TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
Had a great flight today in the R182 (retract) working on my Commercial rating; today was simulated emergencies... I absolutely LOVE this instructor's scenario based training. Departing NW Regional (52F), he pulled my gear pump breaker about halfway through the retract cycle... I did good, recognized it but ignored it until out of the pattern (fly the plane first).
Then we went over to Decatur (KLUD) and practiced some simulated emergency landings. Departing Decatur, he had me do a best-rate climb to get above a thin scattered-broken 2000' ceiling; once on top, we simulated some prop over/under speed scenarios, then he said "I smell electrical smoke". We were outside the Bravo airspace and it's Mode C veil, so he had me actually (not simulated) follow the memory items/checklist: shut down the master and avionics buss, close off all the vents (air feeds fire), power off individual components in prep for isolated component power up. (First time I've ever REALLY powered down the electrical system in an airplane in flight).
As I started to do the power-up procedure, starting with Master ON, he said "Oops, I smell it again, and there's a little smoke." Master goes back off immediately, and stayed off. So here we were in a "dark" cockpit, above a broken layer. I selected a nearby airport (Bridgeport, KXBP), navigated to it via dead reckoning, and he let me use my portable radio (since I already had it out and stowed in the pilot's side pocket!) to monitor the AWOS/CTAF at the airport. Made a couple of traffic calls on it too, for local traffic's awareness.
Pumped the gear down manually, kicked the master on just momentarily to confirm gear down by the light (no sense making a simulated emergency into a real gear collapse). This aircraft has all of it's primary 1979 engine instruments replaced by a TSO'd JPI EDM 930, so I had no power/rpm/engine gauges, nor the Garmin 500 (aftermarket six-pack replacement, a kind of "mini-G1000". Found a large enough hole in the layer to do a steep spiral (commercial maneuver!) through the layer, then flew a pattern and did as gentle of a landing as possible (greased it on!) not "knowing" the state of the gear. Got power back after we rolled clear of the runway.
DANG! That was awesome fun, very cool, and good for confidence building. More instructors should do realistic scenario-based training like that.
Flying again on Saturday with him--Instrument Approaches / IPC.
Then we do a X/C Angel Flight together (my mission) to get a breast cancer patient home to Ft. Worth Spinks (from Riverside Municipal in Tulsa, OK) on Friday 4/13 (good thing I'm not suspicious!)... after that, we start the actual commercial maneuvers (chandelles, lazy 8's, etc.).
Fun stuff!
Then we went over to Decatur (KLUD) and practiced some simulated emergency landings. Departing Decatur, he had me do a best-rate climb to get above a thin scattered-broken 2000' ceiling; once on top, we simulated some prop over/under speed scenarios, then he said "I smell electrical smoke". We were outside the Bravo airspace and it's Mode C veil, so he had me actually (not simulated) follow the memory items/checklist: shut down the master and avionics buss, close off all the vents (air feeds fire), power off individual components in prep for isolated component power up. (First time I've ever REALLY powered down the electrical system in an airplane in flight).
As I started to do the power-up procedure, starting with Master ON, he said "Oops, I smell it again, and there's a little smoke." Master goes back off immediately, and stayed off. So here we were in a "dark" cockpit, above a broken layer. I selected a nearby airport (Bridgeport, KXBP), navigated to it via dead reckoning, and he let me use my portable radio (since I already had it out and stowed in the pilot's side pocket!) to monitor the AWOS/CTAF at the airport. Made a couple of traffic calls on it too, for local traffic's awareness.
Pumped the gear down manually, kicked the master on just momentarily to confirm gear down by the light (no sense making a simulated emergency into a real gear collapse). This aircraft has all of it's primary 1979 engine instruments replaced by a TSO'd JPI EDM 930, so I had no power/rpm/engine gauges, nor the Garmin 500 (aftermarket six-pack replacement, a kind of "mini-G1000". Found a large enough hole in the layer to do a steep spiral (commercial maneuver!) through the layer, then flew a pattern and did as gentle of a landing as possible (greased it on!) not "knowing" the state of the gear. Got power back after we rolled clear of the runway.
DANG! That was awesome fun, very cool, and good for confidence building. More instructors should do realistic scenario-based training like that.
Flying again on Saturday with him--Instrument Approaches / IPC.
Then we do a X/C Angel Flight together (my mission) to get a breast cancer patient home to Ft. Worth Spinks (from Riverside Municipal in Tulsa, OK) on Friday 4/13 (good thing I'm not suspicious!)... after that, we start the actual commercial maneuvers (chandelles, lazy 8's, etc.).
Fun stuff!