Multi - Engine Certified

By Brenden Riggs

Went for my multi-engine checkride today. It was awesome. We did the usual stuff, steep turns (turns banking 45 degrees), stalls, and slow flights. Then we moved onto one engine maneuvers, that is where we really turn an engine off and do some more maneuvers. My favorite though was when we simulated we were a turbo prop aircraft and had to descend rather quickly from 6500 above the ground. So we set the propellers to 2000 rpm, and the manifold to 20", then pushed the nose over. I set the speed to 120 knots because that is what my instructor told me to do. Check ride dude looked at me and said, "what are you doin?". I told him I was doing an emergency descent. He replied, "Why so slow?" My instructor said not to exceed 120 knots, whereupon Bill called me a wimp (not really but I had to G-rate his word). Well you know me, I showed that man. I pushed the nose over and ratcheted the speed up to 135 knots, he laughed and said cmon you can to better. This is gettin good, I pushed it up to 154 knots. The reason 154 knots is because that is the maximum speed before you get into the "YELLOW" zone. Yellow means you can only go that fast in smooth air. I was brave. Then I heard that word again, "wimp". He asked me if I liked speed, I replied, "duh". So I pushed the nose vertical and the speed rocketed up to 185 knots, there I held it, at 185 knots. Just so you know at 194 knots is the max airspeed that Beechcraft has deemed MAXIMUM, any faster and you risk catastrophic wing failure (wings rip off the airplane). Oh man that was awesome. I started my levelling off at 3500 ft and didn't get level until 1500 ft above the ground. And we were still screaming along at clost to 160 knots. Anyway, after we landed (simulated one engine out) he said I did a very good job and gave me my Multi-engine certificate. It is purtier than my Single engine one.