Observing...

On Tuesday October 19 I had the pleasure of riding along with Carl Bergeradglkjbfvs and Brad Kidwell.  Overall it was a very delightful experience as it was my first time in the Seminole and I was pretty excited about that fact in itself.  It's hard to say too much about the flight.  For the most part it was uneventful.  We began by practicing some landings, which were a bit hard, so I may try keeping in a touch of power when I come down, as well as adding some back trim and keeping my eyes on the airspeed, which I'm sure is much faster on final than it is for the Archer or Arrow, so that may be confusing.  We had to stop to close the fuel cap so I'll be sure to keep in mind that I need to make sure the fuel caps are fully secured before heading up.  After the landings we flew up north of Grantsville to practice some VMC demos.  In the back seat, this was actually rather boring: Brad would pull back an engine, the airplane would rock slightly to the side, and Brad and Carl would seem amazed. I think without access to the rudder petals, VMC demos are pretty dull.  I think I will have to wait until I get my chance to experience the full thrill of the VMC demo.  Either way, Carl must have rocked it, partly because he is Carl, partly because he is on the NIFA team, and partly because it did feel so boring.  After that we headed back.  More than anything the flight was nicely scenic.  I enjoyed the views of the lake and of Salt Lake City, but I feel like an observation flight would have been much more beneficial had I already had a flight or two in the Seminole and thus more of an idea of what was going on.  But- good news!- hopefully I will be taking my first flight behind the controls of the Seminole the beginning of November!

MultiEngine ReCap

Well, our multiengine class has finally come to an end and I still have not completed my tag along flight.  Which is a bummer since I'm really looking forward to any flight in a multi engine airplane.I have learned a lot about multiengine airplanes I would not have guessed before.  For example, having two engines isn't twice as safe, you lose 80% power rather than 50% when one engine fails.  It's also more dangerous due to a higher workload.  I also learned about all the things that increase directional control that you would not expect, for example having the gear and flaps down because of the keel effect.  I liked all the interesting games used to learn the material, but I would have preferred for the class to be less intensive over the entire semester.  I actually did not prefer blogging because I do not have internet at my house, so I had to go to campus to complete assignments.  It was also hard to focus on blogging assignments because it's easy to have several other more interesting tabs open that can be distracting.  Over all, I thought the class was very beneficial, and definitely more interesting than other ground classes I've had.