This was a seriously awesome experience. I soaked up a whole bunch of information which was like drinking from a fire hose. Brand new systems and new avionics in the Proline 21, which is a very confusing system at first but became straightforward once I started to figure out how it thinks. The main thing that's counterintuitive is that you type commands into the "scratchpad" and then you press the button where you want that to go. For example, if you wanted to insert a waypoint into the flight plan that's five miles before Redding airport, you type "KRDD/-5" into the scratchpad and then push the little button on the FMS flight plan page to insert it there. It's the opposite of most systems I've flown where you press a button to activate the thing you want and then type or twist to set the data for it.
The power is amazing, when the engines start ripping the acceleration pushes you back in the seat and the speed tape starts rolling by like crazy. I'm supposed to call out the speeds but by the time I'm calling out V1 we're already well through it. Once gear is up we start climbing at 4,000 fpm and if you have a level off altitude you're doing it almost immediately. Everything happens insanely fast. I've still got a ton to learn and felt like I was constantly playing catch up. But hey, I now have 3.7 hours Jet time in my logbook! I should have my SIC type rating soon and I'll fly that for a year or so and then go for the PIC type rating.
Movin up fast Adam...good 4 you!
ReplyDeleteWow..what fun. Congrats to you.
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