Twenty years ago owner-pilots of high-performance airplanes often supplemented their flying skills by offering the right seat of the airplane to a young CFI whose role was to help keep the left-seat aviator out of trouble. That usually meant working the radios, stowing the charts and generally acting as another set of eyes and hands when the weather was bad or the traffic was dense. Eventually the owner-operator would be able fly on his own, more confident in his abilities.
Not much has changed in 20 years when it comes to owner-pilots searching for that extra set of hands and eyes in the cockpit. What has changed, however, is the aircraft themselves and the airspace in which they operate. Today’s airplanes are often considerably faster and fly at much higher altitudes, often where they can mix with airliners and business jets flown by professional pilots. The cockpits of many new-generation, owner-flown turbines–and some piston- driven airplanes–are now digitized, demonstrating to a new generation of pilots how difficult it can be to maintain control of an airplane in the clouds while punching data into a keyboard.
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