Lear Upgrade Time

[LJDRVR]

Sorry man,

I misread the context of your original post as flamebait. I see what you meant now. Mea Culpa.

I think most of us who've flown Lears have experienced varying degrees of the type of individual you were unfortunate enough to encounter. These "Lear Gods" practice airmanship and flight discipline on a sliding scale, responding to external circumstances such as time and money. (Rarely risk or procedural or regulatory guidance) These cretins regale their unfortunate partners with tales of their supreme abilities and outright falshoods concerning matters of technique. I once had one of the gentlemen tell me: "If you get to minimums and can see the ground vertically, you can continue the approach, you'll get the lights." (!!!) My personal favorite: "You guys need to quit being such pu__ies about fuel, the engines will still run when the gauge reads zero." (!!!!!!!)

I'm glad you survived you experience with your certificate and life intact. Many have not. The worst thing about being an FO in the twenty series cockpit was that emergency brake handle digging into your left thigh.

So, anyone else got any funny and/or sad lunatic Captain stories? (I hope none of the guys I fly with respond)

Blue Skies,

 

[Timebuilder]

I'll preface this with the following disclaimer: I have never flown the twenty series.

That said, I have received a bunch of anecdotal info from those who have.

This means that I have concluded that the twenty series is more difficult to manage than are the TFE 731'd, longer-winged cousins, so I imagine that it would take a little longer to become really proficient in a 20.

Your comfort level is important. You have a lot of good advice here in this thread. Out of your 700 hours in the plane, how much of that is stick time? 40? 150? There's a big difference. The auto pilot? I'd rather hand fly the aiplane too, which I have done in the 55 right up to 410. The problem is not only flying a coupled approach, as was mentioned, but also just remaining proficient in the use of the AP, period. Our Lears had three diferent verions of the AP, and my captains expected the AP to be used ASAP. This made the use problematic with a lack of stick time due to passenger enplanements at home base or captains who needed to fly for their own proficiency or peace of mind.

If you have FSDO approval, a good comfort level, know the aiplane and the memory items cold, and are insurable, then go for it, even if it's just the type and PIC check without the position of captain. At out place, "captain" meant about 700 to 1200 hours in type and a bunch of stick time.

Hope this helps your decision process.