Hey guys, the owner of my plane expressed to me that he'd like to add a phenom 300 to our "flight department". He likes the challenger for the distance but for short business trips he thinks he'd be better off with a small 6 seater. I've been in touch with the Embraer people and will be setting up a meeting/demo this week.

It looks great on paper. But what do you guys who actually fly it, think of it? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

 

Lol not one guy huh??? Awesome

 

I fly a Phenom 100. The G1000 sucks, I hate it, you can't even build a hold into the "FMS", amongst many other things. The interior is crap, and built very cheaply.

As far as the 300 it's a rocket and has a ton of baggage space. It doesn't have T/Rs so I'd be leery of operating it on contaminated surfaces.

If it were me I'd consider a Nextant 400XT. It has more range and a much better cabin.

Also for only a little bit more Bombardier is letting their remaining LJ60s go for around $9M.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to the Lear 60. I used to teach it at FSI Atlanta. Great airplane. I know nothing about this nextant. I'll look into though. You can't build a hold!?!? Who the hell designs an avionics suite without being able to do that?

 

Ohhh it's a beechjet on steroids. The owner refuses to fly beechjets. So much for that.

 

I also fly the Phenom 100, and I quite like the Garmin Prodigy avionics, but it is true you cannot build a hold. It will fly a published hold, however, on a missed approach. I like the Prodigy about as much as the Proline 21 I used to use, with the exception of the hold issue.

My biggest complaint about the Phenom is the brakes. At least the 300 has spoilers to dump lift and help you get your weight on the wheels, but you should be very careful about wet runways. Both the 100 and the 300 have quite a few cases of coming in to hot, and going off the end of the runway.

I have also not been impressed with the batteries, when it is cold out. The two Phenoms I fly have had battery replacements last winter. I understand there is an STC in the works (or maybe done already) for a better battery. If you are in a situation where a GPU is not usually available, this could really become a problem.

The last thing I would mention is that sometimes there are problems with the electronics. They say Embraer stands for "every mechanical breakdown requires an electrical reboot". Just a couple days ago, I had charter passengers in the back, and I'm running the after-start checks, and I see that I have no trim indications on the panel. I had to power down, and then back up, and they came back, and worked normally after that. I have seen similar problems on about 2% of my flights. Also messages like "both on GPS2", or "AHRS1 Inop". I take it to Embraer, and typically get the plane back with a writeup saying "unable to replicate fault". Maybe this sounds bad, but as an ex-freight dog, I have seen much worse, and problems with the Phenom are comparatively rare.

 

Garmin. Coming from the CRJ the G1000 is pretty but it has no brains. It can't do a whole lot of stuff.

If you want some numbers run on the P100 let me know. I have ARINC direct and APG.

I agree with most of the stuff 1Wingnut said. However our planes brakes constantly, our dispatch reliability rate is 93%. Fleet wide the Phenom is at 98.5% for the last 12 months.

I'm in Singapore, the customer support is great, idn how it is in the US though. In the past 6 months I've had 3 AOGs in foreign countries and they've had a mechanic and parts at the plane within 12-18 hours.

 

I really appreciate the feedback guys, dispatch reliability is of the utmost importance for my passengers. We do very little pleasure flying, its almost all business.

I was recently told to look into the G150 as well, so that maybe another path to take. I'm a 4000 hour CRJ guy so Proline is my bread and butter. The G150 has that which i like. We got a Phenom 300 demo flight scheduled first week of october, im hoping they let me fly it

 

Buen Dia,

We operate the 100 and 300 at my company. We are 98+% reliable for dispatch.
I personally have no problems with the G1000 system. Although it can't build a hold......how often do you really need to? Maybe once every six months you have to do a little work and fly a hold.
The 300 is leaps and bounds better that the 100. Climbs to FL450 in 22 mins and averages 850lbs/hr fuel burn there. The biggest thing about landing performance is that the airplane will float....therefore....do not come in fast and dont hold it off looking for a greaser. The trailing link gear will give good landings all the time. The 1900 nm range is quite good for the size of the bird.
I have had legs such as MMSD (Cabo)-CYYC (Calgary) with good weather.

Good luck and enjoy the demo! They will let you fly

 

I'm not sure about the phenom 300 either, but we are supposed to demo one in the next few weeks. I do agree with everyone else about the G1000 though. Having to take a jet in and out of nav mode with turning in a course is a little old school... Seriously, this is supposed to be high-tech Garmin stuff. We have synthetic vision with our G1000, but it's not smart enough to allow us to type a hold in through the box.

On the other hand, the G150 is a great airplane, and pretty easy to fly. I love the Collins Pro-Line as well. However, that's moving on up a bit from the Phenom 300 size. I would think a CJ4 or Lear 40/70 would be a lot more comparable in size to the 300. I'll repost some info after we demo the Phenom in a few weeks. Good luck!