WEEK 54: ASYMMETRIC FLYING #41

Airline Prep

I only flew twice this week but it was still great fun. It was my first taste of asymmetric flying (flying a twin with one engine). We went out of the Hamilton control zone to the areas where I'd spent many hours during the single engine phase practising turns, stalls, PFL's etc.

The first lesson was basically seeing the effects of an engine failure and seeing what happens if it's not controlled properly, as well as a few different ways of controlling it. The instructor would demonstrate a failure and recovery then I would replicate. To simulate the engine failure he would cover up the throttles so I couldn't see, then reduce one of them to idle. I would have to quickly identify which engine had 'failed' and then go about dealing with it. It's quite easy determining which engine has failed because as soon as the power's reduced the aircraft yaws massively towards the dead engine. You have to quickly counter that by applying opposite rudder and maybe a bit of aileron. Once you have the plane under control you go through a procedure to confirm which engine is dead, assess the situation and go through a shut down check. Once the instructor's happy, he puts the power back up and we go back to flying normally.

Mitch talking me through asymmetric stuff

He demonstrated the different ways the plane behaves at different speeds, attitudes and configurations too. The worst scenario to have an engine failure is when you have high power and low airspeed (Take off & Go around). It's possible that with full power and full rudder you would still yaw towards the dead engine which means you're not in control of the aircraft. So you'd need to lower the nose a bit to build the airspeed up to gain more control. You may need to reduce the power too on the live engine to reduce the slip stream effect.

DJ looking back at NZHN & Clearways on take off

We did one full engine shut down and re-start in the first lesson which was really cool. When we restarted, I didn't even have to turn the ignition, it started by itself by wind-milling.

The second lesson was simulating engine failure after take off (EFATO) out in the training area. This lesson was more intense than the first because there were memory checks I had to remember as well as flying the aircraft and dealing with the engine failure. There's a specific speed you should fly when you have an engine failure (82 kts) to get the best performance from the aircraft so you need to be pretty accurate at with that. I occasionally found myself a bit slow so need to improve my speed control in that situation. I was also a little shaky with my checks, I could remember the items just not all in the right order. I was controlling the aircraft well though which was good.

EFATO CHECK: 
CONTROL, IDENTIFY, FULL POWER, GEAR UP, FLAPS UP, RE-IDENTIFY, ENGINE MASTER OFF, VYSE & TRIM, PLAN, PAN PAN/MAYDAY. 

Me landing on runway 36R (allowing for the cross wind to drift me onto centre line)

Mitch demonstrated an asymmetric landing with a 15 kt cross wind and absolutely greased it on the centre line, I was extremely impressed! When we were landing there were fire trucks lining up by the runway preparing for a twinstar behind us that actually had an engine problem. Thankfully nothing went wrong and it was just a standard landing. It was a cadet doing an asymmetric lesson (with an instructor of course) and when they went to restart the engine it wasn't giving them the power it should have been so they returned to Hamilton. That's about as exciting as it gets which goes to show how safe it is.

I had another cricket match at the end of the week for Melville. We spent 60 overs in the field and did well to bowl out the opposition for just over 200. I took a catch and 2 wickets. I then went in to bat against a very average bowling attack on a pretty nice wicket and was shortly sat back in the club house with just 2 runs after playing a pathetic shot. I was so cross with myself and it reminded me exactly why I gave up my pursuit of playing professionally. As a pilot I walk away from every day smiling and happy, whereas with cricket I seem to walk away p***ed off more often than not. A very cruel game indeed and I'm very glad I'm going to be flying for a profession.

I'm spending some time over the weekend to learn the emergency memory checks and revise some theory for CPL. I will be doing this on a sofa outside in the sun - lovely!

I have one more asymmetric lesson before going back in the sim to do some more IFR stuff. CP115 have been doing there CPL's this week which is very scary because it means we are next!!! I have just 17 more flights (including 5 sims) until my CPL test. In just 40 days I'll be leaving New Zealand as a commercial pilot. aarrrghhhh!