SimCom or Flight Safety

spoolinup22

spoolinup22

Well-Known Member
Looking to do Recurrent this year for the Westwind.

Typically go to SimCom but Flight Safety matched their price. Going to go late March. Nothing bad to say about SimCom but just wanted to get outsider info.

Thanks.
 
Flight Safety is second to none in the Gulfstream training arena, and I've heard good things about their other programs. If they matched price, I would try FSI
 
I've always done flight safety for the 121 stuff (DHC-8 and ATR-72) then went to SimCom for King Air and it was an embarrassment.
 
I have been to FSI three times, and couldn't be happier with the level of training I received each time. I know guys who have attended SimCom and they speak highly of it as well. Like anything else, I suspect there's a bit of variance between locations of the same brand.
 
Both vendors have some great programs and instructors and some not so good programs.. It really depends on the individuals represented within.. FSI wins in planning their courses out and materials.. CAE wins in "I just bought this plane and my crew needs to go to training on Friday."
 
CAE for three different birds so can't speak personally, but a good friend just did the Legacy in St. Louis (FSI) and absolutely hated it. I've heard great things about it on the Beechjet side. I figure these places vary with each airframe so your mileage may vary.
 
averettpilot said:
CAE for three different birds so can't speak personally, but a good friend just did the Legacy in St. Louis (FSI) and absolutely hated it. I've heard great things about it on the Beechjet side. I figure these places vary with each airframe so your mileage may vary.
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Was it the Leagcy 500? I have a friend that went through the program and was a bit underwhelmed.
 
I've always used Simcom for Westwind, since I know and like the people there, but one of our other pilots went to FSI one year, and the training materials are much, much better. He didn't have anything good or bad to say about the instructors or sim, so I'm not sure how much help that is. The best part of Simcom is being in Orlando vs. Delaware, though. For me, that seals the deal on Simcom.
 
WWPilot said:
I've always used Simcom for Westwind, since I know and like the people there, but one of our other pilots went to FSI one year, and the training materials are much, much better. He didn't have anything good or bad to say about the instructors or sim, so I'm not sure how much help that is. The best part of Simcom is being in Orlando vs. Delaware, though. For me, that seals the deal on Simcom.
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i can tell you already have good taste in planes. ever do freelance work?
 
I'm about to go to 525 initial and am wondering the same thing, anyone have type specific experience with FSI, SimCom or CAE? FSI definitely gets the best recommendations, not as flexible of a schedule.

I'm wondering specifically because it is my first type and i'd like the most thorough I can find, I've had some less than stellar material from SimCom before. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I think it all depends on the program, the PC12 at FSI was meh but I’ve heard SimCom was much worse.

I think all the training centers are feeling the pinch with the pilot shortage and the overall quality of courses is suffering. From what I’ve heard.
 
My one and only training center experience has been FSI Orlando, but I don't really have any complaints except that the computers in the classroom were woefully out of date and kept crashing. Besides that, FSI was top notch.
 
I can't speak to the instruction quality between the three since we always used our own instructors at FSI, but my SimCom experiences have varied from incredibly knowledgeable instructors that made me wish the program was a couple of days longer to people that were teaching straight out of the books with barely 100 hours in that particular airframe.

Equipment wise, I haven't found either FSI or SimCom to be any better in terms of reliability. Simunisms, breakdowns and freeze ups are just going to happen occasionally. Ideally there will be more than one box so you can switch if need be but you never know.

My advice would be to call the school ahead of time, find out who your instructor would be for that time slot and get their resume sent to you. @stradamus Popular airframes like the CJ also have owners boards, for example https://www.citationjetpilots.com. I'm sure you'll find other pilots there willing to share their training experiences.
 
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