Multi Engine Adventures

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 20:27:10 -0500

Day 1 July 28th

The first day was pretty laid back. We went through a ground lesson of the basics, aerodynamics and systems. The weather was bad it was overcast so we did some work in the Elite Simulator. We flew a baron and did some takeoff engine failures and in air failures. Having never used a simulator before it was a bit too over responsive for my taste. After some practice I got a little better at it. I have no previous knowledge or experience in a complex aircraft so some of it seemed overwhelming at first. The weather cleared up a bit later during the day and we finally went out to fly the Piper Twin Commanche at KGPH, Midwest National Air center. It was an intro flight and we went up to KIXD, New Century. We did some steep turns, my instructor showed me a quick Vmc demo and we headed back to KGPH.

My first thoughts were it was a very stable airplane compared to flying a C172. I had a lot of trouble taxiing and keeping it straight. The pedals are very different compared to a Cessna and controlling the throttles in synchronization was no easy task as well. The twin is very pitch sensitive and was hard to fly at times. Landing approach speed was 110 to 100 on final, things happened fairly quickly and fast compared to 65kts. I didn't attempt to land today. Nonetheless I enjoyed myself and it was a good first day although I feel very clueless at the moment. We got done by about 5pm and I went home and read two chapters of the Jeppeson book. My instructor had to tend to personal matters so I was off for two days.

Day 2 July 31st

The second day of flying was fun and I was very anxious to get back in the plane. Woke up in the morning and there were thunderstorms and flash floods the previous night. As expected it was overcast and IFR here. We decided to fly out to Oklahoma, KRVS; which had a forecast of VFR conditions. So we headed to the airport and got my charts and stuff. Went through the basics of Instrument flight planning and filing on DUAT. We then took off on my first XC and intro IFR flight. We cruised at 8000, above the clouds it was quite the pretty sight and I had wished I would have brought my camera along. Once we reached Oklahoma and started a descent for landing we went through the clouds and it was my first experience being in IMC. It was much more exciting than I had anticipated. It was almost scary seeing the clouds racing towards us at times but I tried to just pay attention to my instruments and everything seemed fine then. Either way it was a beautiful sight and I am looking forward to my IFR rating. The airport is roughly 170-180 miles away. The conditions as I mentioned were not VFR at all there. We landed and went to eat some mexican food at Los Cabos. That was fun seeing a new place and town. I stayed on the controls during landings with the instructor today. It seems like the guys here love to just fly out and dine which is really different for me. We hardly ever went to many places in San Diego while I got my PPL rating. I finally see the actual joy of flying. We then headed back and I had a massive headache we flew a total of 3.8 and just constantly scanning the instruments and navigating took a toll on me. Got back home by about 6 pm studied a bit and slept in good.

Day 3 Aug 1st

Third day began it was hot as hell and I was burning up. Today was pattern work mainly. My taxiing has improved a little bit and it's easier to control the plane now. I still cannot take off in a straight line because I am not pushing the throttles forward in sync. The plane yaws to the left and throws me off the centerline. The control inputs are quite heavy during rotation and I am still trying to get used to it. I keep getting confused by looking at RPM instead of Manifold Pressure while adjusting the throttles and vice versa on the ground. It's a little easier to keep the props in sync but I am still not used to making power and prop changes without staring at the instruments. I tend to get quite caught up in just doing that rather than flying the plane. I got really distracted making power changes and would often get pushed into the runway making a real tight pattern. I did that repeatedly and could not multi task at all. We did about 6 landings and called it a day. I was not able to hold airspeed as I was pitching for it rather then relying on trim. I am not used to the trim or the pitch sensitive controls either. Things happen pretty fast in the pattern. You take off retract the gear, trim for 110 kts, make the power and props to 25 for best climb and turn crosswind. Then once level on downwind power goes to 20" and props 23". Gear goes down we turn base and slow down to 100 kts with constant trimming throughout the pattern. Once on short final mixture and props go full forward. So it's a lot of work and easy to get behind. It doesn't help when it's taking forever to just make the power and prop changes. I still can't do all this smoothly and fast enough. The sight picture is very different and I don't make small power changes. So I end up coming in real fast and all over the place. Once the power goes to idle sub consciously I am used to flaring but this plane will balloon and you'll sink real hard if you do that. I over flared for the most part and had some rough heavy landings. I try to stay optimistic about this and wonder if I will ever be able to make synchronized quick changes. I don't have a habit of trimming and flying the Cessna and that does not work with a multi engine aircraft; pitching for airspeed is impossible to hold off and control during landing. Pretty bummed with today's performance. Tomorrow's a new day.

Day 4 Aug 2nd

We taxied out to do maneuvers today; Steep Turns, Slow Flight, Stalls, Vmc Demo. Somehow I have figured how to advance the throttles equally on take off roll now. Yeah, I was pretty surprised too. We got to the practice area and started with some steep turns. It was really hard holding the bank as the controls are heavy and it was really hazy and hard to use the horizon as a reference. I dropped the nose quite a bit on the left. The right steep turn is more natural and was better. I was able to hold it for the most. Not great but it's coming along. We then did some slow flight. I was caught up in everything else I forgot to add power until we had sank about 100ft. Making small power changes has not come naturally yet to me. In the Cessna you have to be quite aggressive with the throttle to stay level. This plane is much more stable and easier to hold during slow flight. We then went into a power off stall. That was fairly simple although the buffeting is not as noticeable and pronounced. You don't actually go into a stall you just lower the nose and add power right before it stalls. We then powered to 15" MP to do a power on. Slowed down to 90kts and added 21" MP and raised the nose and once again lower the nose with the buffet prior to the stall. Finally we moved on to Vmc. We slowed the plane down and at 90kts I put the left throttle to idle and the plane yawed to the left. I didn't correct for yaw and bank soon enough to the right. Then I advanced the right throttle to full and now we yawed to the right and by now I was well off my original heading. Then we slowed 1kt/s to Vmc 78kts until we started buffeting or losing directional control. Once it happened I put the right throttle to idle and pushed the nose down. I did not remove the massive amount of right rudder or bank so we yawed and dropped to the right. We did again I was a little better in anticipating and staying ahead of the airplane. We did steep turns again as it's my weakest maneuver and the one I always dread. I don't know what it is about steep turns but I have never liked doing them. Finally we headed back to do pattern work. The pattern was much better today and I seem to be getting used to positioning my palm correctly over the controls and moving them in sync. Somehow it just came and happened. I trimmed the plane as fast as I could. I have a bad habit of turning base with the nose up and forgetting to let go of the back pressure once level on final which makes us have unstable airspeed and glide path. We did about 3 landings and I was pretty tired by then and it was hot again. Overall it was a very productive day and I was happy with myself. After struggling for the past few days I seem to be getting more comfortable with the airplane. I am just glad I can takeoff without looking like an idiot now.

Day 5 Aug 3rd

Today was maneuver day. We pretty much went through all the motions. There's slight improvements and progress coming along. We did some precision landings and called it a day.

Day 6 Aug 4th

Another fun day of maneuvers. We started early to beat the heat today. It's just way too hot here to train for prolonged periods in the sun. Took off and climbed to 6000 did some of my beloved Steep Turns leading into a Power Off Stall. We then proceeded to do a Power On Stall, more Steep Turns, and Vmc Demo followed by an Engine Shutdown and Air restart. Things went well today everything was up to the PTS standards. So we have come a long way. We then headed to the pattern to do some single engine landings. The first time he pulled an engine on early crosswind and walked through what to do. Our pattern ended up being rather wide and I didn't descend soon enough and pulled too much power out. I ended up dragging her in. The second go he pulled the left engine on late crosswind right as I was about to turn downwind. I was so caught up with trying to make my patterns that I started my turn to downwind, to the left instead of dealing with the failure. I heard some yelling and we quickly leveled back out. I knew in my head Vmc increases it was probably at 100 and we could have rolled over straight to the ground. I am not sure why my mind decided to make the turn at this point but I think my instructor was pretty queasy by this. So the rest of the landings were a bit tense perhaps. We pulled an engine on crosswind again and I just extended and dealt with the failure first. Anyways I guess I terrorized my instructor enough today and we called a day. We came back to do some ground to prepare me for my oral. We went through common questions and mainly systems. We have all that squared away now and I just need to study quite a bit and get this through my head as soon as possible.

Day 7 Aug 5th

I haven't been sleeping too well lately and feel very stressed out. I came back home yesterday and just slept almost all day and night. I feel really good this morning but I haven't been able to study at all and my checkride is on Friday. I am definitely feeling the pressure and today's going to be a tough day of studying after flying. We are going to just fly today and tomorrow will be my final ground with my instructor. I absolutely have to no it all by tomorrow. Stressing over this won't help so I am just telling myself at this point it will work out on it's own. So much has happened in this past week and I have learned so much sometimes I wonder how I am able to remember most of these things and not crack under pressure. I get a little jittery before flights but when I get to the airport and see that plane it all goes away and you just feel like you belong. My confidence has greatly improved and I usually am very nervous with new instructors, a new plane and this place is new to me too. The laid back atmosphere and the friendly instructor have all helped me progress.

A little cooler today not by much maybe 5 degrees still in the high 90's here. You come train out here you're gonna have to get used to sweating like a pig. It's humid and hot. So we decided to do some Single Engine Pattern work. It's coming along good I come in a little high but it's better than dragging her in. I did land within 1/3rd of the runway per the PTS requirement. Some clouds stated to pop up so we got some fuel checked the weather and went up to do some more maneuvers. Begin with lovely Steep Turns, Slow Flight leading into Power Off Stall, Power On Stall, Vmc Demo, Engine Shutdown and Air Restart. We got pretty hungry by now and decided to head back to Miami County for some barbecue. Thankfully they had it this time and it was really good and they have a rather small runaway about 4000ft so it's fun landing there. We ate and wanted to do another Engine Shutdown and Air Restart but the clouds wouldn't allow us to climb high enough. So we just flew back and I have my mock checkride with my instructor tomorrow. Another mock checkride with the owner, Michael on Thursday, possibly followed by my final checkride with the DE. Quite a fun day for me now the pressure is on. We are doing good with the flying as my instructor says most people fail on the oral. I got a lot of studying to do today. Boy, fun times.

Day 8 Aug 6th

Here comes the first mock checkride with my instructor. We decided to meet at 9 to beat the heat and get the flying done prior to the oral. Woke up this morning to overcast clouds and a cool day. I preflighted and we had to file IFR to get above the clouds to do maneuvers. I ended up getting .2 actual again so I can't complain. Until now I was used to my instructor backing me on radios and maneuvers making sure I am doing everything correctly but today he'll be the silent judge. We got above the clouds and started with --- you guessed it, Steep Turns. Everything was uneventful and I met the PTS standards came back for an ILS Approach into GPH. I was really off my game today with landings, gotta say they were the worst I have ever done. Looking past that we headed back for lunch and the oral. I took down quite a few notes and he asked me a lot of questions and we reviewed concepts and answers again. I still have more studying to do before my 2nd mock checkride. You just can't perform knowing hey if you mess this up you won't be going on your checkride on Friday. I am gonna be positive about this and do my best tomorrow. Weather might be bad tomorrow as well. Hope for the best prepare for the worst.

Day 9 Aug 7th

My last mock checkride was supposed to be today with Michael. Due to unforeseen circumstances it couldn't happen. We discussed Vmc factors and my instructor asked me some questions. He's not worried about my flying as much the oral. Tomorrow's the big day.

Day 10 Aug 8th

Hello Checkride! How patiently have I been dreading you. Woke up at 10, my ride was scheduled at 1. So we took off 12:15 flew to New Century, KIXD did 2 laps of the pattern. We met the examiner and the oral began. At this point my instructor was still sitting in which I wasn't expecting. So I requested him to leave so that I don't get nervous and keep looking at his reactions. Anyway off we went with TAPE; Transponder, Annual, Pitot Static, Elt Battery & Inspection. Everything was previously tagged so it wasn't a problem. Here are the questions that I was asked in a random order. I can't recall everything he asked me but this is just a gist of it.

Questions:

What is an AD, Explain and show them?
Why is multi engine a separate rating/add on?
Explain V-Speeds?

What is accelerate stop distance? Calculate it for today?
Weight and Balance?

Systems:
Explain the fuel system?
Explain the electrical system?
Explain the vacuum Pump system?
Explain the landing gear and flaps?
Explain engine & propellers?

Critical Engine, Vmc, Emergencies:
What is a critical engine? Do we have one?
What are the factors that make it critical?
What is Vmc and why is it important, factors?
What would you do if you had a fire during engine start?
What would you do for a engine fire, electrical fire?
How do you manually get the gear down?

Then he said the oral was complete and we'd fly in 5. He explained the rules and everything he'll be doing and that I am PIC at all times. So we took off and he wanted to stay in the pattern. We came around I totally forgot to put the props full forward at short final. He said go around as I pushed the throttle I caught my mistake and quickly got the props to full. I acknowledged my mistake and let him know it won't happen again. We come around now for a precision landing. I picked the 1000ft bars. We were coming in pretty good when he says remember you have to land on the bars I don't think we'll make it. It seemed to me that we would; I wasn't dragging her in or anything but for some reason he thought we would be short. I landed on the markers on the spot and we headed out to do maneuvers. We climbed up to 4000ft, it was awfully bumpy and because of thermal activity we had updrafts and downdrafts. The examiners door bumped open and would not shut completely we had a lot of wind noise and buffeting. Now I panicked okay lets see I can't even keep her stable and now we gotta do Steep Turns. I decided to just suck it up and take my time. As i did we would hit an updraft I would fix for it and now here's comes the downdraft. Finally frustrated I told him I am ready. Started one to the left went 180 degrees around everything looked good and then bhaam a giant cloud came between me and my horizon so the the nose started to drop. I leveled and told him I lost my horizon to a cloud. We did it again and this one was good. Then I fidgeted around again trying to get her stable for the right. Did one of those. We then did slow flight leading into a power off stall in a gentle bank. He then killed my right engine; so I said right to left everything forward. Verify right, feather right and he interrupted me saying you just killed the wrong engine I cannot accept that. From the shock of thinking I just failed I look to the left and tell him I did feather the right engine. He got confused and made a mistake but the damage was done I was rattled at this point. He told me to relax and apologized and then said we could land and get our single engine landing out of the way and close the door. At this point we had Vmc demo and emergency descent left. He wanted to land on a 4000ft runway that I was unfamiliar with as opposed to the nice long one at IXD. I was still uneasy with what had just happened so I recommended we just complete the maneuvers and head back do the single and end the ride. I did the Vmc demo, he felt I pushed the throttles in too fast and I agree. At this point I wasn't completely focused. We then did an emergency descent down to 2000ft. Headed back to IXD on downwind he killed a engine. Did the single engine landing just fine. Secured the plane and got back. He signed iacra, debriefed me and my instructor. Printed out my temporary certificate and that's it I passed my Multi Engine PPL Add on. Total ME hours: 20

CPS : ME

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 16:55:26 -0500

I finally arrived at CPS and have started my ME training prior to IFR. I'll be doing my IFR in the twin as well. The office is nice and they were still building the CRJ then. I am glad I got to see that and I am waiting for it to be up and running. Everyone here seems nice and helpful. There's a lot going on in the town and there's shopping, food and everything you'll ever need within a 2 mile radius of the studios. The housing is decent about a 10 minute drive from the office. It's a relatively new Value Place and thank god the air conditioning works really well. I have flown for 5 days so far and we have accomplished a lot. I haven't had a chance to really update as a lot has been going on and it really is coming along fast. I will put up some pictures of the housing, planes, and Missouri/Kansas in the near future.

Cross Country Drive

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:34:18 -0500

A long painful drive; we left home at 4:30 am and are finally at a motel in Dalhart, Texas. We have driven about 1050 miles so far. The drive was very scenic and we massacred tons of insects. We have 500-600 to go tomorrow early morning before we arrive at CPS.

CPS : IFR

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:47:08 -0500

After my PPL I am planning on getting my additional ratings all the way to CFI, CFII, and MEI at CPS. My wife and I are leaving early tomorrow morning on a 1700 mile road trip to Missouri. We'll be going through Arizona,New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. We'll be trying to get there by Saturday afternoon and she'll take a flight back to San Diego once I am settled in. It's going to be quite the interesting ride for the both of us. Hopefully everything works out and I'll keep you posted on the adventures at CPS.

Iweb 2.0.4

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:17:32 -0500

Finally Iweb 2.0.4 is here and yes I can publish now. Also working now are blog comments. Getting rid of the Albums section really helped make the site snappier and saved on publish times as well. The new Galleries are just iframes linked to the webpage. I don't know if these changes are final I am still tinkering with how to make the gallery pages look. Incase you were wondering here's the code and the author's mac hint http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2007111620013523

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