Jun 24 2007
Twasn’t pretty…
Well, my partner and I finished up our initial course and are now proud owners of a CE680 type rating! To say it wasn’t pretty is an understatement. We struggled from the beginning due to no fault but our own and we were able to hold it together enough to convince the examiner that we knew enough to be only a slight danger to ourselves and hopefully not to others. A fellow classmate put it best by saying this is just a license to learn and once we get some time in the aircraft we’ll gain confidence with each flight.
To recap the last week or so of the course, we finished the systems and performance exams without problem and then moved into the sim. The sim was a handful to fly at first while trying to figure out the right buttons to push at the right times. Our first attempts at stalls and steep turns were rough and early hand flying took some getting used to. After a few sessions with a very patient instructor we got the hang of it and finished up the sim training feeling pretty good. After digging ourselves some holes in the check flight we did manage to pull it together and both flew nice single engine ILS approaches, circling at mins, and no flap approaches. So I suppose we shouldn’t let a few minor errors stop us from enjoying the feeling of completing the course.
So now it’s off to flying some part 91 to start off next week and we’ll see where it goes from there.
Where is your Sovereign located? BTW, my understanding of the cross-pointer situation is that it is required when hand-flying. I actually prefer it over the single cue, anyway. It’s a lot like a conventional ILS display. Keep both needles centered up and all’s well. Like a LOC-GS cross-pointer. In fact, simplifies hand-flying the ILS, even on one engine.
You’re right, I believe that the cross pointer is only required when hand flying but the recommendation in school was to stay in cross pointer all the time so that when you transition from autopilot to hand flying you’ll already be set up. It took a little getting used to and the cross pointer is fairly simple to follow now. It’s just like following a localizer when flying any kind of departure or arrival procedure, or missed approach if required.