Multi Engine Observation Flight

Flight training can coast a ton. Especially learning how to fly a multi engine aircraft. Flight observations however are free!! That's why I love 'em. For multi engine ground school, our teacher has required us to go on another students training flight and blog about our experience.

Kyle was kind enough to let me tag along on his flight to Ogden today with his instructor, Brad. During the pre-flight, Brad showed me the "poor mans hydraulics" on the rudder and Adam taught me about the purpose of the mass balance horn attached to the ailerons.

To begin the flight we took off from Salt Lake. On takeoff roll, Brad killed one of the engines and the plane violently yawed to the left. Kyle was quick with his reflexes and immediately closed the throttles and maintained directional control of the plane. Kyle seemed as if he practiced this several times because it was as if he didn't have to think about it at all, it was just reflex.

After we climbed out, Brad put Kyle under the hood for instrument flight. Kyle had wanted to tune in his nav equipment and set up his GPS while on the ground, and Brad had told him that although that is a good idea, and should do that if he was really flying IFR, he wanted Kyles workload to be increased for the purpose of the training flight.

Kyle began to tune in VOR's and set up the GPS, get ATIS information, and brief the approach, all while talking on the radios and maintaining altitude and heading. It seemed like we were getting vectors for the ILS in no time because the Seminole is so fast. So fast infact that Kyle really had to work hard to stay ahead of the airplane. While we were approaching wolfe intersection at 150 kts, Brad suggested to Kyle that he slow the airplane down. This would allow more time to be ready for the approach, get before landing checklists done and be at a manageable airspeed for the final. I found this tip to be extremely valuable. I am going to try to remember to slow the aircraft down to insure that I can stay ahead of the airplane. During my instrument training , I was so used to throttle full forward for everything except for after the final approach fix. Even with full throttle in the Alarus, we were lucky to get airspeeds of 90 kts. In the Seminole, if you are not managing airspeed, things come at you twice as fast.

Runway 3 in Ogden was closed, so we circled for a touch and go. It was interesting to see a circle to land and give you an idea of what the challenge would be like if it was IMC weather. Because we were circling to land, Kyle used only one notch of flaps and used some throttle to maintain altitude as we circled.

After the first touch and go, Kyle entered the traffic pattern again to do a short field landing. The short field landing in the Seminole seems to be a bid easier than short field landings in the Arrow. Because of induced lift, when you reduce the throttles, the Seminole can really come down. Also, I assume because of the weight, the Seminole floats very little. Kyle was impressive as he touched down about 10 feet past his point.

After the landings, we headed straight for the VOR. Once again, Brad pointed out how fast the Seminole can fly, and you may need to slow it down so that you will have time to enter a hold properly, or prepare for an approach. Kyle played with power setting and found that 20" map and 2500 RPM gave him a manageable airspeed for setting up for the hold and approach.

Kyle flew the VOR RWY 7 approach with the north arc. Flying the arc helped remind me about how to set up an arc. Turn, time, twist, talk, and throttle. Good stuff. We flew the approach and went missed to hold at the VOR and then headed home.

The lessons that I went away with today is that the Seminole is MUCH faster than what I flown IFR in the past. You need to stay ahead of the aircraft. I want to have the before landing checklist done before my final approach fix. Slowing the airplane down is a good idea to help you have time to set up for the approach as well as help to not shock cool the engines. It was a great flight and I'm glad that Kyle and Brad let me tag along.