The Citation Jet Pilots Owner Pilot Association (CJP) is launching a "Safe to Land" initiative to reduce the rate of runway mishaps. Announced last week during CJP's annual convention, Safe to Land involves a series of new procedures and callouts that should be made during visual and instrument approaches. Programming surrounding the initiative will begin on January 1 and continue for 18 months, including video training, a new cockpit briefing card, and a dedicated web page.
The initiative is the culmination of more than a year of research with the Presage Group that examined "go-around" decisions made by single-pilot jet operators, the organization said, adding that the study builds on work already conducted with airlines. Research involved a survey of more than 200 CJP members who shared decision-making processes during both stable and unstable approaches.
Armed with this data, CJP formed a working group that met at FlightSafety International to develop new procedures, which were then evaluated and verified by two dozen CJP members. Participating pilots flew more than 200 approaches in multiple Citation simulators provided by FSI.
"These new approach and landing procedures were designed specifically for single-pilots of Citations," said CJP CEO Trent Corcia. "Presage subject matter experts captured data from each pilot as they made multiple approaches during varied weather conditions.”
“Now that we've completed the simulator validation testing trials, CJP members have a new scientifically valid, realistic, and deployable Safe to Land program that we believe will absolutely improve flight safety,” said Martin Smith, Presage Group's co-founder and chief scientist on the project.
Astronaut Charlie Precourt, who chairs the CJP Safety and Education Foundation’s Safety Committee, discussed the new procedures during CJP's annual Safety Standdown event. "We anticipate full integration of these new SOPs, including training to them with a new curriculum for our simulator sessions, to take the next 12 to 18 months," he explained. "We believe the ‘Safe to Land’ initiative could be a real game-changer for the light jet community."