TWINS - TWICE THE FUN: FOUR TIMES THE HASSLE??!!

A big day for my flying experience today.  I had booked a session wth instructor Ash in the club's Twin Commanche ZK-DOK.  I turned up at the club just a couple of minutes past 1400 to find Ash waiting for me.  We went into his office for the briefing - all done via a powerpoint type presentation on a computer - no different to the printed stuff I had read over the past few weeks but good to have Ash go over it and emphasise the important points and what we would cover on a type introduction flight.

After that, it was over to the hangar to preflight and get DOK out ready to fly.  The fuel drain procedure was interesting and very different from what I am used to.  Basically there are six tanks; main, auxiliary and tip in each wing and each wing's tanks drain via a central tube.  So, select each tank in turn and pull the drain levers which are under a cover between the front seats remembering, of course, to put the bucket under the drain tubes first!!  The rest of the preflight was very much like the Arrow, but with two engines to check and six tanks to dip.  We had about six hours fuel on board so we were good to go.

Start up went fairly smoothly once I had, with Ash's help, located all the switches and gauges - a somewhat different layout to a Piper single.

Taxi was not much different to the twin's smaller brethren and the only difference for the engine run-up, apart from doing it for each engine, was the prop feathering check.  Once that was all out of the way we taxied over towards Echo 1 (having already been cleared for this and a Scott departure) and as I called ready we were instructed to line up on 18L and cleared for take-off as we lined up.  Line up checks done, feet on the brakes, 2000rpm on both, release brakes, full throttle once rolling, everything green, rotate at 70 knots and then hold the nose down to let the speed build to the blue line (minimum single engine speed), gear up, climbing power and pitch, attitude for 100 knots, landing light and fuel pump off.  By this time we were 500' above ground level (this baby CLIMBS!!) and turning crosswind.  At this point the tower cleared us to 2500' or below so we carried on climbing in the circuit and left from downwind on our Easterly departure.

Once over Lake Karapiro Ash got me to do some turns.  No pussyfooting here, straight into a steep turn to the left.  Nailed that OK only losing a few feet on the roll-out at the end.  The right turn wasn't so good.  About halfway round the nose dropped slightly and I started to pull back on the column, WHOA, still losing height - I lost 150 feet before getting it under control and had regained the height by roll-out but this was a good lesson on how quickly things can start to go wrong on this larger, faster bird.  Then it was a basic stall and approach stall, recovering both at the onset with no more than about 150' loss on the latter so that was really good, I thought.

It was now time to head for home having progressed along the full length of the lake very quickly.  On the way back we did a simulated engine failure.  Ash covered up the mixture levers and closed one of them.  The plane lurched to the left and I fairly quickly, with a bit of guidance from Ash, got the plane flying straight with some right rudder and appropriate aileron and going to full throttle.  This was easier than I thought it would be.  So, my right leg is on the rudder, so the left is "dead" - dead leg, dead engine, left identified, close throttle on left, no change, left engine failure verified, feather the propeller.  Once the left propeller was no longer windmilling and producing drag, control was significantly easier, as expected.

The next step was an air start of the left engine.  This is where I got a bit flustered as this is not easy for a first timer.  Mixture lean, pitch about two-thirds toward fine, throttle open a crack and crank the engine.  Once windmilling, mixture rich and..... the engine dies as I was late on the mixture movement.  Tried again, not quite right - dammit!!  Third time lucky and I have got a functioning left engine again.

Then it was back to Hamilton and into the circuit.  Once downwind, number two for approach, we slowed down, lowered the gear, downwind checks and I made a reasonable approach, only geting a bit high on long final.  Checked green light and mirror for gear down on final, mixture rich, prop pitches fine and at 300 feet (500 indicated) we were committed to land (i.e. if an engine fails we still land - no going around at or below that height) so slow down to cross the threshold at about 80 knots, flare and land.  There was a bit of a crosswind so we had to crab a bit, straighten and land upwind wing down which I just about did but it didn't feel too pretty.  Oh well, not bad for a first go.

Postscript:  Well, that was fun but I don't think I will be doing a twin rating in the foreseeable future.  Apart from the cost (twice as much as a single to hire) there is also the problem of maintaining currency which, as a still working recreational PPL would be a real challenge.  If I were fully retired, able to fly several times a week with the same income as when working, it could be a different story.

Thanks again, Ash, great lesson.  The amount of sweat down my back by the end (commented upon by one of the other instructors) is testament to how much hard work that was!!!