bbchien
Touchdown! Greaser!
ejborg said:Please explain:
(1) In an earlier post you suggest training in a GA-7 (relatively inexpensive), but for "rating only." Now you think it's better to train in whatever he's going to fly?
(2) The Seneca is "a lousy trainer," you say, but in a later post you nevertheless suggest that he buy one -- and then what? Presumably train in this "lousy trainer?" If this one is lousy, what, then, would a "good trainer" be?
(3) I understand why turbochargers make training touchy, but then you'd have the same problem in a Baron or a Chieftain, right? Are they "lousy trainers," too? Does having to learn about the proper treatment of complex equipment necessarily make it a lousy training platform?
(4) You cite "known ice" as something that contributes to making the Seneca a "lousy trainer." Why? What is it about "known ice" that makes any airplane a "lousy trainer" -- other than the added weight of the equipment, perhaps? (But then you're probably training with less than full tanks with only 2 people, so who cares?) And I'd think that training exposure to "known ice" systems would be a good thing, not a bad thing. After all, part of the whole AMEL training profile is to learn how to manage complex systems safely and efficiently. I am mystified by this.
I dunno, I still say the Seneca II is a good platform. At least as good as any other out there. But then, I own one and I did my initial ME training in one -- so what else COULD I say?
(1) Sometimes, the economics dictate that you just get the rating. You don't end up qualified to fly them; it simply allows you to log time as you are now rated. If you have opportunities to log pic-manipulator this is the most economical way to go. Just like being able to log that right seat time in the King Air...can't do it without the type rating, which is the same thing. One really needs about 50 hours to get all the quirks and routines down so that you can be a really good PIC-legal. Financing 50 hours in a King air is quite a burden. ME rating for $1,500...that's a pretty good deal...why that's only 2 hrs in the C90.
(2) If Ben's going to go the purchase route, then one can just buy what you're going to fly....unless it's so complex that you can't get insurance. That would be the case for Cessna 340 or 421. The time is so expensive that it pays off to get your hours in the mount; you will learn first hand the value of the deft throttle hand.
(3) Most Barons are NOT turbocharged. They are "terrific" training platforms in that they bite on Vmc Rollover, but they are "terrible" training platforms because they rollover. Paradox? YES. When I am giving the ab-initio multi rating in a B55, I wear reinforced toe shoes, and put my foot under the live engine pedal. The best I can get out of them is a split S if power is not cut to the producing engine at rollover (sometimes even if it is, cut too late). I am uncomfortable below 4500 agl for this demo.
Navajos are harder. They have turbochargers and you can hear the turbos groaning when you do the engine cuts. And you DO have to do engine cuts, because there is no other time when the trainee is going to experience them (hopefully). I would rather do them on a normally aspirated small engine aircraft like the GA7 (which is CHEAP, too) because the O-320s can take it. Also, the useable load on the Navajos is so much (absolute), that to get real training you have to carry newspaper ballast. I haven't seen ANYBODY at my home port using that - so the pilot gets the idea that he can flyaway easily at gross. It's very different 600 undergross, for certain.
On the Senecas you can hear the turbos groaning, too. Ka Ching! Our manuals suggest 3" MP reductions per minute. Kinda hard to comply with that in ab-initio training.
(4) The Known Ice package cuts the SE-ROC 30 FPM. When book is 240 that's a LOT. Perhaps this is a good training tool. But I think it isn't.
I too own a Seneca II SN-049. My transition, though, was in the E-188. Not a very good trainer. 2400 hp in four blowers and a manual that extended up beyond 3 engine climb capability (military power- use it and worry about what the Chief has to do to it later). I have about ten hours of GA7 time- it's a delightful bird that doesn't groan. You can kill the critical engine, bank into the dead engine, pull back on the yoke; it descends abour 400 fpm but doesn't roll over. It that good? I dunno.
So most people do what makes financial sense. I had the luxury of owning my aircraft from the first moment...as you likely did as well.
