ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Front Range Executive Flight Training (FREFT) has revised its flight-training curriculum to include the crosswind training provided by Crosswind Concepts (CC) as supplemental instruction and evaluation for all primary students and instructors.
Bill Heiss, FREFT’s Director of Training, said the school made the change because CC’s Xwind flight simulator sessions dramatically accelerated the learning curve for the first few pilots who went through the program and simplified the instructor tasks of evaluating student capabilities and addressing problem areas.
“It was an obvious choice,” said Heiss. “With the Xwind trainer, we can get an extreme-conditions workout without waiting for adverse winds and there’s no risk to safety or equipment. Plus the trainer allows us to communicate easily, pausing when we need to or repeating actions — all benefits of simulator training tuned specifically to crosswinds.”
He said the greatest benefit of the crosswind trainer is that it makes the perceptions of drift, crab and bank readily available to pilots.
“It’s been an eye-opener for some pilots who were unaware that they could benefit from additional crosswind skills,” he added. “In one or two sessions, we saw dramatic improvement in their skills.”
“It’s been an eye-opener for some pilots who were unaware that they could benefit from additional crosswind skills,” …
Any pilot who doesn’t believe they can benefit from crosswind training, practice or experience is in denial.
One would think so. Unfortunately there are also a lot of pilots out there who simply don’t know. If your prior training and experience did not expose you to excellent crosswind training and conditions, you simply might not be aware. For many such pilots, they can only make qualified judgment to the level of training they received. If you are one of those who received less than excellent instruction, you might have no reference to how much better instruction and skills are possible.