Flight Time–Mutli-engine Flight #1

After reading through all of my ATP multi-engine paperwork about procedures, I went to Melbourne Flight Training. I arrived early so that I could show them my actual documents and finish filling out any paperwork that they needed.

I met my instructor, Nick, and we filled out a weights and balances sheet and performance chart for the Duchess. Most of the information was available on the flight scheduling app, so it wasn’t too hard. And the best part, now that it is done once, it is done for my future flights, too.

With that all complete, we walked back to the front desk to pick up the keys to the Duchess. Turns out, I needed to fill out a form on DocuSign before they would let me get the keys. So, I attempted to fill out the form on my phone and it turned into a total stressor. The fields were very small and my phone kept trying to auto-fill each one, but couldn’t, so I had to tap away then tap back on each field and enter the information. Then, once it was all filled in, it complained that I hadn’t filled in certain fields, but they were clearly filled in. And the final frustration was that it wanted me to upload images of my various documents that I had already emailed on Wednesday. Of course, those documents weren’t on my phone. I ended up attaching a picture of the Blue Angels over Vero Beach and the app was finally satisfied with my entries. I was then able to get the keys and start my first flight.

With keys in hand, we walked out onto the flight line. When we reached N6701R, I was happy to see that it had a much nicer panel than the planes I had looked at the previous Saturday. This plane had two Garmin G5’s – one acting as the Primary Flight Display and one acting as a Horizontal Situation Indicator. It also had a nice PMA audio panel, a Garmin 430W GPS, a Garmin GNC255 radio, and a Garmin GTX345 transponder. I knew right away that this would be a nice plane to fly.

Beechcraft Duchess with nice instrumentation

After checking out the interior, we started pre-flighting the exterior. When we tested the fuel in the right wing, we found a fair amount of water. It took several tests before the water was cleared. To my surprise, the left tank was even worse. The first test was 50% water! To be fair, it has been raining pretty heavily for the past week.

With the plane pre-flighted, it was time to start the engines and go fly. I started the right engine, then the left. I taxied to the west end of the airport and did the run-up. Everything went very smoothly. I then taxied back to the K1 taxiway and asked for taxi for VFR departure to the south. I was cleared to Runway 27R. It occurred to me that this was my first flight from Melbourne since the day I flew the Commander to Mississippi, back in 2014.

Once at the threshold, I asked Tower for clearance to takeoff VFR and depart to the south. I was cleared as requested. I added power and could feel myself being pushed back into the seat. In less than 1,000 feet, the nose wheel came off the ground and moments later, we were airborne. I gently turned left and headed southeast towards the river. We easily climbed to 3,500 feet before leveling off and running through the cruise checklist.

At this point, I didn’t really have a plan. Nick said, “What would you like to do? This is your flight.” I wanted to get the feel of the plane, so I did some turns to headings, then some climbs and descents, then some steep turns to the left and right, slow flight just above Minimum Controllable Airspeed, and finally a simulated emergency descent from 5,000 feet down to 1,500 feet. We were now at pattern entry altitude for Valkaria. I dropped the gear and slowed the plane to 100 knots, then maneuvered to enter the left downwind for Runway 14. We quickly ran through the before landing checklist and did the standard GUMP check – Gas, Undercarriage, Mixtures, Props. I slowed to 85 knots with flaps 20 degrees and turned onto final. The plane was rock steady and descended with very little additional input from me. I pulled the power to idle as we entered the flare to land and made a nice landing. I departed the runway and taxied back to Runway 14 to depart back to Melbourne.

The flight back to Melbourne was very short and quick. We did a short field takeoff then quickly climbed to pattern altitude. I turned left, then left again, and departed the area on the downwind leg. Less than a minute later, Nick contacted Tower (I was too busy flying at this point to talk) and we were told to report over the causeway, and that we’d be number 2 to land following a Citabria on right base for Runway 27R. I turned back over the river to cross the causeway, which put us on a left base for Runway 27R. We were cleared to land. We ran the before landing checklist again and made another decent landing. Afterward, I taxied back to the FBO and parked in the spot that I had departed nearly two hours earlier. The flight was over, and I was feeling excited about the outcome.

The flight track is below. Unfortunately, the recording ended before returning to Melbourne.

Flight Time: 1.8 hours
Multi-engine time: 18.4 hours  
Total Time: 594 hours