Skyport Takes Delivery Of A Specially Equipped Piper Seminole To Be Used In Multi-Engine Training Experiment

The Redbird Skyport fleet has expanded with the addition of a new, customized Piper PA-44 Seminole. The proven twin engine trainer will be used as part of a new experiment to test a revolutionary simulator-centric multiengine training curriculum developed by Skyport’s ProFlight Academy.

The new Seminole is outfitted with a Garmin G500 glass-panel suite which includes a 3-axis aircraft position monitor as well as aerodynamic state and systems condition recording equipment. It is also slated be equipped with an in-cockpit video recording system that will allow Skyport to monitor student performance as they progress through the new training curriculum. “When we were looking for a multiengine airplane to use in our flight training experiments, the Seminole was our first choice” said Roger Sharp, General Manager of Flight Operations for Redbird Skyport. “The Piper Seminole has become the industry standard for multi-engine training for good reason.”

The new Skyport curriculum is aimed at addressing the issues that plague multi-engine training. In the November 8th, 2011 edition of AOPA’s Flight School Business newsletter, David Jack Kenny laid out the grim facts: “More than five-sixths of the fatal multiengine training accidents over the past 10 years were either known to have been caused by engine-out drills gone wrong, or involved spins from altitude that are hard to explain in any other way”.

In addition to the risks of traditional training methods, the accident record shows that the flight training industry fails to prepare multiengine pilots for “real world” operations in twins. Skyport’s innovative new training system has been designed from the ground up to leverage the technologies developed by Redbird for their revolutionary training devices, and the robust, proven training platform that the Piper Seminole (similar aircraft shown in file photo below) provides.

FMI: www.redbirdskyport.com