Flight Training

I remember my first flight in a Level D simulator. It was abusiness jet, and I was lost among the electronic flat-panel displays, auto-throttles, andflight management systems. Totally “where-the-heck’s-the-airspeed-indicator”lost. Apparently I wasn’t the first person to stare confusedly at the glass cockpit like itwas a wall of televisions at an electronics store. “That’s why you […]

AVweb subscribers are invited to share their own most interesting primary flight training experiences with the rest of the AVweb community. To participate, simply write a 500- to 1,500-word story about how you learned to fly, and submit it via e-mail to training@avweb.com. If you care to attach a photo or three, that’s even better. […]

Now that you’re enrolling in flight training, it’salmost like being back in school again. There is one significant difference, however. Nowyou have a choice. When you were a kid in grammar or high school your teachers were assigned to you: thatwas it, cut and dried, no argument. Now as a prospective aviation student and customer,you […]

Using mnemonics is an effective way to learn airspaceclassifications, and nothing suits Class B airspace better than the letter B. Class Bairspace surrounds “Big” airports in a shape that looks like a big upside downwedding cake. Class B airspace isn’t reserved only for big airplanes, however. Flying toand from a Class B airport or transitioning […]

Traditionally, FlightSafety Internationaloffered simulator-based recurrent training only for pilots of piston twins, turboprops and jets. In 1988, however, the company inaugurated a new series of programs for single-engine pilots. FlightSafety now has single-engine simulators for Beech Bonanza 33/35/36, Cessna 210/T210/P210, and Mooney 201/205/231/252/TLS/PFM/MSE. The Beech and Cessna sims are in Wichita, while the Mooney sim […]

In 1986, FlightSafety Internationalconducted a statistical study to compare the accident rates of piston-twin pilots who had trained with FlightSafety to those who had not. This study analyzed US-registered Cessna and Piper piston twin-engine aircraft that were involved in fatal accidents during the years 1983 and 1984. Cessna 337 (centerline-thrust) aircraft were excluded. Out of […]

I never intended to buy a twin, actually. I was perusing Trade-A-Plane looking for a nice T210 or P210. But you know how it goes…it’s impossible to resist the urge to see what Lear Jets or King Airs or DC-3s are going for. And so it was that I noticed that the market for piston […]