What Makes a "2 Pilot Aeroplane" a 2 Pilot Aeroplane
Ok, I'm not talking about a 777, although they are talking about single pilot cruise. I'm not talking about knobs and buttons and their placement but more ideology.
50 years ago when the first Citation came out, it had to have 2 pilots by law because it was a jet...all 300 and something kts of it. Now we have Phenom 300's that weigh twice as much and go 100 kts faster and is certified as single pilot. It apparently has wonderful avionics and automation that reduce the workload greatly. It used to be a limit of 5,700kg for single pilot, the phenom is around 8,500 kg. So why arbitarily stop there. Lets talk about 2 steps in GA land. A Citation Longitude and say a Gulfsatream G700. To make it simpler we'll make it Private Ops only - meaning no commercial pressure or schedules etc. You fly only if you want to fly.
Is stepping up to a Longitude then further up to a G700 intrinsically more difficult. Military types fly G700 equivalent weight fast jets single pilot onto aircraft carriers at night. Yes, that's a much more controlled situation with external resources etc. The Longitude seems like a bigger Phenom. The performance of the Longitude is a little sportier, but not by a huge margin.So is it mostly a throwback to earlier days.
What got me thinking was after binge watching Youtube from the USA, they are operating Latitudes and Longitudes (and other exotic types) with I presume the type rated rich owner in the left hand seat and any kid/wife with a PPL and an instrument rating. Some of these kids look really young. They seem to operate as a single pilot too, some right seaters don't even read the checklist.Yet in Oz we need two comand type rated dudes up front.Could we see the max weight for single pilot private ops dramatically increased?
Thoughts anyone.