While in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area all last week I 1)saw my mother through her cataract surgury, 2)visited a couple of customers, 3) had a fun dinner with Spike C. and Dave S. and 4)got my commercial MULTIENGINE airplane land rating.
Blaming Bruce C. and the other Lance F. I went to a school appropriately called Multiengine Training at Arlington Municipal Airport KGKY. They use Travelairs for this training, and it's about all they do. Very businesslike, solid ground school, a Travelair cockpit in their building to go over procedures and practice in, and a seasoned instructor who clearly knew what he was doing.
It was about 100 the 4 days I flew and if BE-95s have any ventilation, I couldn't find it. I sweated a lot. I found the flying challenging to say the least and to be honest tougher than I expected.
The practical test took about everything I had. The DPE, an American Eagle check pilot and trainer, went out of his way to decrease stress while we were on the ground. The oral went very well, and he was quite complimentary. His persona changed a bit in the check ride. He was like a drill instructor. The pace was much faster than the training flights. No chance to collect my thoughts or relax even for a second. Before a manoever was even over, he was giving rapid fire instructions for the next one. Some (in my opinion) I did very well, which was a good thing because I know he cut me some slack in others. A couple of times I had to say to myself, "he hasn't flunked me, so keep going." I think I had 7 engine "failures" during the ride, one VOR/DME approach CTL on one engine under the hood and 3 landings in various modes. I was very hot, and I was wasted at the end (1.3 hours). His style was push hard and see what happens. Fair but tough. In the debriefing none of the weaker points he mentioned was a surprise. His summary, "I know you may not think so, but you flew a good check ride. You're a good pilot."
For me, this was tougher than my IFR. New plane, hot temps, lot of new stuff real fast.
Who knows what I'll do with this, but if nothing else it will make me a better SE pilot as well.
Blaming Bruce C. and the other Lance F. I went to a school appropriately called Multiengine Training at Arlington Municipal Airport KGKY. They use Travelairs for this training, and it's about all they do. Very businesslike, solid ground school, a Travelair cockpit in their building to go over procedures and practice in, and a seasoned instructor who clearly knew what he was doing.
It was about 100 the 4 days I flew and if BE-95s have any ventilation, I couldn't find it. I sweated a lot. I found the flying challenging to say the least and to be honest tougher than I expected.
The practical test took about everything I had. The DPE, an American Eagle check pilot and trainer, went out of his way to decrease stress while we were on the ground. The oral went very well, and he was quite complimentary. His persona changed a bit in the check ride. He was like a drill instructor. The pace was much faster than the training flights. No chance to collect my thoughts or relax even for a second. Before a manoever was even over, he was giving rapid fire instructions for the next one. Some (in my opinion) I did very well, which was a good thing because I know he cut me some slack in others. A couple of times I had to say to myself, "he hasn't flunked me, so keep going." I think I had 7 engine "failures" during the ride, one VOR/DME approach CTL on one engine under the hood and 3 landings in various modes. I was very hot, and I was wasted at the end (1.3 hours). His style was push hard and see what happens. Fair but tough. In the debriefing none of the weaker points he mentioned was a surprise. His summary, "I know you may not think so, but you flew a good check ride. You're a good pilot."
For me, this was tougher than my IFR. New plane, hot temps, lot of new stuff real fast.
Who knows what I'll do with this, but if nothing else it will make me a better SE pilot as well.