Seminole Ride Along

Riding in the back of the Seminole while Kyle was flying was quite the eye opening experience. To start with, starting the Seminole is a takes a little longer to get both engines up and running. I guess that should be expected with two engines. After everything was up and running we taxied over to the run-up and again the procedure was twice as long. It wasn’t until take-off that I realized a difference in flying a twin vs. a single engine aircraft. On take-off Brad simulated an engine failure on ground roll. Compared to the engine failure in the simulator, this one was a lot more drastic in the yawing action of the aircraft. Once we recovered from the simulated engine failure on the ground, we continued the take-off. During the take-off roll I noticed that everything was happening at a faster rate. Rotate airspeed came we lifted off and were at 88 KIAS climb out with the gear coming up with in a matter of seconds. During the climb out I noticed that we were able to climb at around 1000 ft per min with three of us in the aircraft. I was amazed at the difference in performance between the Seminole and the Arrow in the climb. At the same time I also noticed that the sight picture was going to take a little time getting use to.

While we were on the barn transition I realized how much ground we were covering and that was when it hit me on how hard it was going to be to stay in front of this aircraft and not fall behind. After the transition we set up to intercept the ILS in Tooele. Watching Kyle fly under the hood was a good thing for me to see, because it showed me just how much his work load increased with the twin engines. After flying one ILS approach we went missed and then set up for the RNAV approach. This is where Kyle lost an engine, right before the final approach fix and I was able to see all the different items that need to be accomplished with an engine failure while shooting an approach.

Going on the flight I was able to see just how the workload increases in the cockpit and I feel that was definitely a benefit. It help to ingrain that I need to memorize the emergency check list to help in the high stress situations and most of all maintain control the aircraft.