What does it feel like when they hand you the keys—figuratively speaking—to a $17 million business jet? For me, it was a milestone moment, as Embraer’s Praetor 500 represented the biggest step up in class that I’ve taken in the turbine world.
I last flew the Embraer Phenom 300E for a FLYING We Fly pilot report in March 2020, and the team at Embraer Executive Jets welcomed me and ensured that—through thorough briefings and a detailed walkaround—that I had a good grasp of the technology the makes the Praetor 500 and 600 a step up in the EMB-550 series. The tech includes the company’s proprietary fly-by-wire flight control system that I just had to fly to see how it felt from the PIC’s perch.
