Its Been A While

I'm usually pretty good about blogging my flying adventures, but I just realized that I haven't writtten anything since April. It's not that I haven't flown in two months, it's just that I haven't flown myself or family/friends anywhere. Looking at my logbook, I've logged around 20 hours from the right seat as an instructor. So come to think of it, I have done a lot of flying in the last 60 days, including an IFR cross country, numerous instrument approaches, and a couple of flight reviews.

Another Airplane in the Logbook

Today I had the opportunity to give a flight review in a Commander 114. How I ended up flying in the Commander is an interesting story. We had just recently obtained a hangar for our 182 and pushing the plane into the hangar is a bit of a chore. I remembered that one of my friends who is a partner in a Commander had an electric tug sitting in their hangar. I inquired as to the status of the tug and the owners ended up giving me the tug. I think the functionality of the tug was intermitent and they just wanted to recover the hangar space. During that conversation, one of the partners of the Commander was up for a flight review and during our discussion I disclosed that I was a CFI. One thing led to another and a review was scheduled.

The interesting thing is that I had been a passenger in the right seat of this Commander a year or so prior before obtaining my CFI. Now, I was in the right seat again, but this time as a CFI and evaluating another pilot for a flight review. It's wierd how things in life come full circle. The review went well and I even got to fly from the right seat for bit and land the airplane.

Black Berry Milk Shake

Gone are the days of the $100 hamburger, so from this day forward I'm using the phrase "$100 milkshake". The last three or four flights that I've made involving a food stop of some sort have included the consumption of a milkshake. The most recent being the black berry shake at the Spruce Goose Cafe at 0S9.

Today we boarded the family airplane and headed up to the Jefferson County Airport for some lunch (and a milkshake). The place was crowded as usual but it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. While sitting there eating, I watched a blue and yellow Beaver taxi up and spin around into the parking spot next to our 182. The only problem was that the parking spots aren't big enough for a Beaver. But as it turned out the Beaver's wings are higher than the 182 so no problem, the wings just overlapped above the 182's. I've parked the 182 with some overlap on low winged airplanes before, but this was the first time that a bigger airplane over shadowed the 182!

Poker Run

Last weekend one of the local flying clubs hosted a hop/skip/jump and poker run. The objective was to get some short field experience and visit a few airports that aren't in the typical Puget Sound $100 hamburger rotation. After each landing every pilot got a playing card and at the end of the day the pilot with the best poker hand won a one hour rental in a C172. The route for the day was as follows: KBFI, 2S1, Port Orchard (private), 8W5, W10, Diamond Point, (private), 0S9, KOKH, 13W, W16, KBFI.

Another State, Another Week of Flight Training

I decided to knock out the MEI since I was fresh off of the multi add-on a few weeks ago. I once again went with ATP and was impressed by the training standardization between the Phoenix and Tampa locations. Other than a couple of minor procedural differences (and a 2000 Seminole vs 1979 model), instructors from both locations taught using the same flows, etc.

This time however I didn't want to have to cram all the training in on consecutive days so I was able spread out my flights and have a day or two off during the week. We had some weather issues and one flight was cut short due to visibility and another was cancelled due to weather. Looking back I believe the optimal training duration for my style of learning is to complete the 4 or 5 day rating over a period of 7-10 days. ATP was very accomodating with the training schedule that I proposed.

The checkride was one of the harder practicals that I've had and this DE was very thorough on flushing out my knowledge on multi-engine aerodynamics and MEI limitations.

Oral 2.5 hrs
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Started talking about what blue line means and why after takeoff we reduce pitch at 500' and reduce power at 1000'. Dave was looking for "critical phase" of flight and why just after takeoff should an engine fail, things can get out of hand in a twin. He was trying to drive home that we as CFI's need to drive home this aspect of multi engine flight while giving training. Also he wanted to know what is happening aerodynamically when we are at blue line vs 100 kts. Dave was looking for increased/decreased performance due to changes in induced drag and parasite drag (LD max graph). This would come up again later during the drag demo.

Next was FAR's and what I could do as an MEI in regards to giving someone a flight review. His scenario was as follows:

A guy comes to me with a helicopter, private airplane/instrument, private multi rating. The guy wants to get a flight review in a friends twin (Binford 2000). I had to work through 61.56, 61.57, and 61.195 for the answer. Dave was also looking for how I would tailor training to this individual since he had airplane and helo experience. Next scenario was a private single engine pilot who wanted to get his multi add on. After we talked about the required training, also had to mention 61.195 (f) in that it requires me to have 5 hours PIC in make/model of the Binford 2000.

Last up was presenting the Vmc ground brief

Flight 1.3 hrs
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- Slow flight, steep turns.
- Then power off stalls, power on stalls
- Next he gave me a scenario where right engine was leaking oil/oil pressure was dropping/CHT increasing. Had to shutdown the right engine, secure, then restart.
- Vmc demo
- Drag demo, wanted to know what we are demonstrating when pitching to 82 and pitching to 100. Answer is showing the effects of induced drag (higher at 82) and higher parasite drag at 100 kts.
- Emergency descent
- Landings (normal/short field)
- Failed engine after takeoff at 400'
- Failed engine in pattern with normal single engine landing

Four Days In Phoenix

I’ve just spent the last four days earning my multi-engine add-on at ATP in Phoenix. I took advantage of the 4-day multi-engine special that they offered and in the end I now have 9.5 hours in a Seminole. Over those three days I got four flights (5 counting the check ride) and about five hours in the Frasca. The instructor assigned to me had a lot of multi-engine experience and really knew his stuff. I’ve heard both good and bad things about ATP but in my case it was an enjoyable experience and would highly recommend for someone wanting to earn an advanced rating in a short amount of time. One caveat though, you’ll need to be capable of learning to fly all of the PTS maneuvers in three days and potentially the operation of an unfamiliar airplane. As an example there were a lot of airline fo’s here for their two-day ATP rating. For these guys it would be analogous to a private pilot moving from a Cessna to a Piper.

The rating doesn’t come easy as I spent many hours preparing for the intense 4-days of training by reading the provided Seminole supplement from ATP and reading several texts on multi-engine operations. One of my favorite texts was “Transitioning to Twins”, which has excellent diagrams explaining multi-engine aerodynamics.

The first day we spent the morning in the Frasca going over flows and PTS maneuvers. This sim time made my first actual flight in the Seminole that much easier, and for someone who has never flown a multi engine airplane I needed all the help that I could get. After that I flew a single flight the first two days and two flights on the third day. The time in between was spent covering Seminole systems and multi engine aerodynamics. When my instructor wasn’t around I had time for self study and unlimited access to the Frasca’s.

The check ride went smoothly and the examiner understood that I only had eight hours in the airplane and wasn’t that familiar with all the position reporting for the practice area South of Gateway airport (KIWA), so he helped out with position calls and some of the local operations in the interest of safety.

Back in Service

The airplane is back in service after some re-seal work on the propeller hub. Leading up to the repair a pattern of oil started to appear on the propeller extending away from the hub after each flight. After further investigation the o-rings inside the propeller hub had worn flat and were no longer capable of containing the lubricating oil stored inside. With the repair complete, I was able to make a short scenic flight to verify that the oil leak has indeed stopped.