Flight Training - December 2014 - 35

EMBRAER'S PHENOM 300 (left) is a $9 million,
450-knot, eight- to nine-seater with a 1,800-nautical-mile maximum range and a 45,000-foot maximum operating altitude. Fuel burn at max power?
How about 179 gph? But the tradeoﬀ is traveling
1,000 miles in about 2.5 hours, in quiet comfort and
style. One attraction of the Phenom 300 is that it's
certiﬁed for single-pilot operations-although
having two pilots up front is always a safe idea.

area where you must stay ahead of the
airplane. A 3,000-foot descent in a piston
single isn't a big deal, but unless you come
back on a jet's power in a timely fashion,
even a short descent in a jet can put your
airspeed into barber-pole (the jet equivalent of redline) territory.
Down low and preparing for a landing
is another busy time. Fortunately, because
of their high wing loadings, jets ride turbulence much better than piston singles,
so there are fewer bumps to bother you.
What might register as a few light jolts in
a jet would translate into head-banging
chaos in a small single-engine airplane.
Because jets are so aerodynamically efficient, slowing for an approach
and landing takes one more big dose of
advance planning. Sure, you can reduce
power to slow a jet, but using spoilers
causes faster speed reductions, as does
extending the landing gear and ﬂaps.
Typically, a light jet approach and land-

ing is a very structured, sequential affair,
with an initial power reduction about
10 nm from the ﬁnal approach ﬁx or the
traffic pattern, followed by extending
the ﬁrst notch of ﬂaps two to three miles
away, then reducing power enough to
slow to 150 knots. At the ﬁnal approach
ﬁx, lower the landing gear, go to full ﬂaps,
and then reduce power to maintain a safe
glide path-using vertical guidance if at all
available-at a ﬁnal approach VREF (reference speed) of approximately 100 knots.
(Again, these are ballpark speeds for a
Phenom 100.)
Once established in this conﬁguration,
it's steady as she goes. The pressure's on
now, especially if you have any passengers.
No sudden power increases or decreases
unless absolutely necessary, and an even,
constant airspeed and constant descent
rate to short ﬁnal. That's the goal, always:
a stabilized approach. Make your last
power reduction to idle just before arriv-

ing over the numbers, and hold a slight
nose-up attitude all the way to touchdown. None of your piston-single full-stall
landings, please! In landing conﬁguration
at idle thrust, jets lose lift rapidly, and an
aggressive ﬂare will cause you to drop to
the runway in short order.
Let the nosewheel fall to the runway,
then apply brakes and slow to taxi speed.
The Phenom 100 doesn't have reverse
thrust-one big, big reason why a stabilized
approach at VREF is a must-but if it did
you might pull back on the power levers to
help you slow and maybe save your brakes.
Newer Phenom 100s have ground spoilers
that shorten landing distances, and which
deploy the moment the airplane senses
that there's weight on the wheels.
But the big takeaway here is that if
you ﬂy the approach even a little too fast,
you risk ﬂoating far down the runway. If
you're unlucky you might go off the end. It
has happened.
That's it in a nutshell. So how'd you
like your ﬁrst jet ﬂight? Sensory overload?
You bet. Of course, you'll have to attend
formal, simulator-based training to understand the technique of jet ﬂying. And as
a ﬁrst-time jet pilot, you'll be required to
have a mentor ride shotgun with you for
a while. That makes a lot of sense. Soon
enough, you'll get the hang of it. Just
remember, gradual adjustments to power
and conﬁgurations, and think ahead-way
ahead. In a piston single you're accustomed to thinking maybe 10 miles ahead
of the airplane. In a jet, it should be more
like 100 miles. Still want to ﬂy one, Mav?
Thought so.
Editor at Large Tom Horne ﬂies fast aircraft and
writes about them for the Turbine Pilot edition of
AOPA Pilot magazine.
DECEMBER 2014 FLIGHT TRAINING

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Flight Training - December 2014

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