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Multiengine Flying in a Duchess

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones. Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 150K). Around 40 pictures and 5 videos included. Note: I took none of the pictures on this page (I was too busy flying the plane). Unless otherwise noted, all picture here were taken by Steve Schaeffer and used here with permission.

Engine Start

Since I hadn't flown a multi in 9 months, I was saying everything that I was about to do. Just before engaging the starter, you can hear me say, "I'll be looking for oil pressure here," and look at the left engine oil pressure gauge in the center console. A few seconds after the engine starts, I say "pressure's up" and then I look down at the checklist to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Taxi To Runway 14

To be honest, there's not a lot going on while we're taxiing. You can see that David has his door open, to get some air coming in. Not the most exciting video, I must admit, especially since you can't hear anything we're saying over the engine noise.

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Four pictures at the Runway 14/Bravo Taxiway intersection, taken while we were doing the engine run-ups and checklists.

Takeoff

David shuts his door, and we taxi from the Bravo taxiway onto Runway 14 (turning right onto the runway). Right as we get into position, you can see that I go "head down" for a moment. I'm doing the final pre-takeoff flow-check ("flow" in that it starts at one place and flows from one control or gauge to the next, as opposed to a call-and-response checklist).

For the Duchess, it's the "red" check, everything red gets checked, starting with the two red fuel tank knobs on the floor between the left and right seats. This is to make sure the engines are taking fuel from their primary tank, right engine: right tank, left engine: left tank (I set them to cross-feed after engine start, to make sure the cross-feeds work, but they should be set back to the primary tank shortly after that; this is a last chance to catch that). Then the two red cowl flap levers at the bottom of the central pedestal, are checked to make sure the cowl flaps are open (up position). Then the two red knobs for carb heat, located just abovethe cowl flap knobs, are checked to make sure the carb heat is off. Then up to the throttle quadrant, to make sure the red mixture controls are full rich. Then over to the left, to make sure the two red switches for the fuel pumps are on. Plus any other switches for lights (which are white).

It sounds more complicated than it really is. It's mostly a matter of starting from one point, and then just looking at, setting, or touching 5 items before advancing the throttles.

And speaking of throttles, you can see that I advance them fairly slowly. I'm making sure everything is running smoothly. But also, I'm paying attention to how to keep them in sync. Because there are mechanical cables going to the engines, the two throttle levers don't move perfectly identically. So I have to pay attention to which throttle needs to lead and which needs to lag, as I'm advancing them, trying to keep the engines roughly in synch.

Another thing about the throttles, which is hard to see, is that once I advance the throttles to full, I have my wrist bend downward, as a physical (or kinesthetic) reminder that if anything unusual happens, I'm going to pull the throttles to idle (cut power, land straight ahead if we're aloft). Once the gear comes up, we're committed ot flying, so my wrist ends up, as if I'm pushing on the throttles. Another reminder that at that point, we're continuing to fly (full power).

It doesn't take too long before we're aloft. On the takeoff roll, you can't hear me over the engines, but I'm making some verbal callouts. Specifically, "airspeed alive" once we start to move (to verify that the airspeed indicator is functioning), "redline" as we pass the mimimum controllable airspeed for single-engine operatings, and then "rotate." Technically, I might call out V₁, rotate, blueline, and V₂, but they're all the same speed on the Duchess.

After the initial climb, before we start to turn, you can hear the propellers slow down. Initially, we're climbing at "blueline" which gives a good climb rate and is marked on the airspeed indicator with a blue line. At 500 feet, I reduce manifold pressure down to 25" and then reduce the propeller RPMs down to 2500. You can see my hands on the blue propeller control leversi and then I switch bank to having them on the black throttles to the left. You also hear the beat frequency of the two engines, which means I should sync them together a little better.

Runway 14 heads southeast (a heading of 140). We wanted to head to the north practice area. We requested right turns, rather than left, from the tower, because we saw some flocks of geese to the left of the runway. The tower granted the request once we explained why. That is why you see us making a right turn towards the end of the video.

In the Air

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In the first picture, we're on the right cross-wind leg pointing towards the leg, located at the south end of the lake. You can see the lake in the distance and the power plant and the smokestack. The second picture shows the fall colors and Route 13 which borders the airport. The thrid shot is of the airport from the right downwind leg (for runway 14). Half of the airport and runwway are visible. Sapsucker woods and the pond are visible just beyond the runway, across Route 13 (the road going down the middle of the picture).

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Two shots of the Duchess' instrument panel. With both engines running, we're climbing at about 1000 fpm. We're also in a "cruise climb," meaning that we're not climbing at the airspeed that'll give us the maximum climb; instead, we're going faster, sacrificing a little of the climb performance for better forward performance. Since we aren't trying to race to a certain altitude, it makes more sense. So the upshot is that the Duchess can probably do a bit better than 1000 fpm in a climb if needed. The manifuold pressure and RPMs are still set to "25 squared" (25" MP and 2500 RPMs) from the initial power reduction 500 feet above takeoff. The third picture is the south end of Cayuga Lake, with Ithaca visible on the east side of the inlet (left sideof the picture). The most prominent features visible are the shitty, big-ass stores that were built in the south end of town, fucking up the view from Buttermilk Falls. They're the white buildings in the clearcut areas, on the left side of the picture, in the center, just to the left of the inlet. Fuck 'em all (thanks to Rob Joyce for taking that picture of the "new" view from Buttermilk State Park).

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Three pictures looking south back to the Ithaca airport. I'd guess at that point we're probably at 4000' MSL (mean sea level), which'd be around 3000 feet AGL (above ground level).

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The first picture is one more looking back at the Ithaca airport. Then a picture looking out the front, as we're heading north. The third shot is looking to the left, but at this point, we're turning to the right so the picture is to the north/northeast. Salmon Creek is visible as the gorge-like thing in the lower part of the picture (I think) which goes to Myers Point park on the east side of the lake.

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Once again, heading north, looking out the left side of the plane, to the west and Cayuga Lake. Just north of Mysers Point, on the west side of the lake is Taughannock State Park with Taughannock Falls hidden in the gorge. The gorge is visible in the first picture. The second and third shots show the Milliken Power Plant (er, now renamed something else, AES, I think). The trail from the smokestack is clearly visible and quite long. It serves as a good wind telltale.

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At this point, I think I was doing a 90 degree clearing turn to the right (turning to the east). The first picture is looking south at Cayuga Lake. The second and third pictures are looking off and forward of the right wing to the next lake over east of us, Owasco Lake.

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And finally, one more of Owasco Lake

Steep Turns

This was probably one of the better steep turns I made in the Duchess; better than I had done on the checkride.

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Three shots of the steep turn to the left. The first picture is looking to the left (wing low), the second to the right (wing high), and the third is back to the left again.

Single Engine Work

So after the steep turns, David had me reconfigure the plane as if we were going to land and fly a standard traffic pattern at 4000 feet. Once I set that up, he had me turn to the left, and while I was looking out to the left, he failed an engine. I had to do the procedure to identify, verify, and feather (simulated) the dead engine.

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In the first picture, you can see the wing flaps are lowered (to about 20 degrees) in preparation for landing.

In the second picture, we were turning to the left and descending when the right engine failed. The asymmetric thrust has not turned the plane to the right yet, but looking at the propeller RPM gauge, you can see there is a significant difference between the two engines. Both engines are registering similar low manifold pressure readings, since they were both throttled back a lot for the descent.

In the third picture, I have already done the single engine recovery procedure. The first step is to put all the levers forward (mixtures full rich (red knobs), propeller controllers at high RPM (blue knobs), and throttles at full power (black knobs)), followed by raising the landing gear and retracting the flaps. After that, I identified the dead engine (which foot is NOT stomping on the rudder; dead foot = dead engine), verified the dead engine (pull the throttle control for the dead engine to idle; if it is dead, nothing should happen), and then feather the dead engine (pull the propeller controller all the way back).

Since this was a simulated failure, I did not feather the engine (David puts his hand at the stop, to prevent me from pulling the lever fully aft). At that point, he brings the dead engine back and sets it to "zero thrust" which is just enough power to compensate for the drag of a spinning propeller. This amounts to about 10" manifold pressure and about 2000 RPMs. It can be clearly seen on the instruments, while the left engine is at full power, in this case, about 26" MP, and 2650 RPM, just below redline (max RPM). The vertical speed indicator is showing a modest but decent climb of 300 feet per minute and the attitude indicator (the right half of it is visible on the top left of the picture) shows that we're mostly wings level and at a slightly nose-high attitude, which makes sense since we're climbing. The airspeed indicator is not visible, but should be showing "blueline" (which is 85 knots for the Duchess). The engine gauges on the right side of the screen, just above the blue and red levers show the left engine has higher oil pressure and temperature than the right one, which makes sense, since it's putting out way more power.

My hand is on the throttle for the left engine, since I'm trying to manage that engine.

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These three shots are just flying around while we were on one engine.

Heading Home

We did two touch-and-goes (with David reconfiguring the plane, while I remained 'heads-up' watching where we're going).

On the third takeoff, after the gear was up (and we were a "go"), while climbing to pattern altitude, David failed an engine. Again, I had to do the standard "idenetify, verify, feature" drill, and then fly the pattern on one engine (simulated, with the other at zero-thrust). I did a (mostly) normal traffic pattern and landed. I decided to put the gear down a little later than normal, since at that point, we're really committed to the landing. I was going to wait a little longer (I put it down on base, rather than downwind, though I was thinking I'd wait till final), but then I decided I didn't want to do things that much different than the typical traffic pattern.

Steve filmed the second landing.

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Three pictures on the way back. The first and thrid show me at the controls. This time, you can see from the manifold pressure and RPM gauges on the right side of the picture, that both the left and right engines are producing the same amount of power. I've got the RPMs at 2400, and the MP at about 19", which is good for a cruise decent. We're at 3500 feet MSL, descending about 500 fpm. Basically, a standard approach.

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Three more pictures from the air, as we are heading back to Ithaca.

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A few more pictures as we approach the airport. The third picture is of the ponds on the left downwind leg for runway 14 (in other words, north/northest of the runway). The ponds are used on occasion by forensic research people for seeing how things decay.

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The last shot is looking left to Runway 14 from the left downwind leg.

And finally a video of the landing.

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