My Attempt to Get my Multi-engine Rating

[Colin]

http://flyingsummers.com/2013/10/21/failing-multi/

But in two weeks I should have it.

[jon1746]

Great read. My Mel was a bit troubled as well.

[Gnomad]

Thanks Colin, was a really good read!

Brought back a lot of memories for me from the Spring. I also get my MEI at Angel City Flyers, Zach was my instructor too! I had flown out from Charlotte and spent the entire week flying their TwinStar. Had thought it was going to be a lot of fun, but like you discovered, not so much! haha

Couple memories...

- On the downwind for 25L the 'Despicable Me' Blimp flew under us!

- On Downwind for 16R (simulated single engine) JetBlue is coming in for 12, getting bigger and Bigger and BIGGER and "JetBlue, going around". Pretty sure I reminded Zach *he* was PIC .02 seconds later.

I failed my check-ride too. I landed 25L and as we slowed, I could see our exits were blocked by idling planes, so I exited onto the crossing runway (were 34L starts) and just rolled right through the hold short line. Examiner mashed the brakes. A long discussion ensued while we were still partially blocking the taxiway. We had a fed in the backseat, which definitely didn't help things. Finally we moved, then I was informed he was failing me, but wouldn't let me continue the flight because he wanted to make a point that would stick with me. Frustrating for sure, but he did make his point. So easy at my non-towered home field to just exit the single runway onto the single taxiway without stopping (where I learned the bad habit in the first place), now I always make sure and full stop!

Flew again two days later and passed. The examiner seemed hungover, or not feeling well on the second ride. On the way in on the ILS, he actually pushed the throttle on my "failed engine" forward until the beeping stopped. haha

I had an incident like yours on my third day of training. Coming in for single engine landing, the plane was just sideways and as we got lower and slower there was a moment of "this is not right/this is bad" and wanting to live to see what I was doing wrong, I threw in power to my "dead engine", straightened out and landed. Embarrassingly, what it turned out to be was my leg was just fatigued and I wasn't putting in full rudder, although I could have sworn I was.

I did want to give you a suggestion, don't do what you did after earning your 'M'. After your successful 'next' ride, find some time to go fly the plane for FUN! The week in Long Beach was a rough one for me. However, I spent a couple days in Skill Aviation's NG last month (in anticipation of my -VI) and had a blast! Flew with 3 CFIs and did practice some stuff, but also just flew around for fun. Without the pressure of the training and just being able to go fly (with 2 engines) it was a great time. I'll miss my 40, but am so looking forward to my 42!

Good luck!

[ihfanjv]

Colin,

Great attitude on the experience! A failed checkride is a learning experience and nothing more.

You will nail the next one!

[carym]

Colin,
Did not read your post, but wanted to say that I, too, failed my MEL. This was back around 1995 in a BE76 (Beechcraft Duchess). I was flying a one-engine-out off field NDB-A approach circle to land. After passing the NDB I kept correcting for x-wind but it turned out that the ADF needle moved too slowly and so my correction was too great and I ended up too far away from the airport when the time for missed approach was reached. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever flew an NDB approach, and hope to never see an NDB approach again. There are probably many younger pilots on this board from the USA who don't even know what an NDB approach is!!

[CFIDave]

Colin: nice story; thanks for sharing. I'm sure you'll do fine on your re-test.

My wife is currently training to get her CMEL in our DA42. And I was signed off by my instructor 3 weeks ago to take the Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI) checkride (I already have my CFI and CFI-I), but waiting to fly our plane home from Canada before I can take the ride.

What I found most interesting about your story is the percentage power you used (15%) to simulate a feathered engine. Some flight schools around here use 20% (for both Thielert and NG models), which I've always regarded as being too high, but that's what I was taught to use for my CMEL checkride earlier this year. My wife's instructor uses around 10%. Unfortunately Diamond has never published anything about this.

So to figure out what to use on our DA42-VI, I tried an experiment: I shut down the left (critical) engine with full power on the right engine and cranked in exactly enough rudder trim to hold a constant heading (with zero bank). I then restarted the left engine and adjusted the left power lever to hold the same heading -- with the same rudder trim.

The result was 11%. I'm not sure if this is applicable to Thielert or NG models, but now I know what to use when simulating a feathered DA42 engine in our plane.

[carym]

Dave,
I did the same thing on my 1.7 DA42 with right engine shut down (on a hot day) and found that I needed about 20%. It occurred just about where the gear horn would stop blaring.

[Colin]

That test is an EXCELLENT idea and I will do it when I am next in the 2.0 that I was training in. I bet it is surprisingly high.

[Colin]

I failed my check-ride too. I landed 25L and as we slowed, I could see our exits were blocked by idling planes, so I exited onto the crossing runway (were 34L starts) and just rolled right through the hold short line. Examiner mashed the brakes. A long discussion ensued while we were still partially blocking the taxiway. We had a fed in the backseat, which definitely didn't help things.

Flew again two days later and passed. The examiner seemed hungover, or not feeling well on the second ride.

...my leg was just fatigued and I wasn't putting in full rudder, although I could have sworn I was.

After your successful 'next' ride, find some time to go fly the plane for FUN!

My left leg was shaking after about ten minutes of the ILS, so I am sure that it was not full to the floor. Running out of leg muscle and out of rudder amounted to the same thing, though. I suppose I could have dialed in some more trim. (Zach teaches not to use trim, the examiner said he likes to see people use trim. Zach teaches climb to pattern altitude at 80kts because you want to get away from the ground as quickly as possible. The examiner likes to cruise climb at 115 as soon as the gear is up because there's NEVER a double engine failure on takeoff while there is ALWAYS traffic out there and having your nose down is safer for searching.)

I am trying to plan using a Twinstar to go from SMO to 36U for Thanksgiving (we're going to take the two boys to the Sundance resort for turkey this year since my sister-in-law is out of town for the first Thanksgiving in decades). In our plane it is two hops, two hours each (stopping either in St George or Henderson). In the Twinstar it is one three hour flight. Seems like a good demonstration.

The fed in the back seat probably cost you that first check ride. And my recollection is that by the FARs it is always your option to continue. But I don't know what maneuver you would come back to do. Holding short?

My other DPE was a heavy (constant) drinker and I could tell the three hours of a check ride were his least favorite of his day. It will be curious to see if that's true of this guy as well.

When I started training Zach said they only have had one person fail a MEL check ride. Now they have had two and both were Zach's students.

[Jeff]

This topic was discussed in this link.
http://www.diamondaviators.net/forum/#p45048

Colin: nice story; thanks for sharing. I'm sure you'll do fine on your re-test.

My wife is currently training to get her CMEL in our DA42. And I was signed off by my instructor 3 weeks ago to take the Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI) checkride (I already have my CFI and CFI-I), but waiting to fly our plane home from Canada before I can take the ride.

What I found most interesting about your story is the percentage power you used (15%) to simulate a feathered engine. Some flight schools around here use 20% (for both Thielert and NG models), which I've always regarded as being too high, but that's what I was taught to use for my CMEL checkride earlier this year. My wife's instructor uses around 10%. Unfortunately Diamond has never published anything about this.

So to figure out what to use on our DA42-VI, I tried an experiment: I shut down the left (critical) engine with full power on the right engine and cranked in exactly enough rudder trim to hold a constant heading (with zero bank). I then restarted the left engine and adjusted the left power lever to hold the same heading -- with the same rudder trim.

The result was 11%. I'm not sure if this is applicable to Thielert or NG models, but now I know what to use when simulating a feathered DA42 engine in our plane.