Flyskole: Press the button and go fly - Vel, neppe så enkelt, men allikevel - Curt Lewis

Cirrus: Vision Jet part of pilot shortage solution


Most of the people who are Cirrus customers purchase the planes for themselves.

Flight schools are putting the company's Vision Jet to new use as a training opportunity for the commercial pilots of tomorrow.

It's helping address a looming shortage that could cripple the aviation industry.

At the Cirrus campus in Knoxville, learning to fly a plane is as easy as getting in a simulator and pressing a button.

"There goes the nose. And away it goes," said Vision Instructor Pilot Jim Witt, as the simulator shows takeoff. "It's extremely easy."

That ease is part of what makes the Vision Jet ideal for learning.

Cirrus leaders say universities and flight schools are adding the jets to their fleets in hopes of heading off a growing crisis.

"Hundreds of thousands of pilots, over the next 10 to 20 years, are going to be needed to support the transportation needs around the world and Cirrus is absolutely a part of that," said Rob Haig, the Cirrus Executive Director of Flight Training and Operations Chief Pilot.

Boeing estimates the aviation industry will need almost 800,000 new pilots by 2037.

Flight trainers say new pilots level up, from smaller planes and jets to the bigger commercial airliners.

They say the technology in the Vision Jet makes that transition easier.

"All of our airplanes come standard with electronic flight displays that show the primary instruments and also the moving maps and the engine pages and that's all very similar to what a professional pilot will experience when they get to the commercial airline world," said Haig.

"This system is state of the art at this time. There are not many jets at all that have this system," said Witt.

A system they can first learn in the simulator, which makes something complicated seem simple.

"Learning how to fly a jet, the first time, is really, really difficult - the big jets - and this jet is easy," said Witt. "I've flown 11 different types of jets and by far this is the easiest one I've ever flown."

It's getting careers off the ground and meeting the need in the sky.