FLYING IS ALWAYS about learning, whether that's clearly stated or not. In small personal airplanes learning usually happens at a monthly pilot's association meeting, an FAA safety seminar, during a flight review, or when flying with a friend after they'd installed some new gee-whiz avionics gadgetry. As people move up the ladder to larger, more complex turbine aircraft, the need for regular addition training isn't left to the whims of a GA pilot remembering to schedule a flight review every 24 months. Normally, Part 135 charter training never called for us to attempt a maneuver that could be deemed dangerous. Every so often, though, life would toss a curve ball that kept things, ahem, interesting. One morning I was called in for a trip in the Cessna Citation 650 from our Chicago base with no passengers to Denver to pick up five people and fly home. I was partnered with another captain, and dispatch decided he'd have overall responsibility for the flight. This captain and I had a little history. We simply didn't play nicely together, and I'd been told early on the company would avoid pairing us up whenever possible. Today, though, dispatch had everyone flying, and there was no other option.
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