PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Moving up from 1 Pilot CJ4 to 2 pilot Citation 10
Old 25th Jan 2012, 05:45
  #10 (permalink)  
FlyTCI
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: on earth
Posts: 274
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I have never flown a CJ4 but I am typed in the XL and currently fly the X as a captain. What concerns me about the OP is that it seems he's trying to get by with the very bare minimums to fly the X, and as stated above by several members, that is ludacris. A captain with great experience in high performance jets might pull it off with a low hour guy in the right seat, but it's not something I would like to have any part of. This thing will bite you if you don't treat it correctly, and it can bite you fast! Do you have to be a fighter jock to be able to fly it? No. But it has a very swept wing and speed management is of essence, among other things. You will have to focus on flying the airplane while your other crew member is trying to figure out how to re-program the FMS after the last minute change ATC threw at you during approach. No two heads down at the same time, as you should know by now.

The difference with the 250 hr guys going into Boeings and Airbuses is that they (normally) have gone though rather rigorous airline training prior to getting into that seat. In the biz av world most people can pull through a less intense three week initial type course at FSI or CAE and pass. That does not always make them ready to actually get into the airplane itself. I spent 500 hrs in various Citation sims through CAE's right seat program and I must have been part of close to 100 checkrides. I did not see one single client fail! I did hear from the instructors every now and then about clients who failed, but with the amount of people they have common through it was a VERY low percentage. What I am trying to say is that these training centers want you to come back and spend your money with them again and again, and if they keep failing people that aint gonna happen.

To conclude, don't sell yourself short when dealing with the X. Get the appropriate crew to fly it!

Have fun, it really is a great flying machine if handled correctly by professionals.
FlyTCI is offline