Cessna released its new Cessna Sport/Private Pilot Course this week to its Pilot Center network, in anticipation of starting deliveries of the Skycatcher light sport aircraft later this year. “The new training program is a key component of Cessna’s effort to make flying more accessible and to re-energize pilot training,” said Tom Aniello, Cessna’s vice president of marketing. The Web-based training, developed in partnership with King Schools, makes it easy for students to access training materials from any location, Cessna said in a news release. The program can be customized by instructors to reflect the local training environment, and it can be used with either a full-glass cockpit or analog steam gauges. Features include scenario-based lessons, videos, full-motion diagrams, and exam reviews.
The first Skycatcher fabricated and assembled on production tooling flew in China two weeks ago, and performed a number of handling quality tests during the flight. The airplane features a Garmin G300 avionics system. Cessna says it has more than 1,000 orders for the Skycatcher. There are more than 280 Cessna Pilot Centers around the world.
