Initial Commercial Multi Check-ride 11/07/22

The best way to pull off a band-aid is quick. I figured to knock out the initial commercial multi it would best be done by packing as much training into a short period of time as possible. The plan was to pass the written then fly everyday until the minimum hours required, then take the check-ride. September 20th I went in to take a look at the Seminole that D&J Aviation use in Apopka and go for a demo flight to get a feeling for the school and the airplane. With D&J having only one twin I was concerned about maintenance taking the airplane out of service mid training but given the relatively scant other choices I decided to take the gamble. We flew for 1.1 hours that day and I told them I would be back October 7th to begin my training after passing the commercial written.

After using Sheppard Air for the first time I knocked out the written with a solid 96%. D&J is not a testing center so I went to First Landings on the same field for the written. Interestingly enough Sheppard Air will give you an endorsement for your written.

Fast forward to October 7th directly after leaving the testing center I drove across the field to D&J to talk with the Susan (office manager) and Dustin (chief pilot) to schedule my training. I reiterated that I wanted to fly everyday until the rating was done and wanted to get done by the end of the month. Dustin asked “what month” implying next month, the month after that etc. and did a double take and looked at his watch to see the date after I reiterated that I was interested in doing the training and check-ride BEFORE the end of THIS month. We had some discussion about how Dustin typically wants a mock check-ride a week prior to scheduling a check-ride and after some discussion he decided they could accommodate my schedule despite it being irregular to their norm and indeed scheduled the check-ride.

Susan did a great job scheduling my flying by filling in holes they had available although it would require a few different instructors. My primary instructor was a 23 year old by the name of Tommy whos dad previously flew boxes for UPS. Tommy was on his was to being an ATP himself. Having 27 hours of multi time under his belt I would be his first multi student. We stuck to the plan and knocked out all the flying that we had scheduled upfront even adding a few flights. I had (6) instructors by the time I had flown 30.6 hours in their twin. The plan that we originally came up with had me flying about 22-23 hours before the check-ride. My first check-ride date was scheduled for the October 28th although a week prior to this the twin had a maintenance issue and required a new switch for one of its main gear. I offered to pick this part up in the -10 to keep my training on schedule but unfortunately had to wait for the part to come by mail so my check-ride got rescheduled for the following week.

The second scheduled day of my check-ride I showed up at 6:45am for my 7:00 start time. I met Ed the DPE who I would be flying with and he began my logbook interrogation. As Ed interpreted the regs I was required to have a minimum of 30 hours flying a twin. 20 hours of dual and 10 hours of PIC/Supervised PIC. Despite Tommy’s best negotiation skills a quick call to the FAA and Ed was assured I was not qualified for the flight. After much deliberation of the airplane, Ed, and any CFI at D&J’s schedule we came up with a plan for me to fly the missing hours and rescheduled my check-ride for Monday morning (3 days out). This is where I met my (6) instructor and went to burn more holes in the sky at a rate of $6.67 a minute. Think about that for a second, a standard rate turn costs $13.34.

We flew some hours that day (Friday) and planned to follow up and fly the remaining hours on Sunday, the day before the third scheduled date of my check-ride. As luck would have it while we flew on Sunday the right gear light would not come on. We continued logging hours and flew by a tower (KLEE) to have them inspect our gear. All seemed well and after playing with airspeed/cycling the gear, and a landing at an airport with a fire department the light flickered and came on. We took off from Leesburg and left the gear down before we stopped at Apopka for the day.

6:45am on Monday I showed up to take the check-ride again. This time my logbook passed the muster and the 7am to 11:05 oral exam took place while the maintenance guys looked after the gear on the Seminole. They luckily fixed the issue with another switch and Ed and I took to the sky for the flight portion of the exam. Departing runway 15 at Apopka he failed an engine about 500′ AGL. I guess he was excited to get the test going. The weather was a bit sporty and lots of clouds in the area. We dodged some clouds as we headed to the north along our planned flight to Pensacola before he had me divert to Winter Haven. Finding a small patch of sky to work that had no clouds we did some 30 degree clearing turns and began the air work. Burning $5.42 a minute of airplane time (no instructor $ this time) we knuckled through the maneuvers before heading to Leesburg to do the landings. This is when I put the foggles on and he failed an engine while on an intercept angle for the RNAV 4. The wind at KLEE was 080 at 12 gusting 19 (8-12 knot crosswind). Despite the 20 degree correction angle fighting the cross wind we landed in tolerance and did a taxi back for the short field takeoff. Another lap in the pattern and a taxi back later and we were off to X04 for the final landing, the Short Field. The Short Field is flown in the Seminole at an approach speed of 70 knots instead of its typical 75 knots and must be a spot landing -0′ and up to +100′ from a specified point. By this point some of the clouds had started dumping rain and the wind had picked up a bit more. Our approach into X04 runway 15 the wind was 080 at 14 gusting 18 (13-17 knot crosswind). On final approach and about 50′ off the ground Ed let me know that we would be going missed (the last thing on his list of maneuvers I needed to complete and I had completely forgotten about). Following the landing gear coming up, another upwind, cross wind, and then on the downwind Ed let me know that if I did not feel comfortable with the short field we could defer for another time. I thought about this for a second before letting him know I felt comfortable with the conditions and continued on with the test. After flying through some rain on the downwind, on base he asked me something to the effect of “did I feel safe making the landing” although by this time my judgement was still the same and I was heavily focused on the landing as it was all that was standing between me and a successful check-ride. I let him know I did indeed feel safe. I purposefully overflew final to let the wind blow us back on course for the centerline so I could determine the correction angle needed without having to over correct to fight our way back to the centerline. I stuck the landing and rolled out to the taxiway before shutting down the engines. After shutdown I asked Ed to rate my flying. He said that the majority of folks would have waited for a better weather day and he rated my flying a 7/8 out of 10 and remarked that I had a good bit of “aviation savvy”. I took this as high praise coming from a DPE.

During the training in the Seminole I had some interesting things happen.

1. While proving to Tommy that indeed a touch and go is possible at MCO we flew through some bats and had a pair of bat strikes. It went something like this:

After asking Orlando Approach for a touch an go and being told NO the controller asked if he could help with anything else. I then asked or a taxi back, reaching back into my bag of tricks from New York when the controller at JFK would not give me a touch and go but did approve a taxi back after I asked for that. The Orlando controller agreed that we could have a taxi back and gave us vectors. He vectored us south of MCO as they had been on a north landing pattern and while south of the airport I heard a slight bang noise. As I was relatively new to the airplane the noise did not seem so different to some of the noises the gear make so I made no thought of it. It was not until the airbus behind us let the tower know they thought they had a bird strike that my mind got thinking. After we landed sure enough the remains of a few unlucky bats stuck to the airplane.

2. While over Lake Apopka with Tommy the Garmin 430 gave us an alert to “traffic, low, 3:00”. I quickly turned the airplane about 30 degrees to the left as I did not have the traffic in sight and no sooner than I did that I saw a flight of (6) F16s about 500′ below us. I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick picture. It turned out to be the Thunderbirds scud running after having just flow over the Disney Castle.

3. The right gear light would not come on so the tower authorized us to either sidestep the runway or buzz the tower so they could get a clear look. I have never been authorized to buzz a tower before.

All that said I can thank the Seminole for allowing me do to something Maverick never did, get authorized to buzz a tower! It also allowed me to maneuver with the sun to my back and above a flight of F-16s, and pass an initial commercial multi check-ride.

Remnants of a bat on the nose.

Fur = Bat, Feathers = Bird, Neither Fur or Feathers = Large Bug

More bat slime on the right wing.

“Traffic low, 3:00” Was the warning the 430 chirped. I turned left about 30 degrees to avoid the traffic I could not see and it turned out to be a flight of (6) F-16s. Yes the Thunderbirds.

Here is a piece of equipment I thought I would never have to learn anything about, the ole Garmin 430. We diden’t end up being close friends but I learned enough to fly approaches with it.