CJP Safety Chair Charlie Precourt joined Dave Morisey, the association’s new director of safety, training & education to walk attendees through the enhanced training criteria for the Gold Standard Safety Award (GSSA) that offers greater flexibility for Citation pilots who train in their aircraft.
“Our theme this year is ‘A Legacy of Safety’ and we want to celebrate successes that we’ve had,” Precourt said. “The total Citation fleet that’s out there is almost 8,000 airplanes, and we own 11.4% of that, 903 aircraft in our membership. Between 2021 through [early September], almost five full years, there have been 314 notifications or occurrences of accidents or incidents.
“With our 11.4% of the fleet, we should be around 36 of those occurrences involved CJP members,” he continued. “Our actual number is five, which is one-seventh the rate of the other nearly 7,000 airplanes. This is huge, and it’s not
just a coincidence. It’s statistically significant and verifiable, five years in a row. We are seven times safer than the rest of the citation fleet that’s out there.”
Even more impressive are the number of accidents involving GSSA recipients over that program’s eight-year history: zero. Participants in CJP’s flight operations quality assurance program (CJP-FOQA℠) have had one accident and one incident, neither of which were the fault of the pilots.
To maintain and improve upon those figures even more, the revised GSSA criteria allows pilots to complete their first 61.58 in the airplane, and a second session with four hours academics and four hours training in the simulator. Previously, GSSA criteria required a 61.58 check in the simulator, followed by an enrichment element through either a second 61.58 either in the sim, or with six hours of dual training in the aircraft.
“We understand most people thought you had to get that 61.58 in the sim so they kind of took themselves out of the running,” Morisey said. “It’s not easy to get to get those extra days in the sim, and legacy [Citation pilots] don’t really have the same options.”
The new criteria more clearly outlines available in-aircraft training options.
“You still need your 100 hours PIC time and you still need to follow the CJP SOPs,” Morisey said, “but now we’re asking you to get a 61.58 in the Citation, whether it’s in the sim or in your airplane.”
Additionally, new training elements build upon CJP’s revolutionary Safe to Land® program with elements addressing stable approach decision-making, complex missed approaches, engine-out procedures, challenging circling maneuvers, ForeFlight runway analysis and mastering visual approaches.
“If you [train] in the sim, it opens up more opportunities for the second event criteria,” Morisey continued. “You can either get another 61.58, you can get your six hours of dual OR now you can complete four hours of flight training and four hours of ground, which coincides with two of our elements stacked together. Go to FlightSafety for one day, do two elements, and that completes that part of the criteria.”
“The elements have been built intentionally to not be so dependent on avionics,” Precourt added. “Every one of you will be able to take part in these elements of training in a sim that at least approximates the one you’re flying, because these scenarios are more about the decision making than the specifics of your particular setup.”
Understandably, the aim is to increase GSSA participation. “Number one, we want you guys to be safer and more proficient pilots,” Morisey said. “But number two is, if the [insurance] underwriter is going to start asking for this stuff, we want to make sure that you understand how to get it.”
“I call [Dave] the godsend,” Precourt added. “I think all of you appreciate the level of effort and work that goes into the initiatives and the resources that we’ve created with this group of folks here at CJP. Our culture is something to be really proud of.”
Additional details of the new GSSA training criteria are available here. All attendees of safety sessions at CJP 2025 are also eligible for FAA WINGS credit.