Collegiate Professional Pilot Programs: Acquisition and Use of a Level Six Training Device in the Academic Environment

Abstract

Verbatim from Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

Regardless of the bill of H. R. 5900 Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Act of 201 0 aiming to elevate the flight hours and level of certification for pilots working for FAA FAR 121 air carriers, the ongoing pilot recruitment at regional airlines continues to grow. Simultaneously, an influx of low time and relatively inexperienced pilots are continuously flying the revenue passenger. In this case, collegiate aviation programs should take the responsibility to deliver low-time pilots, yet with sufficient knowledge and skills regarding multiple crew scenarios and complex transport aircraft systems. With this in mind, in order to ensure the quality and experience flight training at the university level, full size air carrier Flight Training Devices (FTD), and sometimes motion simulators (FFS Full flight Simulators) are used. However, the aforementioned high-end devices are not affordable to every collegiate aviation program. To make efficient use of the professional student pilot's budget and ensure a thorough and comprehensive application of systems knowledge and crew resource management concepts, a compatible alternative is an option. In this paper, a Flight Training Device (FTD)/simulator was used and the certification process and acquisition steps were described. Due to the nature of the study, Action Research Methodology (ARM) was selected. The result showed that the selected complex training device could become a standard feature of a collegiate aviation program to equip professional pilot majors with sufficient knowledge in an intensive, commercial environment.

Authors

• Preudhomme, Jeanyves Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Lu, Chien-tsung Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Martinez, Richard Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University