You already know I didn’t fly to Canada, but you didn’t know I had a friend, Mike, coming to town for his Flight Review the very next day I was to go. Mike hadn’t flown for a few years since he moved up to Boston, and wanted to get back in the saddle for a little bit this weekend. He is a strong pilot and flight instructor, and has been hitting the books on my airplane for this event.

I have had some frustrations lately, and was really happy to have a valuable project to work on with the airplane and my friend Mike. What a good time.

Mike and I did three flights together to get him up to speed. The one depicted at right was done after a warm-up flight, and included most of the multi-engine maneuvers. Slow flight, Vmc Demo, Power on and Power Off stalls, Emergency descents, and single engine work using simulated feather.

I haven’t done allot of multi-engine instruction in my career, so Mike and I made sure we briefed all of the maneuvers before we executed them. The single engine work was all done effectively, in that Mike really got the feel for the maneuvers, and I kept things in a safe envelop. I did make one mistake, however.

During a simulated engine failure on takeoff, I let Mike build the airspeed to about 60-70 mph before I closed a throttle on him to simulate an engine failure before rotation. My allowing the airspeed to be this high reduced our margin for error, and increased the chance for a loss of control accident. The maneuver turned out fine, but I had let me guard down a little and could have done a better job with that. In retrospect, I think my mistake came from the jet instruction I deliver. I routinely train V1 cuts just before and right at V1, so sailing at high speed down the runway is normal. Jet training doesn’t translate well to training in light twins.

Embedding Video into this blog: The GoPro has been in the case since the aircraft returned to service in January, so there is no video of the flight review. It would have been interesting watching Mike and I work our way through all the multi-engine maneuvers and landing, but I hadn’t taken the time to prep the cameras. It has been my observation that having cameras aboard takes attention away from other tasks, and getting a heavily maintained airplane flying again required all of my attention. I intentionally put that off.

Now that I’ve flown 50 hours and am getting back into the groove, I will be re-introducing the cameras going forward. I figured out how to embed video clips into these blogs like I’ve seen Gary do in his flying blog. I like the effect, and it keeps things interesting. Below is one of my favorite clips. You can find them all on YouTube by searching for AirDorrin or N833DF. I’ll be putting more of these together as time permits.

Fly Safe!

Frank

By fdorrin

Fully retired now, unless something interesting comes along. I’ve enjoyed a lucrative career as an Electrical Engineer, Certified Software Solutions Developer, and Project Manager. An excellent and fun career that I’m very proud of. I began flying commercially in Dash-8 aircraft for Piedmont Airlines, and moved on to instruct in the Gulfstream 280; WestWind; and Astra jet aircraft. I’ve also been blessed with a type rating in the B-25 bomber in a fortunate turn of events. My wife, Beverly, and I currently own and operate a beautifully restored PA30 Twin Comanche, which we use to explore the CONUS.