PPL training in Class B airspace is piss poor headwork.
I disagree. Private Pilots are authorized to enter Class B airspace, but how are they supposed to know how to operate in that airspace (or even the VFR corridor) unless they've received training in it?
gatordev said:
Probably not the best place to do Class B training (if that's even what they were doing...all supposition on our part).
The fact that this particular airspace is New York's airspace is irrelevant. If you're going to do Class B transition or corridor training, why wouldn't you use the nearest airspace? Wouldn't that be the airspace most likely used by a resident of New York/New Jersey?
Fly Navy said:
The Cirrus is a pretty advanced ASEL... does it have a data recorder? I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
No actual data recorder on board, however it does have an AHRS and dual-GPS avionics package that may have some short-term memory storage (not designed for accident investigation purposes, however.)
Cirrus Website said:
Training
Question: How does Cirrus transition pilots to fly a glass cockpit?
Answer: Each customer is required to complete transition training in their new Cirrus after the delivery process. The primary provider of the transition flight training is UND Aerospace (my school).
I surmise that this may have been a Cirrus factory training flight. According to the
FAA's aircraft registry, Lidle purchased the airplane around July/August. Given the baseball season, he likely would not have had time to conduct the transition training until just after the Yankees were knocked out of the playoffs. Of course, all of this is purely speculation from a CFII with SR20 experience (but I am by no means an expert).
Also, one of my roommates provided flight instruction for the Cirrus transition course and often flew cross-country flights (like MN-TX) to meet time requirements and such, so the NY-CA flight sounds feasible to help meet these purposes, if this was the case.
Who knows...