2 types of workout

One mental... the other quite physical!

So I got up at O'dark thirty this morning to ensure I was out at Ardmore before 8am ready for my 2nd flight in the twin...

The sky was full of blue and a giant ball of yellow, a very very nice morning for flying.

After pre-flighting and a briefing on the considerations for flying a twin in the circuit, we taxied out... did out run-ups and took-off, at which point the instructors door came ajar! Leading to a very noisy circuit and full stop landing so we could get it shut.

Take 2 was much better, and we spent the next hour going round and round in circles...

The first couple were a bit hectic, I was struggling a little, and the speed both in climb and across the ground really did catch me out! For instance, on the first circuit, by the time I'd got the aircraft sorted after take-off and conducted my after take-off checks, I was almost at circuit altitude and I hadn't even turned off the extended centreline! By the time I was sorted in the downwind with the power set and got the gear down to help keep the aircraft under 120kts and then completed my downwind checks, I was late downwind! In a 152, I can have that pretty much done by halfway downwind :-/

But, practice makes perfect, and towards the end, I was getting into a rhythm... keeping ahead of the aircraft and making some decent approaches and landings.

And because I'm a sucker for punishment, I decided that I would go ahead with the afternoon's flight... Intro to Asymmetric flight. This occurs when one of the engines in a twin-engine aircraft fails. In a single-engine, if your engine dies, you're going down, hence why we practice forced landings without power. In a twin, if you lose an engine, it a lot of instances, you are still able to fly "quite" happily on one engine... it's not quite as simple in reality, as I found as this afternoon, but you can do it.

The problem with flying a twin on one engine, is that the engines are usually mounted one on each wing, so if one dies, the thrust from the one good engine is pulling that side of the aircraft along faster than the side with the dead engine, and hence the aircraft wants to constantly swing around... aka "yaw"... Us pilot's generally like to fly in straight lines, so this tendency for the aircraft to want to yaw is a bit of a problem...

Thankfully, we can just straighten the aircraft out with rudder... or so you'd think... it requires MASSIVE amounts of rudder to hold a light twin straight with only one engine working... on the plus side, I can skip the leg press exercises at the gym this week! :P

But again, those cunning pilot's of yesteryear have devised a procedure for dealing with these engine failures, where you keep the aircraft under control by using rudder and full power on the live engine, then set about the task of positively identifying the failed engine, verifying it is failed, and then setting up the engine to produce the minimum amount of drag... and so we worked our way through the various scenario's... engine failure in the cruise, engine failure in the climb, engine failure in the descent...

We followed that up with a "Vmca" (Minimum Control Speed) demonstration, to prove that if you fly too slow on one engine, there is a point where you have full rudder in to counter the yaw, but the aircraft just keeps going and continues to yaw and roll due to the reduced effectiveness of the rudder at such a low airspeed and eventually the aircraft will enter a spiral dive (which leads to other bad things like crashing and dieing!)... Thankfully, we conducted this demonstration at 3500' ;)

Then it was time to head back to Ardmore... on the way Jason popped in a sneaky "surprise" engine failure (all the others he had announced) just to see what I'd do... I handled it OK, but a bit on the slow side remembering the steps in the procedure... I only have 3 hours in the Duchess... and about 1 handling engine failures, so I'm sure it will come with time and practice :)


These Flights: 1.1 + 1.4 Dual Multi
Total Hours: 320.3 (150.4/140.3 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 3.6 Multi, 18.6 IFR)

I'm in love!

WOW... what can I say? 2 engines good, 1 engine bad :P

So I've had my first flight at the controls of a light twin, a Beechcraft BE-76 Duchess (ZK-SMI)... and it was awesome!

Firstly tho, a little bit of a back story...

Unfortunately, the club where I do the majority of my flying, Airline Flying Club, do not have any twin's on the flightline, which is a bit problematic when one is wanting to do a multi-engine instrument rating... :(

Fortunately, our club president has a few contacts about the place and has managed to swing a deal with the club next door, Auckland Aero Club, whereby those of us at AFC who are wanting to get multi ratings, are able to do so at AAC using their aircraft and instructors... :)

So I've enlisted the services of an AAC B-Cat instructor, Jason, and their Duchess... ZK-SMI.

It was just an initial intro to type flight, that covered the basics of the aircraft, how to pre-flight, taxiing, take-off, basic maneuvers like medium turns, steep turns, stalls, emergency (ie. manual) gear extension etc... then a circuit and full stop landing... but thus far, one of the best 1.1 hours of my flying so far.

The machine just has so much get up and go... it easily climbs at over 1000' a minute (we were getting around 1300 or 1400'/minute) at the "standard" climb power setting of 25" Manifold Pressure and 2500 RPM, which isn't full power... compared with say a 152 that might do 600' in an updraft or thermal at full power :P

And it hums along quite nicely at 140kts in the cruise... compare with a 152 that might do 100 with a tailwind ;)

And here-in lies the problem with these aircraft... they're fast and powerful, and it's very easy to get a long way behind the aircraft as it travels so far in such a short space of time you have to plan a long way ahead. I think the next week or so are going to be very interesting and hopefully bucketloads of fun... I've got 2 flights booked for tomorrow ;)


This Flight: 1.1 Dual Multi
Total Hours: 317.8 (150.4/140.3 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 1.1 Multi, 18.6 IFR)

New Year, New Aircraft

Ok... so I kinda got caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas (read as: more partying and alcohol than my aviation doctor needs to know about! ;) and didn't fly for the rest of December :(

But I made up for it by taking my Sister, her husband and 2 of their friends from Ireland who are semi-backpacking around the world for some scenic flights around Auckland in LMA on January 2nd...

The weather was awesome and the it was a great way to start the New Year ;)

Following that I skipped over to Australia to catch up with my Neice and Nephews in Melbourne as my Brother and Sister-in-Law had been unable to make it over to for Christmas with the rest of the family :(

I then foolishly made the mistake of flying up to Brisbane to catch up with an old friend... during the worst flooding since 1974!! Thankfully the airport was still open the day I left, despite the buses and eventually the trains being shutdown!

Once back, I decided it was time to finally get back into the flying stuff, the primary focus being getting my Multi-Engine Instrument rating.

However, the club recently negotiated the use of a Piper PA-38 Tomahawk, ZK-EVL. So I figured I'd add another type rating to my growing list ;)

Now the Tomahawk has a reputation in the aviation community and some would have you believe the "Trauma-hawk" is a death machine, but having never flown one I was trying to keep an open mind.

My type rating was duly completed, included watching it "waggle it's tail" during stalling, but to be honest, it was fairly benign... sure it drops a wing pretty much every time you stall it, but that isn't particularly difficult to deal with, and I actually found it to be a very nice little aircraft, and EVL is a really tidy specimen. The cabin is nice and roomy, a lot bigger than a 152. It has awesome visibility and, was generally, just a real pleasure to fly.

Next up... the multi-engine rating... my first lesson is booked for Thursday! :)


These Flights: 2.3 PinC + 1.4 Dual
Total Hours: 316.7 (150.4/140.3 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 18.6 IFR)