Observation Flight! :)

I recently took my first flight in the Piper Seminole. It was with my flight instructor and Jessica and we went over to Tooele and did engine out manuevers! I even got a sick picture with the propeller stopped. It was cool. I got to see how the airplane handles and feels and operates with only one engine operating. We talked about all the different scenarios for engine out situations during takeoff and also enroute. A lot of planning is required to do a flight in a multi-engine aircraft. Our preflight talked a lot about the different parts of the Seminole like the downlimit switch, up limit switch, squat switch, gas heater, scupper drains, and many other systems for the Seminole and how they differ from the Arrow systems. We did a few landings at Tooele and then headed back to Salt Lake. The Seminole is much heavier than the A/C we're used to flying and handles much differently in the pattern than an Arrow. I'm excited to get myself behind the yoke and try her out!

Blog Post #5 What I learned from Multi-engine Ground

To pick two things that I have learned from this class I would have to say that is that two engines are not necessarily better than having one engine. If you lose one engine you lose 80% of your performance, Therefore it is important to plan for each phase of flight, takeoff, en route, and approach to landing, what to do if you lose an engine. Another thing to think about is which engine is your Critical Engine. A critical engine is the one that if you lose it, it most adversely affects performance. There is no critical engine on the Seminole because one prop spins counter clockwise and one spins clockwise. I also learned in this class that in order to safely operate a multi-engine aircraft it requires improved flight-deck management, crew resource management,aeronautical decision making, and you must have improved workload management. Imagine flying a multi-engine aircraft in IMC and you are just approaching the final approach fix, this situation requires a great deal of workload management and situational awareness. I also learned that it takes the average pilot 8 seconds to react to emergency. I liked the class a lot, I think that we had a good time and still learned a lot. I liked the idea of blogging about our experience and having the observation flight which I think will be really fun. I wish that we could have more time to finish the PCATD and observation flight assignments because they are due on Tuesday and I haven't finished them yet. I think it was cool that when we had a test all five of us would study together, that really helped. And the fact that Julie answered any questions we had on the phone. I hope that the last two tests go well for us too. I think overall this class has helped prepare me to hop in the seat of the Seminole and operate it safely.