July 30, 1995 FlightSafety Training for Single-Engine Pilots

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by	Mike Busch
	This article originally appeared in IFR MAGAZINE.

About the Author ... Mike Busch is editor-in-chief of AVweb, a member of the technical staff at Cessna Pilots Association, and in a prior lifetime was a contributing editor for The Aviation Consumer and IFR Magazine. A 6,000-hour commercial pilot and CFI with airplane, instrument and multiengine ratings, Mike has been flying for 36 years and an aircraft owner for 33. For the past 14 of those years, he's owned and flown a Cessna T310R turbocharged twin, which he maintains himself. In his never-ending quest to become a true renaissance man of aviation, Mike's on the verge of earning his A&P mechanic certificate. Mike and his wife Jan reside on the central coast of California in a semi-rural area where he can't get DSL or cable TV.

Traditionally, FlightSafety International offered simulator-based recurrent training only for pilots of piston twins, turboprops and jets. In 1988, however, the company inaugurated a new series of programs for single-engine pilots. FlightSafety now has single-engine simulators for Beech Bonanza 33/35/36, Cessna 210/T210/P210, and Mooney 201/205/231/252/TLS/PFM/MSE. The Beech and Cessna sims are in Wichita, while the Mooney sim is in San Antonio.

The three single-engine simulators are non-motion, but have a full state-of-the-art visual system and duplicate the aircraft cockpit layout and functionality faithfully. Having flown many hours in the twin-Cessna simulator both with and without motion, my own opinion is that the availability of motion does not add all that much to training value received, whereas a good visual system is quite important.

The generic instrument/single-engine recurrent course takes two days and costs $975. A full IFR recurrent course including an aircraft-specific systems groundschool and additional simulator training in system failures takes three days and costs $1,775. Both courses include an instrument competancy check endorsement, and the three-day course tuition also covers two hours of training in the customer's aircraft and a biennial flight review endorsement.

At the present time, FlightSafety does not offer a continuous annual subscription arrangement for single-engine recurrent training. I think that's a shame.