Which trainer to get High Altitude / Pressurized endorsement in?

[schmookeeg]

All of the high-alt training specialists I've run across used a T210 to do it in. Too old to be FL250 cert limited, light and powerful enough to credibly get there

 

[MauleSkinner]

All of the high-alt training specialists I've run across used a T210 to do it in. Too old to be FL250 cert limited, light and powerful enough to credibly get there

Is the T210 pressurized? Maybe I’m getting my terminology confused, but I thought the P210 was the pressurized one.

 

[schmookeeg]

Is the T210 pressurized? Maybe I’m getting my terminology confused, but I thought the P210 was the pressurized one.

Nope. Your terminology is correct.

It's been awhile since I looked, but I do not believe an actual pressurized aircraft is required for the high-alt endorsement, just one legally capable of flying over 250.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Nope. Your terminology is correct.

It's been awhile since I looked, but I do not believe an actual pressurized aircraft is required for the high-alt endorsement, just one legally capable of flying over 250.

You might look again…the training requirement specifies a pressurized airplane.

 

[schmookeeg]

You might look again…the training requirement specifies a pressurized airplane.

Huh. Well there it is, plain as day. Wonder what I was smoking this morning. I'll report to the medical questions subforum immediately.

 

[KLRDMD]

That's ATOP. Either the 737 in the AA sims in Dallas or the A320 in the JetBlue Sims in Orlando. Very fun....

I just did the 737 sim in July. Highly recommended. I need to schedule the Airbus.

 

[kaiser]

I just did the 737 sim in July. Highly recommended. I need to schedule the Airbus.

Was it hard to get on their schedule? ATOP has been earmarked / funded for me. Just need to plan now.

 

[KLRDMD]

Was it hard to get on their schedule? ATOP has been earmarked / funded for me. Just need to plan now.

I signed up in December for July.

 

[kaiser]

I'm going to bump this thread as I have an update and a follow up question. I'm moving forward with getting my endorsement in the near term and am curious as to what the community things would be a better learning experience, more fun, more value (yes I'm getting a view into costs), and more of anything else I should consider.

- PC 12 NGX (actual airplane)
- King Air (FTD sim)

 

[MauleSkinner]

I'm going to bump this thread as I have an update and a follow up question. I'm moving forward with getting my endorsement in the near term and am curious as to what the community things would be a better learning experience, more fun, more value (yes I'm getting a view into costs), and more of anything else I should consider.

- PC 12 NGX (actual airplane)
- King Air (FTD sim)

Given those choices, I’d do the airplane.

 

[DesertNomad]

Cert limited to 25K. Missed it by a foot.

Just unbuckle the seatbelt and boost yourself up a bit. I’m sure you can get your head above the altitude of the static port.

 

[flyingron]

"representative"

 

[MauleSkinner]

"representative"

“designee”

 

[kaiser]

Well, to debrief my journey… I completed my high altitude endorsement today in a sim at KARR. I almost had all the pieces together to do it in a PC12 but in the end couldn’t get the operator, CFI, and myself to the same place and the same time. That’s ok because if you thought piston aviation was expensive, then … no you don’t know the meaning of pain.

The endorsement took about 1.5h altogether, but I asked a lot of questions and we got down into a few deep areas. The sim was 0.5h. For ground, we mostly covered systems, aeromedical (humans at high altitudes), and emergency procedure. It also took a while to boot the sim up (running WinXP). Interestingly enough, the sim was almost a spot on model of what I was going to build recreationally before I decided to just put the money to flight training.

Being in the sim was pretty interesting. I forgot how sensitive these things were. We took off and climbed to FL250. From there it was working the pressurization system then he blew a seal on me. While there seems to be some differences on the exact procedures per aircraft, he was an old school 30* down, 30* bank with gear and flaps at idle.

Once the actual exercise was complete, he gave me two dual engine failures for emergency landing - twice because the first time I didn’t make it.. I probably need to practice those a lot more!