Whether you are flying a VLJ (very light jet) or Light Jet… or a high performance warbird, consider the importance of your initial training, type rating and core risk mitigation skills. You’ve jumped into a machine that requires either military or professional level training.
No matter what your jet, if it is your first, odds are you will want some extra preparation before traveling to your first full motion simulator based training, check ride and type rating.
Know The Facts
- Failure rate: 30% to 50% of new type rating applicants who have never flown professionally or in a high performance aircraft experience check ride failures.
- The basics: IFR preparation is typically a culprit – in the simulator you will regularly fly to minimums, execute a go around / missed approach and you’ll do that on one engine. If your IFR skills aren’t tip top – it is a difficult experience. Attitude flying, holds, instrument departures (either ODPs or SIDs), arrivals need to be second nature.
- The glass: A young CFI who just got out of a G1000 Cessna 172 can fare better than a 10,000 DC-9 Captain raised on steam gauges. Sound crazy? It isn’t. Knowing how to manage a PFD and an MFD with ease while hand flying is a key skill. Know what the automation is doing, why it is doing it and what’s coming next on the “score board.”
- New things: To the unfamiliar, jet aircraft require a thorough understanding of profiles (how you’ll fly), flows (how you’ll accomplish pre-checklists), memory items (things you’ll do before reaching for a checklist) and knowing the difference between a checklist and a QRH – quick reference handbook.
- The tough things: Learning that while you are in a high pressure environment, there is actually plenty of time to accomplish tasks, especially during emergencies. Being able to manage check ride anxiety, needless future-izing and other counter productive tendencies get new pilots through the ride smoothly.
Mentoring Onsite – Post Rating
Insurance companies are increasingly reluctant to set new owners free without a substantial amount of time in type and that means SOE – supervised operational experience. The key in hiring a professional jet mentor is leveraging what matters most:
- Much like your IFR rating, what is legal, isn’t necessarily safe.
- Understand CRM with two and when it is just you. Either way having good cockpit “feng shui” as we call it, helps you understand how it all fits together.
- Learn the hazards and challenges of visual approaches in the real aircraft – you’ll be doing these a lot – why not master them?
- Learning the box – sit with pros who have thousands of FMS hours of various flavors, be it Garmin, Honeywell, or Universal – odds are that our mentors have a few tricks to help you leverage the full computing power at your disposal.
Schedule a time with your next type rating instructor and mentor here.
*The content of this page was compiled with the help of Neil Singer, is a Phenom 100 and 300 examiner, and Citation Jet 525 series mentor and instructor.