Hey everyone long time to chat. Last I posted I was just starting at Air Cargo Carriers. Been with them for just over a year now and got back stateside this weekend after 10 months of Caribbean flying.
So I’m about to start flying our companies Citation Bravo (SIC), I start training Thursday and was curious what to expect and what I can do to better prepare for transitions from the very slow Shorts 360 to a Citation. (slowtation for the jokers out there)
This will be my first jet so I’m definitely feeling a tad nervous and slightly overwhelmed.
I never flew a prop larger than a Seminole, so I cannot compare to a Shorts 360. What I can tell you from my experience is that you will need to think a bit further ahead of the airplane and anticipate changes and demands a bit more ahead of time. Beyond that, just listen to your instructors and take their advice as they will be the experts on the citation.
Congrats on the new gig. Flying your first jet is a very cool experience. As you can imagine everything happens much faster so as Chris said, you have to be more ahead of the airplane! My first type rating was the CJ3. Great plane and great experience that helped me transition to the 121 environment flying a regional jet much easier.
Are you doing your training at flight safety or CAE? Both of those programs utilize the firehouse approach. You’ll get all your textbooks the first day. Then spend about a week going through systems with various systems validations. Then the fixed base trainer to learn checklists and flows, and lastly the sim to do maneuvers. From start to finish, only about 3 weeks.
Congrats on the Citation gig and as much as we like joking about the speed of the Citation, it’s still a nice airplane! I can say going from piston to turbofan, as long as you put the time and dedication into learning the systems, flows and procedures, your training will be good. Step aside of that and slack, you will fall behind the jet.