Third Time's a Charm

Waking up on Sunday about two weeks ago for my third and fourth multi flights, I knew that at least the first flight would have to be scrapped. From my condo in Seattle, I could not even see the tops of some of the skyscrapers -- they were engulfed in clouds. So, instead of heading to the airport early in the morning, I spent most of my time reviewing the Beech Duchess performance and systems descriptions. The Beechcraft POH's are expensive -- the Duchess one was over $100 from Essco -- but they are very well organized with regard to presentation of relevant information. In addition, Northway instructors put together a Multi-Engine Packet which provides a nice summary of the Duchess systems, together with accompanying photos so that you can really see, for example, where the heater overheat reset switch is.

During that morning I also did a considerable amount of "chair flying." What is "chair flying"? It's exactly what it describes: the pilot sits in a chair (or a sofa, in my case), imagines that he or she is in the cockpit, and goes through procedures while touching imaginary controls. From the last flight, I really needed to concentrate on engine-out procedures. Milen had said that I do them usually too fast, and sometimes in the wrong order. So, I practiced those over and over again until (almost) I could do them in my sleep.

Fortunately, as I chair-flew and read the Duchess technical information, the weather started lifting up. While it was still overcast around noon, the forecast was for continued improvement. So, after having checked with Milen, I headed up to the airport. We would only do one flight, but Milen was still confident that it was possible for me to take the checkride mid-week.

During the flight, we introduced the remainder of multi-engine checkride maneuvers, which basically consisted of a Vmc demo. Of course, we practiced engine shutdowns, simulated single-engine flight, and simulated single engine go-arounds (at altitude) -- all of which went much better than the day before. I can say I was much more organized and consistent. I "only" lost about 250 feet of altitude on the single engine go-around -- not because I was necessarily faster on the engine-out procedure, but because I was more deliberate about what I was doing. And overall, the entire flight went much better, period. Chair flying really works! Milen definitely thought I would be ready by end of the week. So, it was just a couple more flights until I would get my license -- one with Milen and one with another instructor to make sure everything was kosher!