When I earned my first jet type rating more than 25 years ago it was just assumed that I knew how to fly and could pass the course. If I couldn’t, the check ride would find my shortcomings, and I would be out the door. The training was one size fits all, sink or swim, learn it in two weeks or see you later.
When Cessna was developing the Citation Mustang, the first entry-level jet to achieve full certification and enter service without restrictions, it became clear that this lowest-priced Citation would attract a new type of pilot. Many, if not most, Mustangs will be owner-flown; those owners will step into the Mustang with an unpredictable résumé of flying experience. The old “pound every pilot through the same type rating course” just wasn’t going to work in the Mustang. A new path to the left seat had to be created.
