Realistic Training
By ANN Contributor Rob Finfrock
I've never flown a Piper Saratoga but I could get used to
it. The bird I'm at the controls of is a brand-new, fully
decked-out model, complete with an equally new Avidyne FlightMax
Entegra glass panel and an oh-so-sweet turbocharged Lycoming under
the cowl. Not bad for a student pilot, really, who's used to poking
along in dowdy old 172s.
Runway 2C at Nashville International looms ahead of me, and I'm
proud to say that I'm on a perfect glide path at one mile out.
According to the wind speed and direction indicator on the
Entegra-- information taken from the built-in GPS-- there is a
slight crosswind from the north, but it's not really enough to be a
factor. I'm still more-or-less stabilized at 95 knots indicated
when I cross the threshold, and ritually I begin to softly recite
my typical landing mantra: "Don't flare too soon, don't flare too
soon…"
I flared too soon, probably about 15 feet above the runway. The
Saratoga settled dutifully onto the pavement with a solid whump. I
expected the nose gear to collapse, but Pipers are made of tough
stuff and the airplane merely rolled along the runway, until it
soon stopped. I turned, remorsefully, to the twenty or so people
behind me.
No, Piper hasn't radically increased the passenger load for a
Saratoga. Rather, I was at the controls of Frasca's advanced
Mentor simulator, on display in Hangar "D" at AirVenture 2005.
The Mentor, introduced earlier this year, is Frasca's answer to
the booming glass-cockpit craze that has swept across general
aviation, and is now making its way down to the training segment.
The system allows small-to-medium size flight schools to supplement
their existing simulator equipment, or it can be used
exclusively.
My copilot on this flight… if by "copilot" you mean, "the
guy who actually knows what he's doing," is Frasca representative
Rans Nussbaker. He grins as he critiques my performance. "Not
bad…" At least I didn't bend an actual airplane, or for that
matter the Mentor. As I ease out of the seat, I am almost run down
by the next person eager to try their hand at it.
Already this year, Frasca has sold Mentors to flight schools
such as Vectair in Tunica (MS) and Utah State College in Orem. The
system can support either a Garmin G1000 panel, or the
aforementioned Entegra. It can also be had in a conventional steam
gauge layout… but who'd want that?
Although designed mostly for the benefit of an instrument-rated
pilot, the Entegra does much to reduce the workload on us VFR guys,
too. With only a quick two-minute informal training session from
Rans, I felt surprisingly comfortable scrolling through the menus
on the MFD, ultimately selecting a page displaying the runway
layouts, available lengths, and all control frequencies for
Nashville International. Rolling the heading bug proved to be a
breeze, too, and the large display screens make it hard to miss any
vital information. A quick scan would provide the basic information
most VFR pilots need.
Granted, though, this was only on fifteen minutes on a
simulator, on a demonstration flight to boot. Still, I was amazed
how natural the displays look to my untrained eye. The wealth of
information available at a mere button press is daunting,
sure… but I have no doubt that I could master it with
sufficient training, which would of course be provided at the
flight school.
Those fifteen minutes will sure make it hard to step back into
that old 172…