Onto The Multi Engine Stage

So now it is beginning to get serious. Over the past 7 months I have been climbing this huge mountain, and now I am approaching the summit. I am now in the last stage of flying out here in Arizona.

The multi-engine phase for our class was a strange one, being that half of us are doing it in the Seminole, and the other half in the Seneca. We did have a choice, both aircraft having their own advantages and disadvantages. The Seminole is newer, and pretty much fresh out of its box. It has the G1000, so it is really an Archer but with two engines. The disadvantage however, is that when we return to Oxford for our IR stage, we would have to revert back to a Seneca II with conventional instruments. Of course this is where making the decision to do the CPL in a Seneca II has an advantage, with the disadvantage being that the learning curve is steeper, especially given that we only have 17 hours of flight time to familiarise and pass the CPL Skills Test.

Everyone had their own reasons, with some students not really bothered about the choice and simply flying whichever aircraft they were given by the school. For me, it was a no brainer to take on the Seneca II, simply because I want to be current on it when I start the brutal IR stage.

Seneca II

I had my first flight last week, which consisted of a normal take off, flight out to the practice area and a landing back at Falcon Field. The first thing I noticed was just how different my scan had to be (which was pretty non-existent on that first flight). On the G1000's PFD, everything is in front of you; the attitude, altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading, track, wind etc. was all there on this glorious display, along with this incredible MFD on the right screen, showing you this map with traffic everywhere. You have none of these luxuries in the Seneca II. It's like all of a sudden no longer having a washing machine. 

The next thing that struck me was just how much faster I needed to think and act. In the Archer you take off at 60kts, climb out at 76kts, cruise at 105kts and fly a traffic pattern at 95kts. In the Seneca, Vr is 77kts, climb out speed is 100kts, cruising speed is 140kts and traffic pattern speed is 115kts. As you can see, thing happen much faster so it is much more important to always be thinking ahead. 

As well as the difference in instruments and speeds, there is also the fact that it has two turbocharged, 200 horsepower engines. This makes it a different ball game entirely. To start with, the engines have constant speed propellers where the RPM is control by an RPM lever. Advancing the levers forward drives the blades towards fine pitch which increases the RPM, making it more efficient for take off and climb out. Pulling the levers back drives the propeller blades to coarse pitch, causing them to take bigger bites of air and therefore reducing the RPM. Without going into too much of a Systems lesson, the RPM is always constant in the air, thanks to the constant speed unit. This maintains an RPM setting through the use of a spring and flyweights which drive the propellers to fine, with oil pressure from the engine driving the propellers to coarse.

There is also the problem of overboost, since the engines have an adjustable orifice rather than a wastegate which would normally control the amount of exhaust back pressure that drives the turbine and compressor. Therefore, care must be taken to only advance the throttles enough to give the appropriate amount of take off power.

My new/old office

Despite these challenges, I can honestly say that I think this is an incredible aircraft. The feeling I got from advancing those throttles for the first time and feeling that acceleration down the runway. And of course, there is that feeling of saying the words "positive rate of climb, gear up" for the first time, which made me feel that much closer to becoming an airline pilot. So far I've had five flights in this aircraft, and every lesson brings a new challenge. For me, I've found this part of training the most rewarding so far. There is so much to learn in the 17 hours that we are given in this aircraft before taking the CPL Skills Test, but I love every minute of it. For me, this is the most intense part of the training out here in Arizona. Whenever I get free time, I simply go out onto the ramp, and practice procedures in a Seneca that isn't flying. Every minute counts at this stage, and I want to make sure I am as close to perfect as possible when the CPL comes around.

I'll be updating again soon on my progress. It's not long until my CPL so the chances are, my next blog post could be as a Multi Engine Rated Commercial Pilot!