2/3/08 Passed Multiengine Oral - Weather was not at all cooperative for a multiengine checkride today, but I did manage to do the oral questioning part. As expected, we had a lengthy discussion about Vmc and single-engine performance along with systems, V-speeds, and all the other topics in the test standards.

2/15/08 Passed Multiengine Checkride & Flew to Michigan - Well, the big day finally arrived after waiting a little over two weeks for the weather and my schedule to cooperate. There were no surprises during my 1.4-hour flight because I was well-prepared. I had 12.7 hours of dual in the Seminole prior to my checkride. Today I did so many maneuvers and approaches that it was hard to squeeze all the information into one line in my logbook! I have had to wait a long time to get a multiengine rating, and finally I am a commercial multiengine rated pilot.

Immediately after my checkride, I flew the Seminole to Madison, WI and then to Cadillac, MI for an overnight stay in order to fly skiplanes the next day. It was very cool to be able to solo the Seminole. I haven't had a major milestone like this in a long time.

2/16/08 Flying Skiplanes & Twins- I flew a Piper Super Cub on snow skis today at Northwoods Aviation in Cadillac, Michigan. As if that wasn't cool enough, my instructor was Rick Durden, author of the AvWeb column "The Pilot's Lounge" and host of the CFIcast podcast. He taught me how to take off and land on the snow-covered grass runway at Cadillac and the frozen lakes nearby! I did six takeoffs and landings in just half an hour! It was really fun and challenging. I flew in the morning when the sky was clouded over causing "flat light" conditions that made it very difficult to judge my height over the lakes. When landing, I would look side to side to find snowmobile tracks to help me judge my height! The snow was pretty deep so all my landings were soft, and I learned to keep the power up after touchdown so as not to get stuck! I haven't flown a tailwheel airplane in a while and have never done takeoffs and landings in a skiplane myself, though I've been in a skiplane before. I don't have a tailwheel endorsement yet and today renewed my interest in getting one. Meanwhile today Kent flew a regular J3 Cub which was on skis with wheels.

In the afternoon I really lucked out and got to fly a Cessna 310 with one of the other people who was here for skiplane flying. He let me do the takeoff on the paved but glare-ice (and I mean GLARE ice) runway. Yee hah! That was fun, and fast! I loved the way the plane handled. As a twin engine, I would have expected it to feel heavier. But I thought it was easier to fly than the Seminole I just trained in. I flew around a bit, did steep turns, flew the traffic pattern, and took it all the way to the flare where I gave up the controls because I was messing up the landing. But hey, not bad for the first try. My favorite thing was that I could see over the instrument panel very well. That is not common with me!

The sunset was gorgeous in the evening and I got some good pictures. By the time I got the Seminole back to Green Bay, I had logged 4.4 hours of multiengine time since my checkride the day before!

Super Cub on Skis

The Cessna 310 I flew

My ride home, the Seminole!

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