Pilot's Discretion from Sporty's
Feb 24, 2026 · 47 min · 11 segments
From the Space Shuttle to F-15 fighter jets to his homebuilt VariEze, Charlie Precourt approaches every flight with the same discipline. In this episode he shares some of the lessons learned from his…
Charlie PrecourtGuestJohn ZimmermanHostSo I love the way you combine this structure and flexibility when you talk about aviation safety.
And this relates to something else you've talked about in the past, which is how check the box training can be a threat to safety, not just worthless, but even bad in some ways.
So if you're in charge and you're redesigning the flight review and how we do the flight review as a flight training industry, what would you do to replace those box checking maneuvers or that mindset? And I guess maybe more broadly, how should pilots avoid the temptation to just check the box every 24 months?
yeah so it takes the pilot back to um that potentially um uncomfortable experience they had when they had to finally get through that check ride with the dpe right and there's always this sense in the background that i gotta go back and do that again and i gotta be observed i'm gonna be watched there's a different mindset is treat that individual as your coach you don't get to do things with a coach very often And if you're doing debriefings with Flystow or with Cloud Ahoy, it's maybe telling you things that you need to review.
When was the last time you actually did an engine failure on the way back to the airport and you're outside of gliding range and how you figure that out? I remember doing a biennial with an instructor who taught me a really good lesson about that is that we have a tendency to shoot for the road.
road might not be as easy or as good to do with a field which is much bigger and right there next to the road right so it's it's just continuing to learn all the way along the way and having a dpe it allows you or a check a check pilot or instructor during a biennial allows you to expand that aperture to work on things that you know you don't get to do all the time and moreover try to apply to the kind of flying you do every day um and I am currently working on something very similar to that with the Citation Jet Pilots Group.
It's required by their type certificate, and it's basically going back to the simulator or with an in-flight DPE to retake a checkride.
It's pretty routine, like you're saying, checking the boxes and nobody likes it because it's steep turns, stalls, a non-precision approach, a go around, a single engine approach with a single engine go around.
of scenario-based training, that we have looked at FOCWA data and we've looked at the things that challenge pilots of those airplanes, and we've specifically gone into creating scenarios.
There was a citation several years ago that suffered a dual engine failure from altitude due to DEF fluid contamination.
But when you look at it deeper, as a scenario, it is a very extremely good learning tool about, do you understand when the first engine quits? how to assess and make the decision making for where you take the airplane next.
Do you understand the limits of the air start envelope? Will you attempt to restart? What happens next when the next one fails? You have cabin pressure issues.
So I love the way you combine this structure and flexibility when you talk about aviation safety.
And this relates to something else you've talked about in the past, which is how check the box training can be a threat to safety, not just worthless, but even bad in some ways.
So if you're in charge and you're redesigning the flight review and how we do the flight review as a flight training industry, what would you do to replace those box checking maneuvers or that mindset? And I guess maybe more broadly, how should pilots avoid the temptation to just check the box every 24 months?
yeah so it takes the pilot back to um that potentially um uncomfortable experience they had when they had to finally get through that check ride with the dpe right and there's always this sense in the background that i gotta go back and do that again and i gotta be observed i'm gonna be watched there's a different mindset is treat that individual as your coach you don't get to do things with a coach very often And if you're doing debriefings with Flystow or with Cloud Ahoy, it's maybe telling you things that you need to review.
When was the last time you actually did an engine failure on the way back to the airport and you're outside of gliding range and how you figure that out? I remember doing a biennial with an instructor who taught me a really good lesson about that is that we have a tendency to shoot for the road.
road might not be as easy or as good to do with a field which is much bigger and right there next to the road right so it's it's just continuing to learn all the way along the way and having a dpe it allows you or a check a check pilot or instructor during a biennial allows you to expand that aperture to work on things that you know you don't get to do all the time and moreover try to apply to the kind of flying you do every day um and I am currently working on something very similar to that with the Citation Jet Pilots Group.
It's required by their type certificate, and it's basically going back to the simulator or with an in-flight DPE to retake a checkride.
It's pretty routine, like you're saying, checking the boxes and nobody likes it because it's steep turns, stalls, a non-precision approach, a go around, a single engine approach with a single engine go around.
of scenario-based training, that we have looked at FOCWA data and we've looked at the things that challenge pilots of those airplanes, and we've specifically gone into creating scenarios.
There was a citation several years ago that suffered a dual engine failure from altitude due to DEF fluid contamination.
But when you look at it deeper, as a scenario, it is a very extremely good learning tool about, do you understand when the first engine quits? how to assess and make the decision making for where you take the airplane next.
Do you understand the limits of the air start envelope? Will you attempt to restart? What happens next when the next one fails? You have cabin pressure issues.
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