Mike Jenvey
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2006
- Posts
- 175
<<<< They also have soon to be wet ticket 500 or so hour pilots flying in the right seats of all those planes.>>>>
No Sir-ee! Our cadet scheme will only permit them to go to the small fleets (Bravo & H400, with the top of each course - I think - going to H800 or XL); they won't get near a Falcon (or larger) for a while! Currently, I think that the maximum intake will be 48 such pilots per year, about a quarter of our current recruitment targets. They won't just finish their F/ATPL course, do type rating & go straight onto line training; they will fly designated sectors (30 - 40?) purely on ferry flights to our most popular airports, then start line training. Incidentally, their flight course includes unusual attitude training, mixed IFR/VFR operating & "enhanced" CRM training in their simulator.
As to numbers of aircraft, I'm sure that there are politics involved - but I would like to bet that maintenance practicalities might be a factor, easier to get a fleet of Falcons serviced over in Europe than lots of Citation X for example?? I don't know if anyone has considered it as a reason, but I guess it will be a simpler transition from F2000 EX/LX to the F7X, "same" flightdeck. I think we are getting our first LX in Sep this year, & up-grading our EXs to LXs, retro-fitting the wingtips.
Although the Falcon LX will help out considerably for the westbound trips, London or Paris to KTEB direct, the F7X will permit many more of our owners to do so (from Moscow for example). One amazing performance expectation - to fly from London City airport (steep - 5.5 deg - approach, LDA 4330 ft, with special aircraft/crew certification; TORA 3930 ft, maximum 7.4% climbout gradient) direct to KTEB!!
No Sir-ee! Our cadet scheme will only permit them to go to the small fleets (Bravo & H400, with the top of each course - I think - going to H800 or XL); they won't get near a Falcon (or larger) for a while! Currently, I think that the maximum intake will be 48 such pilots per year, about a quarter of our current recruitment targets. They won't just finish their F/ATPL course, do type rating & go straight onto line training; they will fly designated sectors (30 - 40?) purely on ferry flights to our most popular airports, then start line training. Incidentally, their flight course includes unusual attitude training, mixed IFR/VFR operating & "enhanced" CRM training in their simulator.
As to numbers of aircraft, I'm sure that there are politics involved - but I would like to bet that maintenance practicalities might be a factor, easier to get a fleet of Falcons serviced over in Europe than lots of Citation X for example?? I don't know if anyone has considered it as a reason, but I guess it will be a simpler transition from F2000 EX/LX to the F7X, "same" flightdeck. I think we are getting our first LX in Sep this year, & up-grading our EXs to LXs, retro-fitting the wingtips.
Although the Falcon LX will help out considerably for the westbound trips, London or Paris to KTEB direct, the F7X will permit many more of our owners to do so (from Moscow for example). One amazing performance expectation - to fly from London City airport (steep - 5.5 deg - approach, LDA 4330 ft, with special aircraft/crew certification; TORA 3930 ft, maximum 7.4% climbout gradient) direct to KTEB!!