Instructor Report: It’s complicated

Owners who’ve put Piper Arrows, Beech Sierras, and Cessna 172RGs out on leaseback have reason to be less pleased. But in areas where complex airplanes are still readily available, how should instructors advise their students? Are they better served by taking advantage of this new option, or settling into the complex world as quickly as they can?

Complex piston singles are becoming increasingly scarce, not just in the rental and training markets but in general. Cessna quit making them entirely in 1986. Beech built fewer than 800 Sierras in a run that ended in 1983. Its Bonanza and the various generations of the Mooney M20 are usually considered too touchy and/or expensive to use as trainers, and the remaining handful of Rockwell Commanders and Socata Trinidads are essentially orphans. Piper’s Arrow technically is still in production, but annual deliveries haven’t reached double digits since 2004. Losses—to accidents, exports, deliberate scrapping, and ramp rot—have outstripped production for a generation.

In areas where complex airplanes are still readily available, how should instructors advise their students?The result is that in much of the country, no complex airplanes are available to rent within any reasonable distance. Starting August 27, students can use technically advanced airplanes in lieu of complex or turbine airplane to satisfy the 10-hour requirement.

If availability is not a problem, does flying a TAA serve students’ long-term interests? Much depends on the kind of flying they ultimately hope to do.

The cost difference is a factor, but not necessarily determinative. The retractable-gear premium runs as low as $10 per hour in some schools. This might still be an extravagance for trainees who save nickels toward their next lessons; those whose finances have a little more flexibility might think about the habits they want to carry into the next phase of their careers.

Gear operation is rarely an issue for bush pilots, so students drawn to straight floats or short gravel airstrips might reasonably save their money. Corporate and air-carrier operators, on the other hand, fly retractables. Prospective jet pilots will benefit from drilling “down and locked” until it’s muscle memory—particularly since, checklists notwithstanding, gear-up landings are a major cause of attrition to the complex fleet, damaging more than 150 airplanes each year (fewer than 10 percent of which are officially considered “accidents”). Few things will derail a potential airline career faster than bellying in the boss’ Beechcraft Baron after forgetting to put down the switch. Minimizing that risk justifies some modest additional expense. 

Almost all of David Jack Kenny’s fixed-wing time is complex—thanks to the Arrow he bought as a 101-hour private pilot and has never put on leaseback.