Jun 12 2007
Week One
Well, we just wrapped up the systems exam on the Sovereign and have only the performance exam to go before all the formal classroom learning is complete. Here’s a recap of what week 1 of 3 has to offer at Flight Safety in Wichita.
My partner (the new hire Captain for the aircraft) and I arrived in Wichita on Sunday before the first class which started Monday. We did the usual hotel check in and rental car pickup and then arrived for class Monday morning. Everyone at FS has been great and the instructors in the Sovereign program are upbeat and enthusiastic in part due to the fact that this relatively new program and aircraft haven’t burned them out yet. They’ve all come from a background on different Citations, most from the Citation X.
We got all our books and freebies from FS and the rest of the week is a bit of a blur. The systems are very straightforward on this aircraft with the exception of the Honeywell Epic avionics. This style of glass cockpit avionics is new to me and there are at least 3 ways to do any single function between the FMS and displays. There are also a number of limits imposed due to software glitches that are in the process of being fixed - the most annoying so far being the requirement to fly in cross pointer vice steering control at all times. This means there is a magenta colored horizontal and vertical line displayed on the attitude indicator at all times. Hopefully this and other faults will be fixed on the next version of software that has been promised by the end of this year.
So the first week went by with a lot of new information and long days in the classroom. We transitioned to a computer touch screen trainer for two sessions and we’re finally in the sim for the remainder of our time here. We ended up with the late time slot (10pm-2am) but at least our instructor is laid back and patient with our slow progression through the checklists and cockpit setup, but what can you expect from one retired airline pilot and one former military pilot. I can’t wait for our first 135 flight to see the real comedy begin… at least by then we should be pretty comfortable in the airplane.
I’ll try to describe the sim sessions in a little more detail next post…