Nice to return to the board with talk regarding my office. The noise everyone seems to be mystified about (or worried about) is the aerodynamics in action during the retraction and deployment of the flaps. It only occurs from the 0-18 degree position and the same in reverse. True... we call it jurrasic park, or the moaning dinosaur. As for the pitch during decent, that is all based on the pilot flying and his/her controls. We can come down like a brick if we have to... and many times have got it up to 5,000 feet per minute because of a poor vector or a late decent by ATC. The RJ85 is really a small mainline jet - as witnessed by most other operators of the airplane in the world. "Regional" is relative... From Aspen to New York and Regina to Pensacola and many points inbetween hardly counts as the true meaning of "Regional." We're actually a NATIONAL carrier... The controlers in DTW, MSP and MEM do a VERY good job calling us BacJets or Avroliners - to distinguish us from the CRJ for indentification purposes.

Let's also keep in mind why there are only 69 seats and are so roomy. If NW had their way - they would oeprate it with 100 seats. But because of the NW pilots scope clause the plane is limited to less than 70 seats. It's a great marketing tool - but it's comfyness is definitely not 100% based on the customer.

We are proud of our "Smurfjet", "Ken and Barbie Funjet", "Chubby", "Bacjet" or whatever the nickname of the day may be.


AZJ

[This message has been edited by azj (edited 01-20-2003).]