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only as good as the instructor with whom you are interfacing. At every one of the Part 142 schools, you will find a range of instructor quality, both in terms of depth of knowledge and in instructional talent/personality.
If you have had a positive experience with an instructor, request them again. Yes, there is something to be said for learning from multiple teachers, but more can be learned from one excellent instructor than from a dozen mediocre ones, so if you find a jewel in the rough, don’t be afraid to stick with them.
Also, understand that some sim instructors, sometimes even the good ones, don’t naturally “think outside of the box.” If attending your first sim-based recurrent training, or the first one after several years of in-aircraft recurrent checks, consider having an experienced instructor accompany you through the training. Some schools will offer your instructor a discounted, or even free, recurrent course if they attend with you, and paying to have an experienced (and good) instruc- tor sit in the right seat with you during your sim sessions can be invaluable.
An experienced in-aircraft instructor often will be quicker to diagnose what you could do to improve a task, rather than simply “repeat it until it’s passable,” often the sim instructor’s go-to. They can also spend extended time after the session in a debrief with you, perhaps practicing chair flying of a rough maneuver, or reviewing an avionics or instrument procedure finer point you are having trouble grasping.
Step III: Advocate for Yourself
This really is step zero. Getting a progressive check, a TCE, a good instructor will all require advocating for yourself, and not passively allowing the training to fall as it will. The ad- vocating doesn’t stop with the start of training, though. For a top-notch recurrent experience, you must be prepared to keep up the advocating each and every day of training.
A key way to do this is to come prepared to use every minute of sim time you’ve paid for. It costs more to rent most sims than it does to fly the airplane for the same amount of time, so don’t let any of that expensive box time to go to waste. If you finish all the required tasks 15 minutes early, don’t just take a long coffee break, but ask to use the time to work on something.
What to work on? That’s another job you have before you show up for day one. Prepare a list of things you’d like to do in the sim such as difficult approaches, challenging weather conditions, landings, etc. Have a list ahead of time, maybe even have the approach plates printed or bookmarked, and it will be easy to extract the most value from the sim time you’ve bought.
Understand the difference between flying that can “count” for the purposes of required training and checking and that which can’t. But don’t be afraid of asking for the latter. For ex- ample, the FAA has only certified a small handful of airports as having the visual characteristics needed to perform a circling approach. Any circling approach that will be conducted as part
of an approved syllabus or the PPC must be performed at one of these airports. However, if you perform a certain circling approach regularly, there’s no reason it can’t be done during any extra time left over once the required items are completed.
Finally, if despite careful up-front planning and strong advocating during your course, you’re still not getting what you need out of the training, don’t give up. Meet with both the program manager (in charge of the type you’re training in) and the facility manager (in charge of the entire training center) and lay out the issues you’re having, and what you need to get better training.
This article first appeared in the most recent edition of Citation Jet Pilots Association’s safety publication Right Seat. While originally written for Citation owner-pilots, the article contains valuable information for owner-pilots of any business jet aircraft. We thank CJP and Neil Singer for allowing us to republish it for the T & T readers.
Neil Singer is a 10,000-hour turbine mentor and designated examiner. A former charter and airline pilot, he instructs in the CJ and Mustang series, as well as in the Embraer Phenom 100 and 300. His website is www.njsflight.com.
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