Staying Proficient in Cessna's Mustang

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Staying proficient in Cessna’s Mustang

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN: time to go through my Cessna Citation Mustang annual proficiency check, better known as the FAR 61.58 ride. But this time there’s a twist. Well, a couple, actually. The first is that I went to Simcom’s Scottsdale, Arizona, training center, where I’d be flying a Simcom Level C, full-motion simulator for the first time. The second was a biggie: I hadn’t been behind the yoke of a real live Mustang in almost a year. If expe- rienced Mustang pilots—like my classmate, John Hinshaw of Frankfort, Indiana, with 900 hours in his 2014 Mustang—dread the annual check, then I had much more to worry about.

BY THOMAS A. HORNE PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER For a light jet under 10,000 pounds max- controls firmly, then disconnect the autopi- failure is rare, but better battery capacity my instructor, Clovis Jones Jr. Steep turns, Level C simulators have a 75-degree-wide landings (half of them day, half night). My imum gross takeoff weight, the Mustang is lot and pull the associated circuit breaker). would also be nice, especially if an instru- approaches to stalls—clean, takeoff, and field of view; Level Ds have 150-degree big challenges centered on staying ahead of pretty full-featured. It has full-authority But some memory items make you ment approach is in the offing. landing configuration, with and without fields of view. And as with Level D simula- the airplane in such fast-paced situations (it digital engine controls (FADEC) to prevent think. Engine fire light illuminated? Go to After Doane’s systems review there was a autopilot engaged—inflight shutdowns and tors, takeoffs, approaches, and landings in seemed as though we never flew more than engine exceedances, for example, as well idle power on the affected engine and wait written test; then it was on to the second and restarts, plus recovery from unusual atti- a Level C simulator can be logged. 20 miles from JFK) and recalling the power as touchdown protection to prevent land- 15 seconds. If the light remains on, lift its third days’ work in the simulator. tudes comprised the maneuvers portion. All our instrument work used procedures settings for the various approaches. In one ing with brakes applied, antiskid braking, guarded cover and push the switch to cut off Simcom offers a choice of following a Next came a slew of instrument associated with New York’s John F. Kennedy epic blunder I lowered the landing gear way and an engine fire extinguishing system. fuel and generator power, and arm the fire standard course of training, with four hours approaches, plus a few missed approaches International Airport. They included ILSs to too late in a final approach segment. Still, design compromises had to be made, bottle’s explosive squib. (But don’t blow the of simulator drills and a final checkride and holding patterns. The simulator, Runway 4R, VORs to 4L and 13L, ILSs to 22L, In the emergency and abnormal proce- and it’s those systems compromises, and fire bottle quite yet; more on that later.) Dual flight, or a progressive regimen, where the although rated a Level C, is nearly identical plus RNAV GPS to 4R with a circle-to-land dures portion of the flight, Jones made sure much more information, that were reviewed generator failure? Try resetting them, but if drills and checkride elements are merged. to Level D simulators—those with the high- on Runway 31R. The use of the plural indi- I ticked off all the boxes but dwelled on the during eight hours of class sessions on the that doesn’t work rapidly, move the battery In the course of progressive training, if a est degree of visual detail and resolution. cates multiple approaches involving both Mustang’s fire detection system. After seeing course’s first day. Our instructor was James switch to the Emergency position. Why rap- maneuver or procedure is done correctly coupled and uncoupled, and/or one-engine- a fire indication’s red warning switchlight, Doane, whose background included 23 idly? Because if you dawdle, you’ll lose both it’s marked as completed for the purposes inoperative approaches. Of course, rejected you’re supposed to retard the power lever on years of regional airline flying. your attitude and heading reference system of the checkride. If you botch a task, you takeoffs, engine-out missed approaches and the affected side and wait for 15 seconds. If LOSE BOTH GENERATORS and you’re left Ground school also featured a review of (AHRS) units as well as any flight plan infor- repeat it to proficiency and then move on. with a single PFD (opposite page, left), holding patterns, and no-flap approaches the light goes out before then, does this really the Mustang’s memory items—the first few mation you entered. Doane refreshed our It amounts to a rolling checkride, with the no ice protection, no flaps, no anti-skid, also were part of the mix. mean a fire has occurred? Or is the problem actions to be taken when an abnormal or memories on all this and more. advantage of bypassing the added stress of and are faced with an emergency gear In all, there were 19 approaches (nine a bleed air leak? The only way to find out is extension. Approach profiles (below) call emergency situation crops up. There are 21 This brought us to a discussion of some a separate, two-hour checkride. I chose the for strict attention to configuration control of them single-engine, with three of those to move the rotary test switch to Fire Warn memory items. Five involve first putting on of the Mustang’s shortcomings. One of them progressive route, figuring I’d surely need and power management. manually flown), plus 14 takeoffs and and see if the switchlight stays illuminated, the quick-donning oxygen mask and then crops up in the case of a dual generator fail- some practice. After all, this annual profi- switching the microphone source switch to ure. The airplane has a 30-minute battery ciency check is a carbon copy of the initial the Mask position (electrical fire, electri- endurance, assuming the battery switch is in type rating checkride and must be flown to cal smoke, smoke removal, environmental the Emer position, which causes automatic ATP standards. CLOVIS JONES JR. smoke or odor, loss of cabin pressure) so load-shedding. Leave the battery switch in The simulator training followed the Meet the instructor those are easy. Pitch, aileron, and rud- the Batt position and endurance drops to prescribed list of maneuvers and proce- Clovis Jones Jr. always wanted to fly, but met, Simcom offered him a job as a simula- der runaways also are intuitive (hold the an alarming 10 minutes. A dual generator dures, all of it under the watchful eye of when he signed up for the U.S. Army he tor instructor and training center evaluator was instead assigned for training as an Air- (TCE). TCEs serve as a training center’s borne Infantryman in the 1st Air Cavalry Di- designated pilot examiner. Seems retire- vision. After a tour of duty in the Vietnam ment must not agree with him. —TAH War that included service in the battles for Pleiku and the Ia Drang Valley, he served a second tour in Vietnam, this time after speeding up the ranks and becoming the pilot of Bell UH–1 Huey and AH–1 Cobra attack helicopters. He retired as a major, having earned the Combat Infantry Badge, a Bronze Star, 20 Air Medals (one with a “V” device for saving a firebase from being overrun), two Army Commendation Medals, and a Presidential Unit Cita- tion. Next, he flew as a pilot for Howard Hughes’ Summa Cor- poration. Then came stints as a Xerox corporate pilot, a second officer for Western Airlines, and first officer for Air California—now part of American Airlines. After that, he flew 22 years with FedEx flying Boeing 727s, DC–10s, and MD–11s, retiring once more, this time with more than 11,800 flight hours. Then, six months before he and I SIMCOM PROVIDES a single laminated meaning that the system is functional and lever—pull too hard and you’ll blow the page (left) for all normal checklist items. that the retarded power lever has reduced tires. And with that, my seven-hour-long Takeoff callouts are easy: 1V is usually 90 knots, and V +20 is 118 knots. Need to the flow of hot air coming from a bleed air stint in the simulator was done, and my 2 brush up on Garmin G1000 procedures? leak. But if the fire light does go out during proficiency check complete. A session with a flight training device will the rotary switch test this could indicate that When most pilots think of Simcom, set you right. a fire has damaged its sensor. So, blow the fire they think of its huge flagship facility in bottle but do it quickly, before the 30-second Orlando, Florida. But the Scottsdale facil- on Challenger 300/350 and Gulfstream mark. That’s a lot to remember when a fire ity, located next to the Scottsdale Airport, G650 aircraft. may be blazing away. also has its strengths. It has Level C sim- “Simcom has become a third player in Emergency descents were also empha- ulator-based pilot initial and recurrent what has become a duopoly in the train- sized, and here’s where the Mustang’s high courses for the Cessna Citation II as well as ing business,” said Eric Hinson, Simcom’s

VLO and VLE come in handy. You can extend the Mustang, plus its model-specific non- president and CEO, referring to competitors the gear right up to the airplane’s VMO of 250 motion advanced aviation flight training FlightSafety International and CAE. “Now KIAS, which—with speed brakes extended, devices (FTDs) with wide-screen visual we can change that and expand our offer- power at idle, speed at 250, and nose pointed systems for the Cessna 340, Cessna 421, ings to include more current-production 20 degrees down—can produce descent Beechcraft King Air 200 (one of which has airplanes, while at the same time main- rates of 8,000 fpm or so. I’ve even heard a Garmin G600 avionics), Beechcraft Baron, taining our commitment to legacy aircraft 10,000-fpm descent is possible. and a Series 9/10 Pilatus PC–12. A TBM training”—a reference to Simcom’s Piper Of all the emergencies save a fire, a 910 Level 6 FTD with model-specific aero- Cheyenne, Cessna Conquest, MU-2, Falcon dual generator failure may be the worst. dynamic programming, control feel, and 20, Twin Commander, and other older-air- You have maybe 30 minutes to get on the cockpit is soon to be installed, and there’s plane type-specific training courses. ground before the lights go out. You won’t also talk of new Pilatus PC–12NG simula- Hinson said that to build this new have windshield heat, or wing or tail deice tor—either a Level 6 FTD or a full-motion Simcom simulator fleet, requests for propos- boots. You’ll only have the pilot’s primary Level C simulator. als have been sent to all the major simulator flight display, operating in reversionary There may be more in the offing for manufacturers, including FlightSafety, CAE, mode. You won’t have flaps because they’re Simcom. Directional Aviation, owner and TRU Simulation and Training. At the electrically powered. Without its electri- of several high-profile aviation enter- same time, Hinson said Simcom will con- cally powered controls, there won’t be any prises—including fractional ownership tinue to serve as the training provider of hydraulic power to actuate the landing firms FlexJet and Flight Options, jet card choice for several current-production, gear, so you’ll need to use the blow-down operator Sentient Jet, the Skyjet charter owner-flown aircraft, expanding its fleet bottle to drive the gear down. With no service, and Nextant Aerospace—recently of PC–12, Piper, and TBM simulators and flaps, you’ll have to add extra speed to your purchased Simcom. This puts a rejuve- training services. There’s even talk of a normal VREF airspeeds and almost double nated Simcom in a position to become presence in the European training market. your normal landing distance. There’s an FlexJet’s and Flight Options’ in-house Bottom line: Simcom will have a new look independent pneumatic system for emer- training organization. It also opens the and feel in the near future. AOPA gency braking but no antiskid, so easy does way to broadening Simcom’s offerings, it when you pull on the emergency brake inasmuch as FlexJet’s fleet relies heavily EMAIL [email protected]