Duck going multi

[Turbomallard]

So here I am at the Sleep Inn in St. Charles, MO. If all goes well (ha ha ha ha ha ha) I should have a multi engine rating in 48 hours. A friend and I were going to do this together... he called and was going to pick me up as planned tonight. While I was standing outside waiting for him my cell phone rang-- his step dad had a heart attack and he had to cancel! So I piled my crap in my car and drove 185 miles after a full day at work... wish I was 20 years younger! Anyway, if any of you in the St. Louis area see a Duchess limping around on one engine... get the hell out of the way-- there's a duck at the yoke!

TM

P.S. Pepperidge Farm is NOT kidding about the "Burstin' BBQ Cheddar" on the "flavor-blasted" Goldfish... yikes! Cough, cough... great dinner...

[switchtech]

Hey!

Good luck on the Multi!

Remember this saying:

There's no such thing as too much runway,
                                             or too many ratings.


OK, I just made thta up.

jbs

[Stef]

Good luck man! (I mean duck!) Keep your chin up, okay? Oh and the plane too!! 

[Mike]

Good luck Duck !  (hey...that rimes !!  )

I've flown the Duchess. Should be fun (and a lot of work).
Keep us posted!

Just think! After that you'll be able to fly with TWO rockets on your back legally !! 

[Turbomallard]

Thanks for all the good wishes!

Did 3.0 in the airplane today, and it's still usable 

Weather and my skill level (cough, cough) will determine if we'll get everything done tomorrow or I'll have to come back next weekend (I expect and planned for the latter... I've been skeptical of the five hour multi deal, at least for me).

Now it's time to leave the motel and find some duck chow...

TM

[TheSoccerMom]

Hey Duck!! 

Best of luck on the training, it sounds like all will be well as long as you don't spill those darned BBQ Goldfishies all over the cockpit!! 

You'd better watch out driving back home, though -- you'll have that enormous thigh muscle from so many hours of holding that rudder -- if it's the gas foot, you'll get a speeding ticket!!!       

Enjoy the rest of your flying!!  Hope the weather holds for you.      

The Soccer Mom** 

[Turbomallard]

Hey Duck!! 

Best of luck on the training, it sounds like all will be well as long as you don't spill those darned BBQ Goldfishies all over the cockpit!! 

You'd better watch out driving back home, though -- you'll have that enormous thigh muscle from so many hours of holding that rudder -- if it's the gas foot, you'll get a speeding ticket!!!       

Enjoy the rest of your flying!!  Hope the weather holds for you.      

The Soccer Mom** 

Thanks! The goldfish are smart... they stay in the hotel!

Just checked the TAF... 14G24, 90 degree Xwind on a 50 ft wide 3,000 foot long runway. Gulp. Mesa no tink so! I need more time just sitting in the airplane just going through checklists, though, so I can do that and then bail for home. I wouldn't mind getting home around dinner time and decompressing before going back to the day job Monday AM! And I can play in the Frasca 142 at home with some multi procedures, too, during the week. That's mainly what I need at this point... I can talk about it all day no problem, but the multitasking of doing it in the air is a bit much after only three hours in the airplane (at least at my age... 10-15 years ago it would have been much easier... back in grad school I used to think nothing of the "book a week per class" reading and comprehension bit... I think I burned out too many brain cells doing it, though).

Time for some alka seltzser (urp) and maybe some more book review. I hope the bloody junior high school girls basketball team goes to bed soon... actually I think they're a track team the way they keep running up and down the hall over and over. Hmmmm... time to use some good old duck deviousness. Step one, find the switches for the hallway lights and darken a selected area of the corridor. Step two, string a line across the corridor at a height of about eight inches. Step three, proceed back to room and wait for the inevitable.

TM

[Gulfstream Driver]

Were you able to break any ankles at the hotel last weekend?

[Turbomallard]

No, but when I got up the next morning a tourbus of retirees (lucky people, them) had come in and they had all taken over the room where the continental breakfast was served... it was packed with people with name tags all asking one another if they had slept well.

Gulped down cereal and headed back to the airport. Got in one flight, but no checkride-- too bumpy. Also, the day before I got a DEMO of an engine failure, and flew an approach (on two engines) visually... then there we are up in turbulence, I'm under the hood for the first time flying an approach, and got my first engine failure... all this at once. Needless to say, I didn't do well.  Then we had a gear light failure that took about 10 minutes to troubleshoot, then we headed home (further away than usual since the nearby airport where they typically do appraches was closed). I have a whopping four hours time now. They tell me about another 1-1.5 and I'll be done, but that seems hopelessly optimistic to me. I just don't see the five hour deal working for me-- I'm not that good, at least not as I was 20 years ago.  But I hope to go back down there again Saturday (and stay over if need be). With a little luck, I'll be able to finish up. Hope so-- spending weekends on this does not make for time to decompress before returning to work on Monday morning.

Anyway, I'm glad I am doing this... I think! 

TM

[fireflyr]

Hey Duck,
Sounds like you're having fun--don't know about other folks but when I'm doing approaches, I don't use the rudder trim at all if they fail an engine---gets too busy if they give it back or you have to make additional power reductions on the working engine.   Just thought I'd toss that out for one hint---any of you other CFI's got hints about what works for you?   
The only time an engine pop NEEDS immediate attention is on takeoff (your head should be prepped BEFORE you shove the levers forward)---other times, take a moment to analyze what's going on before you start yanking levers.
If it takes an extra hour or so of duel to feel confident then so be it---you can't rush safety.
Sounds like you're doing just fine though

[Baradium]

I like to throw in a little rudder trim just to relieve the amount of pressure I have to keep with whatever foot.   Get to a big enough airplane and it gets to be a lot of force if you have to add power.

There are different schools of thought there.  Do whatever you feel more comfortable with.

Just remember that there's no reason to rush.  You've got plenty of time, flying the plane comes first, then the engine.

Of course, I'm not a CFI either.  I just found that with the 1900 it's a whole lot of force to be applying without any trim in.  I see it as something that releases workload and stress.  Cutting down the rudder force some goes a long ways towards making the approach feel more "normal."   I don't remember back to the multi training if I used the trim a lot or not... but with the 1900 I found that if I didn't roll some trim in my leg would start getting pretty tired.

I also think that if you're really working to keep rudder in, you're paying more attention to it than you would have to otherwise, which takes attention away from the approach/landing where you need it.

Just my .02 

-Ryan

[FB41]

Hiya Duck:

You really screwed up now... AMEL is a BIG addiction! Once you get 2 throttles in your paws (webs?  ), a single just won't cut it anymore (unless it’s on floats, but that's ANOTHER addiction!  )

The Duchess is so benign on 1 engine that you should be able to hold the rudder easily- barring any physical infirmities.

Once you go through the dead engine recognition drill, then you can set trim if need be; just remember it will give you grief when add power back to the "dead" engine.

You never have to really hurry with the engine-out drill, but you do want to feather the dead prop before RPM falls below 1000 or the stop pins will pop out preventing it. You should have somewhere between 45-60 seconds to do the whole drill all the way to feathering and that is a lifetime!

Once the dead engine is secured, take a breath, relax and then go thru the checklist for single engine operations (cross-feed, trim, speeds, restart, etc). You'll be surprised to note that the BE-76 can hold altitude just fine with you and the MEI in it. 
Just keep the plane at Vyse ("blue line") or above and the bird will fly just fine.

 One major thing though: If its hot or high, the plane WILL NOT climb worth a damn, so plan on aborting take-offs straight ahead or stopping on the runway. If you get airborne to an altitude that won't let you run in to anything, REGARDLESS HOW HIGH, level off, and go through the drill to ID and feather and then LAND!

If the engine fails in the VFR pattern, or on the approach (an ILS, I hope!), declare it and just fly normally- don't do anything except identify the dead engine, feather the prop and secure the mixture on the DEAD engine (You wouldn't believe the number of times the GOOD engine mixture is pulled!).
Leave the rudder trim alone; as you decelerate for landing, the plane will come about naturally.

Don't worry about doing any cross checks or restart drill while in the pattern or on the approach- they're pointless as you are going to LAND and sort things out on the GROUND where you can't get hurt!

You DO want to tell the examiner and your MEI your plan, so they won't think you're a ninny. ;a good place to do that is during the pre-flight, take-off and landing briefs.

One final thing: Don't forget to do the GUMPS check; it's way too easy to forget it in the heat of the moment.

By the way- all this comes from personal experience. I've had more than a few actual failures 1 of which was in a Duchess, just as I got the gear up!

[FB41]

Hiya Duck:

You really screwed up now... AMEL is a BIG addiction! Once you get 2 throttles in your paws (webs?  ), a single just won't cut it anymore (unless it’s on floats, but that's ANOTHER addiction!  )

The Duchess is so benign on 1 engine that you should be able to hold the rudder easily- barring any physical infirmities.

Once you go through the dead engine recognition drill, then you can set trim if need be; just remember it will give you grief when add power back to the "dead" engine.

You never have to really hurry with the engine-out drill, but you do want to feather the dead prop before RPM falls below 1000 or the stop pins will pop out preventing it. You should have somewhere between 45-60 seconds to do the whole drill all the way to feathering and that is a lifetime!

Once the dead engine is secured, take a breath, relax and then go thru the checklist for single engine operations (cross-feed, trim, speeds, restart, etc). You'll be surprised to note that the BE-76 can hold altitude just fine with you and the MEI in it. 
Just keep the plane at Vyse ("blue line") or above and the bird will fly just fine.

 One major thing though: If its hot or high, the plane WILL NOT climb worth a damn, so plan on aborting take-offs straight ahead or stopping on the runway. If you get airborne to an altitude that won't let you run in to anything, REGARDLESS HOW HIGH, level off, and go through the drill to ID and feather and then LAND!

If the engine fails in the VFR pattern, or on the approach (an ILS, I hope!), declare it and just fly normally- don't do anything except identify the dead engine, feather the prop and secure the mixture on the DEAD engine (You wouldn't believe the number of times the GOOD engine mixture is pulled!).
Leave the rudder trim alone; as you decelerate for landing, the plane will come about naturally.

Don't worry about doing any cross checks or restart drill while in the pattern or on the approach- they're pointless as you are going to LAND and sort things out on the GROUND where you can't get hurt!

You DO want to tell the examiner and your MEI your plan, so they won't think you're a ninny. ;a good place to do that is during the pre-flight, take-off and landing briefs.

One final thing: Don't forget to do the GUMPS check; it's way too easy to forget it in the heat of the moment.

By the way- all this comes from personal experience. I've had more than a few actual failures, 1 of which was in a Duchess, just as I got the gear up!

[fireflyr]

Thanks FB41,
I guess that's what I was saying, I just didn't give enough detail.
Baradium, he ain't flying a 1900 -yet-   the no trim advice (on approach only) was hard won experience in a wide variety of aircraft including a 99 which NEEDS trim in other configurations.

[TheSoccerMom]

Hang in there, TM -- it's gonna be worth it!   

If your CFI is worth a hoot, he'll (she'll?) have you fly an engine-out approach with trim in, and another one with it out.  No rush -- get to know the airplane.  If he's in too big a push to let you play with it and see the differences, then throw a goldfish at him and do it anyway.   

There are a lot of airplanes where it's not usually worth the extra step to roll it in when your workload on the approach is so high, but you should play with it and see what YOU think.  All the advice here has been great, too!   

I flew with a very UNIQUE bear of a guy once, years ago, in Alaska, and his OFFICIAL engine-out procedure had a (MANDATORY) first step of: 
Throw your hands straight up in the air, wiggle them furiously at the wrists, while shrieking in a high falsetto voice "MY MY MY MY MY!!  The engine has just quit!" 

I tell you what, I thought I was airborne with a completely insane looney case, until I realized his whole point was to NOT RUSH AND MAKE A MISTAKE WORSE than having your engine fail.  It worked...  those extra seconds to make SURE to assess the situation correctly were a lesson learned.  A lesson I was glad he got across in such an unforgettable fashion....  he looked like a big, wild bear, and to see that vision over there in the right seat, waving in a delirious manner, hands fluttering, with that soprano voice coming out of such a large man, well, it is forever planted in my "emergency procedures".       

Which brings up the BIG question....  are you still having fun??!?  I sure hope so!!

Enjoy!!!!