Originally Posted by B2N2
I have spoken at lenght with a rep from the insurance company, his verdict:
people that do a 1hr check-out we will hear from garanteed, people that are smart enough to do a 12-15 hrs transition training course we will never hear from again (in a good sense).
So I was being kind with 5 hrs.
Here in JAA/EASA land CPL training consists (among other things) of 5 hours in a "complex" single (4 seats, VP prop, RG), after which you should be able to pass a CPL skill test in the same aircraft. The usual standard to pass the checkout for renting an aircraft is that pilot is able to safely fly and operate the aircraft he's renting, where a CPL skill test requires certain degree of proficiency - not just safe flying. And if one can fly a "complex" aircraft proficiently after 5 hours of training, I don't see the reason why transition from one simple (well, relatively speaking) to another simple non-complex SEP should last more than that. One could even get MEP after 6 hours of training without previous experience on "complex" singles...
I've never flown the P2002, but if I ever do - I'll really check what all that fuss is about. If people can solo (ab-initio) Tommy in 10 hours, why would conversion to a quite similar type take even longer than that? And we aren't talking about some fast high-workload turboprop, just the usual spamcan with its own tricks. Maybe you can talk EASA into requiring a differences training for P2002 if it's
that different from the usual SEP spamcan (like the one you need for RG, VP, EFIS, SLPC, ...), in case proposition for type-rating requirement for P2002 wouldn't go through.