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hundreds of hours of experience in each succeeding step upward in complexity and performance, both of the airplane and the airspace in which it flies. But is it necessary to work your way incrementally up the line over several years, sometimes having to reach back decades in airplane model and equipment to fill a gap when there is no current- production equivalent available?
Do you need to buy-sell-buy-sell- buy, and sell again, going through the hassles of swapping airplanes every few years when you can buy the jet you want now and train in it until you are single-pilot ready? Do you have to step up incrementally to achieve your goal, or in today’s world, can you efficiently fast-track your way into the jet you want far sooner?
What It Takes
For purposes of this discussion we’ll assume money is no object. You can afford the airplane(s) personally, or through some combination of business use and tax advantages have what you owe the government diverted to cover most or all the costs of owning and operating your aircraft. Given the financial solution, what it takes to fly a light jet is training and experience. Recall that experience can be defined as learning by what happens to you, while training can be considered learning from the experiences of others. Training does not necessarily mean time spent with a Certificated Flight Instructor, but flying with a trained aviation educator is probably the most predictably successful way of learning to fly advanced aircraft.
Therefore, what is the minimum training and experience you need to fly a single-pilot jet? Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not all that much. At a minimum you’ll need a:
• Private Pilot certificate;
• Instrument rating;
• Multi-engine rating, if the jet has two (or more) engines;
• High Performance endorsement (although arguably this does not apply since jet thrust is not normally measured in horsepower);
• High Altitude endorsement; February 2017
• RSVM qualification, if the jet will be flown above FL290;
• Type Rating for the make and model of jet to be flown;
• Single-pilot authorization for that make/model jet, if the type rating distinguishes between single-pilot and two-pilot crew.
Except for the 40 total hours required for the Private certificate and the 40 hours of dual required for the Instrument rating (some of which may overlap), there are no further minimum hours required to fly as single pilot of a light jet. Of
emergency conditions. (One hint: if you aren’t familiar with the difference between “abnormal” and “emergency” procedures, you aren’t ready for a jet yet). The Type Rating Practical Test, in fact, focuses sharply on your knowledge of the airplane and its systems. It’s the same, exact check ride you’d take to earn your ATP. The only difference is you don’t have to have at least 1,500 hours; you aren’t required to do the simulator training now required to earn an ATP; and you don’t need to pass the ATP written exam to get a type rating. However, you must perform at the ATP level, even if you’re a Private/IFR pilot.
When considering your path to stepping into your first light jet, your success depends more on your attitude and discipline applied to whatever type of airplane you currently fly.
course, no one is going to get in the left seat of a jet in 80 hours of training (solo time toward the Private is technically supervised instruction). But you don’t have to have 2,000 or 1,500 or even 500 or 300 hours total time to earn single-pilot jet privileges.
The real question is: what do you need to know to be in command of a light jet? In addition to the basics of visual, instrument and night f light, you’ll need to master operations in all these arenas. You’ll need intimate familiarity with both low- and high-altitude airspace rules and requirements. You must be an expert on aviation weather in the low and high altitude regimes. Human factors education is vital as you’ll be operating at a fast pace under extreme workloads in all kinds of weather with pilot fatigue as a constant concern. On top of this all, you need to know your airplane’s systems, procedures and techniques intimately, in normal, abnormal and
How To Get It
This brings us back to our original question: what is the best way to get all this experience? Is it better to learn incrementally, gradually moving your way up while delaying your end goal? Or can you go virtually straight from first airplane (trainer) to last (single-pilot jet), from Alpha to Omega, without the years in between?
Certainly, it’s possible to make the jump to jet-speed in one great leap. That’s what the military does, right? Jet pilots go into combat with less than 400 hours. For a while the U.S. Air Force started pilots on Day One in jet airplanes. Why learn propeller habits when your target is mastery of a jet? Of course, military pilots don’t even begin training until they’ve passed a battery of physical and knowledge testing that eliminates most those who apply before they ever strap into an airplane. Pilot training is a full- time, seven-day-a-week job. Trainees
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