…United Trains New Eclipse Pilots…

Future Eclipse pilots will use the same simulators as the line pilots to learn the curriculum, jointly developed by Eclipse and United. However, they won’t get the same instructors. In a separate deal, United has contracted with Alteon, a Boeing subsidiary, to provide flight and other instructors for the Eclipse program. The training, including computer-based study material, is included in the price of the aircraft, but a mandatory upset-recovery course using an L-19 Albatros will cost the customers $995. However, you won’t be finished spending money there. If you want to get a second pilot through the program, it will cost $8449 plus $1,495 for the ride in the Albatros. Recurrent training will cost $2995. Still, that’s living and learning in the same environment that developed such industry standards as cockpit resource management (CRM) and that is applying similar developmental techniques to the FAA Industry Training Standards (FITS) for the Eclipse program. “Applying the best of what the industry has learned over the past century of flight, we will collaborate with Eclipse on an extraordinary training process,” said Capt. Brad Thomann, managing director of flight standards and training for United.