Waiting, waiting, wating....

I read on the newspaper last week that Florida is packed with foreign student pilots. Mostly people from India and China, consequence of the big-aviation-boom in those countries in Southeast Asia, are streaming to the sunshine-state skies to earn their wings and then go back home.
Add that to the fact that the US dollar have never been so low in the whole world.... What a perfect combination for wannabe pilots.

Well so far it looks like good news right? The local economy enjoys this grow as well: student pilots fill restaurants, go to clubs, buy laptops, rent apartments, even buy cars. Needless to say about flight school owners, popping their champagnes after every new aircraft that joins the expanding fleet. However, that's bad news to us pilots! We wait between flights, more planes are grounded, all instructors are busy as hell, lack of airplanes, lots of cancellations and the list goes on. Not to mention the mess in the skies, the sharp watch out for traffic, the endless waiting on the hold short line before take-off, the numbers in the hobbs rolling in the ground while your heart burns as you feel your money burning too...

Yeah it's been a pain. Also for all part 141 students, we have a lot of stage checks - those are mini-checkrides inside the school, after every stage of your course. And what happens is that the average waiting time between your last training flight and a stage check is about a week, so imagine what happens when you do your instrument rating where you have 3 stage checks and one final checkride. That's about 4 weeks of waiting, doing nothing. Students are getting bored and desperated.

I didn't mention the paperwork between courses... It's also about a week of waiting after you finish one course/rating and want to start a new one. You need to get your temporary license, and it passes trough about 7 different people to check it and sign it, so in average one person a day can check it because "everyone is so busy in school" and then.... hell!

Until when??

A lesson on Multi-Engine

Hopefully this week will be the last on Multi-Engine, I've been studying a lot for my End-of-Course. I can start to feel the anxiety to start flying commercial!

Because I had nothing very interesting to post here this week, I thought useful to share here a bit of my studies. Anyone interested in a multi-lesson? Well if you are here reading this and have the odds for the nerdy-flying stuff or has nothing better to do right now, you might wanna take a shot:


VMC
"Vmc is the calibrated airspeed at which, when one engine is made inoperative, it is possible to maintain control of the airplane with that engine still inoperative, and thereafter maintain straight flight at the same speed with an angle of bank no more than 5°."

The method used to define or simulate the critical engine failure (Vmc) must represent the most
critical mode of failure with respect to controllability according to FAR 23.149.

Conditions by which Vmc is determined by the manufacturer for certification:
I. Standard Atmospheric conditions exist
II. Most unfavorable CG and Weight
III. Airborne and out of ground effect
IV. Critical engine inop.
V. Bank no more than 5° in the good engine
VI. Max takeoff power
VII. Trimmed for takeoff
VIII. Flaps in takeoff position
IX. Cowl flaps in takeoff position
X. Landing gear retracted
XI. Inop engine windmilling
XII. Rudder force to maintain control must not exceed 150 pounds
XIII. Must be possible to maintain a heading +/‐ 20°

The Critical Engine:
"Critical Engine is the engine that will produce the most undesirable effects on the airplane when suddenly made inoperative."

• Four factors that determine critical engine
1. P – P‐factor
2. A – Accelerated airflow
3. S – Spiraling slip stream
4. T‐ Torque effect

A view from the pilot's seat

For those who still were not there, I introduce you the view from the pilot's seat of a Piper Seneca, over the beautiful Florida shoreline. One picture worth one thousand words.

If you were getting used to my pictures on the C172 with the G1000, well things have changed a little bit... Now we have 2 engines, but back to the old 6-pack gauges, and believe me when I say old, that's because it's really old :)

Take a quick look in the cockpit, see any differences? "Yeah, some LCD screens appear to be missing..."



This week I also had a happy visit: Chen, old mate from Private Pilot home base back in Israel, came from Washington on a long cross-country and stopped at KDAB to say hi! And here is the picture, posted for the posterity. From Meggido to Florida, slowly climbing the stairs of the long aviation career...