New Program to be Unveiled at Fly-In This Weekend

"Customers, potential customers, admirers -- it's a customer appreciation event," explained the effervescent Jody, at Lancair, as she was working with the team to get things ready for this weekend's company fly-in.

One of the most-beneficial innovations to be introduced to the enthusiastic Lancair 'family' this year is a thorough, professionally-done, intense, tiered training program.

Lancair President Joe Bartels told us about training ace Peter Zaccagnino: he flies a GIV for a living, is an aeronautical engineer who has taught aerodynamics; and Pete and his wife owned a flight school in Trenton (NJ). In his spare time, he flies a Champ, a glider, a Pitts -- and he's in line for a Lancair.

Good all around:

Pete's an evangelist for training. "I believe in training, always have," he told us. "I fly a thousand hours a year, and I still go for recuurrent training every six months." Acutely aware of the reputation some pilots have given the speedy Lancair inside the insurance industry, he added, "Besides being better pilots, it will make us more insurable."

He's setting up new ops manuals, a new checklist, and a new training syllabus, as his own Lancair gets closer to finished.

"It's a tiered program, somewhat modeled after a military style," he told us. He explained: "Tiered -- cover a topic, practice, test -- then go to the next tier."

He's ready to help pilots at this weekend's Lancair Fly-In in Oregon with, "a seminar -- a day-long ground school, good for every pilot: weather, handling -- then we'll go into specifics -- planning for descents, high-altitude world, emergencies, etc." Lancairs are high-performance airplanes, and a lot of GA pilots who move into them need to understand the differences from what they're used to" "It's different, say, having a fire at 20,000 feet than at 4,000 feet," Pete said.

It's fun, too: "We'll do some flying as well," Pete promised. "...Get people learning that training isn't a burden; it's an 'opportunity to make myself a better pilot.'"

The syllabus is broken into eight lessons, plus some "sub-lessons.' The students will know they've covered the material for the first lesson, for instance, when they can, "Demonstrate fundamental understanding of aircraft operation, systems, description and operation of variable pitch propeller, engine cooling, weight and balance, limitations and performance." By the time Lesson 2 is signed off, "...the student will be able to perform the listed ground operations with a minimum of Instructor assistance. The student will demonstrate the knowledge of attitudes, power settings, and configurations necessary to perform the listed maneuvers and procedures by maintaining altitude within the 200 feet, heading within 15 degrees, and airspeed within 10 knots."

It gets progressively more-demanding, as tasks increase, complexity increases, multi-tasking is demonstrated, and flight parameters tighten. By the end of the eighth lesson, for instance, complicated maneuvers, emergency procedures, and an occasional pressure-cooker atmosphere will not stop the student from demonstrating that, "Altitude should be maintained within 100 feet, airspeed within 5 knots, and heading within 5 degrees," and demonstrating maneuvers that are covered by this sampling from Lesson 8 of the syllabus:

•  Stalls power on/off 
•  Maneuvering during slow flight/MCA
•  Changing airspeed in level flight
•  VFR emergency landing 
•  Advanced Avionics integration
•  Normal Take off into IMC
•  Recovery from unusual Attitudes
•  Emergency procedures and landings including but not limited to:
•  Cabin fires 
•  Cowl fires
•  Landing Gear problems
•  Oil pressure/temp out of limits
•  Propeller governor
•  Engine failures, partial and full

Sure, it's fun. Sure, it's interesting; but it may also save Lancair pilots' lives, and their passengers' lives. Joe Bartels and Pete Zaccagnino want their pilots, their friends, their 'family,' to be safe up there -- and they're doing something very positive about it. See the start of it this weekend, and the results... from then on.

[Thanks to Lancair for the photos --ed.]

FMI: www.lancair-kits.com