On 2005-04-10, Matt Barrow wrote:
"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...
Our flight school has received a C182 with a G1000. The checkout
requirements are going to be 5 hours VFR and an additional 5.6 hours
for IFR pilots.

Does anyone find this excessive?

To fly a new generation $350,000 aircraft, no.

Considering the difficulty in scheduling rental aircraft for real travel,
I think a 10+ hour checkout is going to keep people away in droves.

The new avionics should be mastered on the ground with a simulator (or
a real unit with an external power source). There's no point in turning
the hobbs meter until you know how to run all the gadgets. A competent
instrument pilot should be able to get into the plane after studying and
do enough approaches to be comfortable in an hour or two.

I got a 182 checkout (the first high perf airplane I flew) in about 1.3,
which included stalls, steep turns, and landings/go-arounds in every
configuration. We didn't take off until I had correctly rehearsed the
power and engine management on the ground.

So I would tend to think that anything more than (rounding way up) 5 hours
would just be milking the renter. If they can't do it in 5 hours then
they have other issues with currency/proficiency but that shouldn't be
reflected in the FBO minimums.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/