Aircraft

Phenom 100 pilots will undergo a five-phase flight training regimen based largely on guidelines published by the National Business Aviation Association, says Embraer. In that respect, the Phenom 100 training programme will be similar to those being offered by other VLJ makers: it starts with a skills assessment and ends with a type rating and follow-on mentoring by an experienced type-rated pilot.

To qualify to enter Phenom 100 training, pilots will need between 800h and 1,000h of flight time plus a private pilot's certificate with instrument and multi-engine ratings. The process will start with a pre-training evaluation most likely using a Phenom full-flight simulator (FFS) at training partner CAE's Simuflite training centre in Dallas, Texas. Embraer and CAE by 2009 will have a second training centre operational at Burgess Hill in the UK, and by 2012, two additional training centres in the USA.

Phase two will be a self-study course, taken over the internet or at Simuflite, lasting around two weeks, assuming the pilot candidate works several hours a day.

Phase three will take place in person at Simuflite in Dallas. The instructor-led course will last less than two weeks and include roughly 30h of classroom time, with daily practice sessions in a CAE-built Individual Procedures Trainer (IPT) starting the first day of classes and totalling about 18h by the completion of the phase. Embraer envisages one to four students per owner/operator class and as many as six candidates per course for the air-taxi pilots courses.

During the fourth phase, students will begin "flying" the FFS, accumulating 12-14h before taking the type rating test with a Federal Aviation Administration-designated examiner, also in the simulator. Owner pilots will most probably fly 2h sessions, while flightcrews perhaps flying 4h per session.

Once the new owner passes the US Federal Aviation Administration type rating check ride, the mentoring process will start in the real aircraft. Embraer expects that pilots will fly with a mentor pilot for no less than 25h, although insurance companies will almost certainly set the minimums in practice.