Turbine Pilot: Britain to Brazil

With its first foray into light business jets, Embraer has created quite a phenomenon with its Phenom 100 and 300. With aggressive pricing and quality products, the Brazilian manufacturer has sucked up remarkable market share in the very light and light jet segment. Cessna in particular has been hit hard by the Brazilian invasion, since the 100 and 300 compete head-to-head with the Cessna’s CJ line.

But how do they fly?

We sent Editor at Large Tom Horne to CAE SimuFlite to find out. There he took on the fire hose to earn a type rating in the Phenom 300. You’ll find his report enlightening.

Among the things learned in professional training such as at SimuFlite is how to fully leverage the aircraft’s systems and technology, something that your average flight instructor may not be able to teach. As writer Neil Singer points out this month in “Mentoring Matters,” leveraging the vertical glidepath capabilities of a WAAS-capable GPS receiver can help you arrive at the runway threshold in a position to land every time.

A recent trip to Vero Beach, Florida, gave me a glimpse inside the team that is developing the Piper Altaire single-engine business jet—a product that may well redefine that company. Find out why you may catch a bit of a British accent coming from the team.

If you’re someone who has recently made the transition from pistons to turbines—or likes to think such a transition might be in your future—read on. These special edition pages are for you.

Only a small subset of the AOPA membership gets this special Turbine Edition—those whom we believe have an interest in reading about higher-end aircraft. In this monthly special edition you get all of the content in the standard editions, plus these extra pages. If you would rather not receive this edition, just let us know at: [email protected]. We’re happy to switch you back to the standard edition.

I hope you learn some new advanced flying techniques and a little about turbine operations in these pages. Let us know what you think at [email protected]. —Tom Haines, Editor in Chief