m off the ground. Get tiring to load without a baggage belt.

The G does not like flying 4-5 short (1-2 hour) sectors a day. That is not what it is built for. It can and will do it easily, but it will devalue the aeroplane with more cycles than flight hours!

The Legacy is, like you say, based on the embraer 135/145, and is built to do lots of short sectors, and will carry a large baggage load (can carry baggage for 50 pax in airline config.)

The Gulfstream is really good at what it is designed to do, long legs. So if you fly 2 long legs a day, that is better than beating it to death with lots of short sectors.

Also dispatch reliability all depends on you - and your maintainance plan. If the aircraft returns home to its hangar with a full time engineer every night... it should be bullet proof. If you try to operate it remotely for weeks on end with little or no scheduled maintainance then you will have problems.

I will also add, that unless you get the Embraer and the Gulfstream with non standard (read extra cost) high density seating, you will have very uncomfortable passengers on a G550 in standard layouts with 14-16 passengers on every leg. Depending on your layout you might have weight and balance issues as well, and the galley cannot, in VIP configuration, cope with 14-16 meals 4-5 times a day. Very few corporate / VIP configured aircraft would. Nor would your FA like it at all!

Having said that I think that you would be better off talking to the manufacturers about figures than hoping to get an average of our input!

Good luck with whatever you decide on, but unless your backing is uber wealthy, I imagine that the deciding factor will be cost, and the Embraer is half the price to buy, and probably half the price to run.

[NOSIGN]

Business and Commercial Aviation magazine addressed several of your questions on the Gulfstream and the Embraer. I can't remember which monthly issue it was but if i find them i'll PM you.

[ANTI-ICE ON]

Smallfry, lanef, Nosign

Thank you all for your feed back. :ok:

I will continue researching in the directions and areas you indicated, and I am sure to reach some constructive conclusions for this potential owner.

I hope it all goes forward and creates some more jobs.

A/I On.

[Mach Tuck]

You do not state where you intend to operate this aircraft.

Unless things have changed recently, if you are operating in Europe the JAA registered G550's weight and balance envelope is much more restrictive than it is on other registers. You are unlikely to get the payloads you desire without first exceeding the MZFWt or the forward edge of the C:G envelope.

As for range, payload is almost academic for an aircraft with the G550's fuel capacity. Fully fuelled you can put some five people in the cabin and fly for around thirteen hours. Each additional POB will reduce the endurance by some 6 minutes (48nm).

Good luck with the project.

MT

[fl610]

US registered G550 full fuel, 8pax and 4crew.

[flybywire380]

Does this op require any crews?