Smooth flying

Cabot pilot first to receive certification for new jet

Bobby Gilliam of Cabot is the first pilot to receive SF50 type-rating certification to fly the new Vision Jet from Cirrus Aircraft. Gilliam is pictured at TAC Air, an aviation services provider, in Little Rock.
Bobby Gilliam of Cabot is the first pilot to receive SF50 type-rating certification to fly the new Vision Jet from Cirrus Aircraft. Gilliam is pictured at TAC Air, an aviation services provider, in Little Rock.

— For Bobby Gilliam, being a pilot is like spending most days on vacation, and from Dec. 2-9, he was in Duluth, Minnesota, becoming the first person to complete SF50 type-rating training to operate the Cirrus Vision Jet, a new single-engine personal jet created by Cirrus Aircraft.

“Any airplane that has a jet engine, you have to have a special license for that airplane specifically,” Gilliam, a Cabot native who is the chief pilot for Wilkerson Jewelers in Stuttgart, said of type-rating certifications. “It’s kind of like if you were driving a Chevrolet Tahoe, you have to have a license just [for a] Chevrolet Tahoe. It’s specific to each plane.”

While Gilliam’s main job is with Wilkerson Jewelers, he’s been a Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot for eight years. A friend of his recently bought the Vision Jet, which led to Gilliam, who has more than 9,000 hours of flying time under his belt, traveling to Minnesota to complete training for the jet.

“Bobby will actually be flying the aircraft for the owner of our very first delivery,” said Matt Bergwall, Vision Jet product-line manager. “In order to use our aircraft, Bobby needed to be trained on the airplane. You need specific training for that airplane.”

Gilliam said much of the training included 12-hour days. He spent two days in a classroom studying video and slide shows, then taking a written test on the aircraft’s systems. He also completed five days of flight training, which included line-oriented training, which is flying an aircraft as one would on a normal basis, Gilliam said. He said this portion of the training often includes using a simulator, but since there was no simulator for an aircraft this new, he flew the actual aircraft from Duluth to Omaha, Nebraska; Denver; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and back. He also had an oral exam and a flight test with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Gilliam said his training was all one on one and that eventually, classes for SF50 type-rating training will include five to 10 people and a simulator.

Gilliam went to diesel-mechanic school after graduating from Cabot High School and, years later, worked in steel production. He discovered he didn’t care too much for factory work, but he always had an interest in fast cars. One church friend told him that “everything that goes on those cars came from airplanes.”

“I had a friend — I go to the lake a lot on weekends in the summer — and he was just finishing up a flying program, and he had just got a corporate job, and he took me on a trip with him, and after that, that was it,” Gilliam said.

Gilliam enrolled in the aviation program at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and completed it in 2000. He went on to work for a regional carrier of Northwest Airlines and was based in Memphis, Tennessee; and Detroit before learning of a pilot retiring from Wilkerson Jewelers in Stuttgart.

Gilliam commutes to Stuttgart as needed.

“It’s like working for your family,” he said. “They treat you like family, and they talk to you like family. I’m never quitting there.”

Bergwall said the concept for the Vision Jet has been in the works for 12 years, and Cirrus has just begun delivery of the aircraft. There have been 600 orders for the Vision Jet, and Bergwall said it will take a few years to meet the production demand. The Vision Jet sells for $1.96 million.

“The market we really are aiming toward is what we call the personal-jet category,” Bergwall said. “It’s really catered more toward the owner who is also a pilot, and that’s where most of our position holders [are] who already have deposits on the aircraft — that’s usually who is flying our aircraft.”

The Vision Jet includes safety features such as a parachute and requires every passenger’s weight to be entered. The aircraft also provides performance data and informs the pilot of how much runway length is needed to take off.

“The cockpit is cool. It has five screens,” Gilliam said. “Two of them are basically like TVs, and the other three are basically like a mini iPad-size, and they’re all touchscreens. You operate everything through the touch screen. It’s the latest, the greatest, the newest.”

Gilliam, who has spent about 25 hours flying the Vision Jet, said the aircraft is designed for personal and business use, travels about 345 mph and reaches an altitude of 28,000 feet.

“Basically, it’s a time machine,” he said. “People say, ‘I wish they’d invent a time machine!’ Well, they have. It’s just prohibitively expensive for all of us.”

Gilliam also provides independent flight training and completes about 200 hours of instruction each year. He’s been to every state except Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, but said he’ll get there soon enough.

When Gilliam sees Cirrus Vision Jets appear more in the future, he’ll think back to his training, he said.

“It was really rewarding knowing that I was the first,” he said. “As long as that plane is out there, when somebody sees it, I can say, ‘Well I was the first one to ever be type-rated in that thing.’”

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

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