Neil Singer is a corporate pilot, designated examiner, and instructor in Embraer Phenoms and Cessna Citations. He has more than 10,000 hours of flight time with more than 20 years of experience as an active instructor.
Ask a first-time jet pilot halfway through initial training what they’re finding to be the most difficult approaches to fly, and you’ll likely get one of two answers: the single-engine hand-flown precision approach, or the circle to land. Both demand precise control inputs, careful energy management, and adherence to the manufacture’s scripted “profile” that prescribes aircraft configuration and speed throughout the maneuver.
As the name implies, the Gulfstream G500 fits nicely in size and range between the long-running G450 and G550 that it—together with its larger sibling the G600—replaced in late 2018, although slotting it “below” the G550 doesn’t tell an accurate story.
Following a controversial series of events, for several years there has not been an advisory circular (AC) in effect to provide guidance on the development and use of minimum equipment lists (MELs).
I often ask private pilot applicants at the beginning of their oral exam, “After you pass your checkride, you will be issued a certificate that says you are rated to fly single-engine land airplanes. Will you then be legal to act as PIC in any and all single-engine landplanes?”
The Citation Jet Pilots Safety and Education Foundation (CJP SEF) “Safe to Land” initiative (see “Owning the Go-Around Button,” May 2022 AOPA Pilot, Turbine Edition) is now live.
While all modern light jets use engines started via an electrically powered starter/generator, as turbine engines increase in size, the electrical starter is replaced by an air turbine starter.