Upon his retirement as a non-routine flight operations captain from a fractional operator in 2015, Dr. Veillette had accumulated more than 20,000 hours of flight experience in 240 types of aircraft—including balloons, rotorcraft, sea plans, glides, war birds, supersonic jets and large commercial transports. He is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University. In June 2023, he won the prestigious Bill Gunston Technology Writer of the Year Award.
The low-drag design of modern business jets makes managing aircraft energy while descending from altitude a challenge. These aircraft tend to build up speed rapidly in a descent and don’t “go down and slow down” well. Such characteristics are especially problematic when ATC issues a late descent combined with an altitude or airspeed constraint.
In aviation we’ve long recognized that “scud running” is immensely dangerous, and the protection of operating in the IFR system with an IFR-certified aircraft and IFR-proficient pilot can be an effective means to avoid CFIT-type accidents. In 1997, the FAA allowed passenger-carrying operations under FAR Part 135 for single-engine airplanes, justifying the rule change because it noted that the risk of CFIT far outweighed the risk of engine failure.
How does a company that designs and manufactures specialized, turbine-powered aircraft deep within the Swiss Alps recruit a workforce with the skills necessary to compete on the world stage?
