ready2fly
Well-Known Member
R2F\'s Multi-Engine/IA Checkride
Yep - piece of cake. Nerveracking.... but a piece of cake nonetheless.
Got there at 2:15 p.m. for the 3:00 ride and basically paced the lobby, did the preflight, paced the lobby... palms sweaty as hell... pacing, pacing.. going over in my head:
"okay, downwind 115, base 100, final 90...... engine out: mixtures, throttles, props full - flaps up, gear up - identify and verify, dead foot, dead engine, ...... power on stall, 16" MP, gear and flaps down - landing configuration - pull to idle, pitch up, wait for buffet/stall warning - recover...." and so on.
The DE gets there at 3:05 p.m. - shoots the sh*t with some of the guys outside, then comes on in. We go over what we are going to do, then we head for the plane.
Normal takeoff, head for the practice area and climb to 3500.
First, we do slow flight in the landing configuration. Slow it down with 16" MP, gear down, flaps down... stay at 3500 on a heading of 360, turn to a heading of 180, recover.
Next is steep turns. My choice. First to the left, then to the right. Didn't lose/gain more than 50' in altitude. Simply two of the best I've flown.
Then it was power-on stall time. Easy as pie.
That was followed immediately by a loss of the critical engine. The DE reached down and turned the left fuel selector to "OFF". Not knowing which engine he failed I watched the fuel pressure guages and saw that the left one was dropping, so I was ready with the right rudder.
We go to full feather, shut it completely down, then right into the restart procedures which go pretty well, except that the DE really wasn't fond of the checklist that my Instructor gave me.. even though it came directly out of the POH, he explained that he does the order of recovery differently.
He DID like my use of checklists... which was for everything... and I mean EVERYTHING.
A quick Vmc demo followed, then we were off for the approaches.
Gotta be honest when I say that those were two of the VERY BEST approaches I have ever flown!!!
First approach - both engines:
Localizer/Glideslope never wavered more than one dot... that thing was CENTERED... and this was with a 10Kt/G19Kt slight crosswind just off of the left side.
[and aside: I don't know why the aviation gods have decided that I am going to have a crosswind on landings for ALL of my checkrides... but, indeed they have. I had a x-wind for my PPL, my IR and now my MEL/IA ].
We executed a go around and got set up for the second approach.
Second approach - single engine:
Again - by far one of the best approaches I've ever flown. To that, I owe one to my instructor. He drilled it in my brain to think "okay, now I've got a single-engine airplane" and to fly the approach as I would a single... worked beautifully!!!
On this one, we were cleared for the option and at about 100 ft. he gave me back my failed engine and I landed.... right of center and floated a little, but not TOO bad.
He had me keep my eyes out of the cockpit and keep rolling as he cleaned it up and we were off - VFR - back to TPF.
Landed at TPF - again, just a tad fast (about 5-7 kts fast) resulting in a slight float and with the x-wind on RWY 3 from the left - it blew us right of center - again.
BUT.. not so much as to be "scary". Could it have been better - sure could. Next time.
We pull up in front of the FBO, shut`er down and talk briefly about making sure that I am using the correct speed on final and to not let it get too fast, then he looks at me and says the following:
"overall, a fantastic job! YOu pass. When you get done, come on in and let's get you squared away."
I go inside and we do the exchange of certificates... bye-bye cool-looking plastic cert. - helloooooooo Temporary Cert that reads....
Private Pilot, Airplane Single and Multi Engine Land, Instrument Airplane
The DE concludes by saying:
"You have a great base of knowledge and skill-level going into your Commercial. You'll do very well. Your knowledge in the Oral Exam really impressed me. Keep in the books and I look forward to your Commercial checkrides."
Officially - Ready2fly PPASEL/AMEL/IA..... Commercial Pilot STUDENT!!!
Yep - piece of cake. Nerveracking.... but a piece of cake nonetheless.
Got there at 2:15 p.m. for the 3:00 ride and basically paced the lobby, did the preflight, paced the lobby... palms sweaty as hell... pacing, pacing.. going over in my head:
"okay, downwind 115, base 100, final 90...... engine out: mixtures, throttles, props full - flaps up, gear up - identify and verify, dead foot, dead engine, ...... power on stall, 16" MP, gear and flaps down - landing configuration - pull to idle, pitch up, wait for buffet/stall warning - recover...." and so on.
The DE gets there at 3:05 p.m. - shoots the sh*t with some of the guys outside, then comes on in. We go over what we are going to do, then we head for the plane.
Normal takeoff, head for the practice area and climb to 3500.
First, we do slow flight in the landing configuration. Slow it down with 16" MP, gear down, flaps down... stay at 3500 on a heading of 360, turn to a heading of 180, recover.
Next is steep turns. My choice. First to the left, then to the right. Didn't lose/gain more than 50' in altitude. Simply two of the best I've flown.
Then it was power-on stall time. Easy as pie.
That was followed immediately by a loss of the critical engine. The DE reached down and turned the left fuel selector to "OFF". Not knowing which engine he failed I watched the fuel pressure guages and saw that the left one was dropping, so I was ready with the right rudder.
We go to full feather, shut it completely down, then right into the restart procedures which go pretty well, except that the DE really wasn't fond of the checklist that my Instructor gave me.. even though it came directly out of the POH, he explained that he does the order of recovery differently.
He DID like my use of checklists... which was for everything... and I mean EVERYTHING.
A quick Vmc demo followed, then we were off for the approaches.
Gotta be honest when I say that those were two of the VERY BEST approaches I have ever flown!!!
First approach - both engines:
Localizer/Glideslope never wavered more than one dot... that thing was CENTERED... and this was with a 10Kt/G19Kt slight crosswind just off of the left side.
[and aside: I don't know why the aviation gods have decided that I am going to have a crosswind on landings for ALL of my checkrides... but, indeed they have. I had a x-wind for my PPL, my IR and now my MEL/IA ].
We executed a go around and got set up for the second approach.
Second approach - single engine:
Again - by far one of the best approaches I've ever flown. To that, I owe one to my instructor. He drilled it in my brain to think "okay, now I've got a single-engine airplane" and to fly the approach as I would a single... worked beautifully!!!
On this one, we were cleared for the option and at about 100 ft. he gave me back my failed engine and I landed.... right of center and floated a little, but not TOO bad.
He had me keep my eyes out of the cockpit and keep rolling as he cleaned it up and we were off - VFR - back to TPF.
Landed at TPF - again, just a tad fast (about 5-7 kts fast) resulting in a slight float and with the x-wind on RWY 3 from the left - it blew us right of center - again.
BUT.. not so much as to be "scary". Could it have been better - sure could. Next time.
We pull up in front of the FBO, shut`er down and talk briefly about making sure that I am using the correct speed on final and to not let it get too fast, then he looks at me and says the following:
"overall, a fantastic job! YOu pass. When you get done, come on in and let's get you squared away."
I go inside and we do the exchange of certificates... bye-bye cool-looking plastic cert. - helloooooooo Temporary Cert that reads....
Private Pilot, Airplane Single and Multi Engine Land, Instrument Airplane
The DE concludes by saying:
"You have a great base of knowledge and skill-level going into your Commercial. You'll do very well. Your knowledge in the Oral Exam really impressed me. Keep in the books and I look forward to your Commercial checkrides."
Officially - Ready2fly PPASEL/AMEL/IA..... Commercial Pilot STUDENT!!!
