USMC-SSGT
Well-Known Member
*this may need to be moved to the FBO section in training*
I appologize in advance because this will be very long winded because it is post numero uno and I need to set up the story so...for those that know me (as much as you can know me at least) I got back from Iraq last week and I had planned to build hours until i get out of the Marines in April at which point I would go to Ari Ben to do the VA 141 pro course. I had picked Ari because of their great reviews, being VA approved, and the fact that I could try to get the remaing of ratings in the two months time that i was still being paid by the Corps after i got out, not to mention my sister lives near Miami and my mother lives in Naples.
So i had an epiphany while flying my favorite citabria out of my local FBO. I noticed that the Citabria was the cheapest of any that I had seen around and I also noticed that they were VA 141 approved as well. I really like the personnel and the entire environment of the school. I spoke with the wife and realized that instead of just building time why not just start the training now and work on finishing all of my ratings through MEI, CFII etc while still in the Marines and getting paid. We figured the money will be spent regardless of whether it is next April when the prices have gone up or periodically now through April. After doing the math and seeing that I pay $145/hr for the Duchess and a miserly $30 for the MEI not to mention that i dont have to have ANY safety pilot time, I realized that this is definately the thing to do.
SO ONTO THE PLAN
So here is the plan. I figured that I am going to shoot for 6 hours per week mostly on the days that my wife works since our time is valuable together while we can still get it. The 6 hours per week works out to roughly 156 hours of which all but around 10 of that will be multi by April 1st of 2007. I figure I should be able to get close to 75 or so solo in the Duchess give or take a few, all of it, minus the PMEL will be non safety pilot PIC. I fly out of KCRQ or Palomar airport in Carlsbad, Ca and for those of you who do not know it is a very busy Class D jet airport in Souther Cal 30 miles north of San Diego intl and 45 miles south of LAX and 30 miles south of John Wayne class C. The airport is often too busy for touch and goes so every flight I try to incorporate a landing or two at nearby class D much less busy Ramona (6 min flight away from KCRQ) this is great because it is a towered airport with a nice long runway in a great area with minimal traffic not to mention it allows me to log all of the time in my all important 135 X-C time category for the future. I am starting with PMEL and then onto CMEL and then CSEL and then my instructor ratings. The plan is by April 1st I should have my CMEL/CSEL and my MEI, CFI, CFII, AGI, IGI and be sitting at a little over 300 TT with 150ish ME. After that we will then move to maybe Florida in pursuit of an instructor job. I am still thinking maybe Ari Ben due to the number of hours their instructors average and the amount of ME time they get. Basically if I can get on board a place like that I can build hours in one year that would take me 3 living back in the North East where I am from with extremely minimal multi hours. ALso when we get out in April 1st and start working as a CFI, we will still have 2 months of military pay coming to us to help out the transition and also an aditional 2k of dislocation allowance the military pays which will all make the transition much less stressful.
THE PLANE
The plane is a 1981 Beech Duchess in good to excellent condition. It is equipped with Dual Nav/Com, dual VOR with Localizer, ADR, RMI, Digital EGT, Auto pilot and what I feel its best features a Garmin 430 and a Digital electronic HSI/MFD/EFIS which is slaved. It has the usual lycoming 360 engines..not much to say here they are all pretty standard, if you want to know more about the duchess, just google it.
Onto flight 1
I arrived at my school at 1630 for my 1730 flight and started going over a little ground work with my MEI. We only did a half hour of ground work just to touch on the basic "must knows" of the twin and he informed me of the books I would need to buy. His plan for the flight was just a basic indoctrination into the duchess to get familiar with it and that the next flight we would dig right into the engine outs and the meat and potatos of the rating.
We go over the pre-flight according to the checklist and really nothing to new here, just two of everything and about 6 more fuel sumps to check and alot of time spent under the wings, white shirts and khaki pants are not highly reccomended as I spent a fair amount of time under the main gear well sumping tanks and looking at the gear. Check the props and spinners and ensure no oil on the prop to tip you off on constant speed problem and leaks, preflight took about ten minutes but will be cut down next time as i learn the steps, i didnt check the elevator since it was 11 feet in the air, i just looked at it and confirmed it was there.
We taxi the 1/4-1/2 mile from out behind "Premier Jet" and past Skywest and the crash fire rescue to finally make it to taxiway "A" and head towards the runup area of runway "24" Taxiing was not a big deal and I learned to use the engines to assist the turns. Ie, to turn right use right rudder and pull back manifold pressure a little on right engine and increase man pressure on left engine and voila. Runup was the same except for two engines and a non event for anyone that has complex experience.
Cleared for takeoff we do lights, camera, action and lift off at 71kts. The takeoff was uneventful with the exception that it gets up to speed much faster than the Citabria I am used to flying. Positive rate of climb, gear up and we are climbing at 85. We were off to the practice area and I basically did private pilot maneuvers, some steep turns and some descents and some climbs and a few other basic maneuvers. I felt great in the plane and found it to be much more stable than i had thought and performed the maneuvers as good if not better than i typically do in a single. The MEI thought that due to the downslanting nose I would think I was descending and constantly climb, but it was never a problem because I have some 170 time which also has a downsloping nose which did catch me climbing needlessly.
After he figured the basic indoc was fine we decided to experiment with some basic engine outs just to get a feel for it. One thing I want to add for those with zero multi time is when they talk about "dead foot, dead engine" and you ask "how will I know which foot or rudder is dead?" the answer is, it is OBVIOUS. He pulled the mixture on my engine and immediately the plane yawed and I needed to put close to 80lbs of pressure on the "good" engines rudder "ok i get it, that is DEFINATELY a dead pedal!" He told me an acronym that i forgot all ready but it was basically Control, Cram, Clean, Identify, Verify, Feather or Fix. So i controlled the plane, crammed from right to left, mixtures, props, manifold pressures, ensured flaps and gears were up, Slowly pulled the throttle on the engine that corresponded to the "dead pedal" from there we determined whether to try to fix the problem or to feather the engine and go on without it. We were at 6500' so decided to fix it and went through normal engine out procedures to fix it..mixtures, fuel, mags, alternator etc etc. *good tip..the foot that is "dead" slap or punch that leg as a reminder of which engine is dead. What that helped with was when i was pulling the manifold pressure of the dead engine I mentally knew that my right knee was stinging because I slapped it, so i pulled the right manifold pressure..goofy but it worked*
After that one very basic engine out I wanted to shoot my Ramona landings (2) (so i could also sneak that ever important part 135 500hr XC requirement) The landings were great and i found them to be very similiar to a wheel landing in a tailwheel. Fly it right onto the runway, slight nose up while easing back the power. We found the plane will drop like a rock if you let it so dont cut the power off 20 feet above the runway. The landings were pretty good and the only thing I found is that it took a steep almost 35 degree bank in the pattern to keep it in tight because of the speed and that things happen real fast and it wouldnt take long to find myself behind the airplane. After those two it was back to KCRQ to call it a day, we got our usual 4 mile straight in and shot a non hooded ILS into runway 24 trying out the 430 and the LCD HSI, it was real nice.
Taxi'd back for a total of 1.4 in the air towards my rating.
Overall it was an awesome time and i really enjoyed the experience in the twin, I have some time in Arrows and Mooneys so it was not completely foreign to me, but still a different animal and will take a flight or two to get into it. We are not going for the ATP super 8 hour multi checkride just because working full time it would be a bit too stressful and I cant fly that much to keep it fresh so we are shooting for around 15 or so to see how it goes.
My flights are planned for this friday night, Sunday morning, next Tuesday and Wed night and then who knows, whatever works out to be about 3-4 times per week and 6 hours per week. Next flight will be much more intensive and less joyriding.
I will keep this updated but not everyday because I dont think anyone here wants to hear about every minute detail of my training.
The rest will not be this long though, if you actually have read the whole thing to this point, I am surprised!
I appologize in advance because this will be very long winded because it is post numero uno and I need to set up the story so...for those that know me (as much as you can know me at least) I got back from Iraq last week and I had planned to build hours until i get out of the Marines in April at which point I would go to Ari Ben to do the VA 141 pro course. I had picked Ari because of their great reviews, being VA approved, and the fact that I could try to get the remaing of ratings in the two months time that i was still being paid by the Corps after i got out, not to mention my sister lives near Miami and my mother lives in Naples.
So i had an epiphany while flying my favorite citabria out of my local FBO. I noticed that the Citabria was the cheapest of any that I had seen around and I also noticed that they were VA 141 approved as well. I really like the personnel and the entire environment of the school. I spoke with the wife and realized that instead of just building time why not just start the training now and work on finishing all of my ratings through MEI, CFII etc while still in the Marines and getting paid. We figured the money will be spent regardless of whether it is next April when the prices have gone up or periodically now through April. After doing the math and seeing that I pay $145/hr for the Duchess and a miserly $30 for the MEI not to mention that i dont have to have ANY safety pilot time, I realized that this is definately the thing to do.
SO ONTO THE PLAN
So here is the plan. I figured that I am going to shoot for 6 hours per week mostly on the days that my wife works since our time is valuable together while we can still get it. The 6 hours per week works out to roughly 156 hours of which all but around 10 of that will be multi by April 1st of 2007. I figure I should be able to get close to 75 or so solo in the Duchess give or take a few, all of it, minus the PMEL will be non safety pilot PIC. I fly out of KCRQ or Palomar airport in Carlsbad, Ca and for those of you who do not know it is a very busy Class D jet airport in Souther Cal 30 miles north of San Diego intl and 45 miles south of LAX and 30 miles south of John Wayne class C. The airport is often too busy for touch and goes so every flight I try to incorporate a landing or two at nearby class D much less busy Ramona (6 min flight away from KCRQ) this is great because it is a towered airport with a nice long runway in a great area with minimal traffic not to mention it allows me to log all of the time in my all important 135 X-C time category for the future. I am starting with PMEL and then onto CMEL and then CSEL and then my instructor ratings. The plan is by April 1st I should have my CMEL/CSEL and my MEI, CFI, CFII, AGI, IGI and be sitting at a little over 300 TT with 150ish ME. After that we will then move to maybe Florida in pursuit of an instructor job. I am still thinking maybe Ari Ben due to the number of hours their instructors average and the amount of ME time they get. Basically if I can get on board a place like that I can build hours in one year that would take me 3 living back in the North East where I am from with extremely minimal multi hours. ALso when we get out in April 1st and start working as a CFI, we will still have 2 months of military pay coming to us to help out the transition and also an aditional 2k of dislocation allowance the military pays which will all make the transition much less stressful.
THE PLANE
The plane is a 1981 Beech Duchess in good to excellent condition. It is equipped with Dual Nav/Com, dual VOR with Localizer, ADR, RMI, Digital EGT, Auto pilot and what I feel its best features a Garmin 430 and a Digital electronic HSI/MFD/EFIS which is slaved. It has the usual lycoming 360 engines..not much to say here they are all pretty standard, if you want to know more about the duchess, just google it.
Onto flight 1
I arrived at my school at 1630 for my 1730 flight and started going over a little ground work with my MEI. We only did a half hour of ground work just to touch on the basic "must knows" of the twin and he informed me of the books I would need to buy. His plan for the flight was just a basic indoctrination into the duchess to get familiar with it and that the next flight we would dig right into the engine outs and the meat and potatos of the rating.
We go over the pre-flight according to the checklist and really nothing to new here, just two of everything and about 6 more fuel sumps to check and alot of time spent under the wings, white shirts and khaki pants are not highly reccomended as I spent a fair amount of time under the main gear well sumping tanks and looking at the gear. Check the props and spinners and ensure no oil on the prop to tip you off on constant speed problem and leaks, preflight took about ten minutes but will be cut down next time as i learn the steps, i didnt check the elevator since it was 11 feet in the air, i just looked at it and confirmed it was there.
We taxi the 1/4-1/2 mile from out behind "Premier Jet" and past Skywest and the crash fire rescue to finally make it to taxiway "A" and head towards the runup area of runway "24" Taxiing was not a big deal and I learned to use the engines to assist the turns. Ie, to turn right use right rudder and pull back manifold pressure a little on right engine and increase man pressure on left engine and voila. Runup was the same except for two engines and a non event for anyone that has complex experience.
Cleared for takeoff we do lights, camera, action and lift off at 71kts. The takeoff was uneventful with the exception that it gets up to speed much faster than the Citabria I am used to flying. Positive rate of climb, gear up and we are climbing at 85. We were off to the practice area and I basically did private pilot maneuvers, some steep turns and some descents and some climbs and a few other basic maneuvers. I felt great in the plane and found it to be much more stable than i had thought and performed the maneuvers as good if not better than i typically do in a single. The MEI thought that due to the downslanting nose I would think I was descending and constantly climb, but it was never a problem because I have some 170 time which also has a downsloping nose which did catch me climbing needlessly.
After he figured the basic indoc was fine we decided to experiment with some basic engine outs just to get a feel for it. One thing I want to add for those with zero multi time is when they talk about "dead foot, dead engine" and you ask "how will I know which foot or rudder is dead?" the answer is, it is OBVIOUS. He pulled the mixture on my engine and immediately the plane yawed and I needed to put close to 80lbs of pressure on the "good" engines rudder "ok i get it, that is DEFINATELY a dead pedal!" He told me an acronym that i forgot all ready but it was basically Control, Cram, Clean, Identify, Verify, Feather or Fix. So i controlled the plane, crammed from right to left, mixtures, props, manifold pressures, ensured flaps and gears were up, Slowly pulled the throttle on the engine that corresponded to the "dead pedal" from there we determined whether to try to fix the problem or to feather the engine and go on without it. We were at 6500' so decided to fix it and went through normal engine out procedures to fix it..mixtures, fuel, mags, alternator etc etc. *good tip..the foot that is "dead" slap or punch that leg as a reminder of which engine is dead. What that helped with was when i was pulling the manifold pressure of the dead engine I mentally knew that my right knee was stinging because I slapped it, so i pulled the right manifold pressure..goofy but it worked*
After that one very basic engine out I wanted to shoot my Ramona landings (2) (so i could also sneak that ever important part 135 500hr XC requirement) The landings were great and i found them to be very similiar to a wheel landing in a tailwheel. Fly it right onto the runway, slight nose up while easing back the power. We found the plane will drop like a rock if you let it so dont cut the power off 20 feet above the runway. The landings were pretty good and the only thing I found is that it took a steep almost 35 degree bank in the pattern to keep it in tight because of the speed and that things happen real fast and it wouldnt take long to find myself behind the airplane. After those two it was back to KCRQ to call it a day, we got our usual 4 mile straight in and shot a non hooded ILS into runway 24 trying out the 430 and the LCD HSI, it was real nice.
Taxi'd back for a total of 1.4 in the air towards my rating.
Overall it was an awesome time and i really enjoyed the experience in the twin, I have some time in Arrows and Mooneys so it was not completely foreign to me, but still a different animal and will take a flight or two to get into it. We are not going for the ATP super 8 hour multi checkride just because working full time it would be a bit too stressful and I cant fly that much to keep it fresh so we are shooting for around 15 or so to see how it goes.
My flights are planned for this friday night, Sunday morning, next Tuesday and Wed night and then who knows, whatever works out to be about 3-4 times per week and 6 hours per week. Next flight will be much more intensive and less joyriding.
I will keep this updated but not everyday because I dont think anyone here wants to hear about every minute detail of my training.
The rest will not be this long though, if you actually have read the whole thing to this point, I am surprised!
