Happy Days!

Well since my last post I have trained a new pilot to replace me on the 206, gone on vacation to visit The Lovely Girlfriend in the merry old land of Auz, and now I'm once again deployed - to France this time! France is quite beautiful, I just wish I could speak the language a little better, as we're located in a fairly small town and not many people speak English. My French is improving though.

HOWEVER, I mentioned I trained a pilot to replace me on the 206 because I am finally being promoted to co-pilot on the company Navajo! Finally a twin job! Whoo hoo!! Part of the deal with the upgrade is that I also have operator duties, so I've been trained on that already, and I'm now in the midst of writing the PA-31 type exams for the Navajo. Let me tell you in comparison to all the other aircraft I have flown since now, the Navajo is like a REAL airplane. It has a very detailed Flight Manual (which I've been buried in the last couple days), lots of power with the ability to go really high in the form of two 325 HP turbocharged piston engines (More than double the power of any other airplane in my logbook), an air-stair door, copilot flight instruments, and an overhead switches panel (I've always thought that to be one of the defining aspects between "real" airplanes and "little" airplanes.

The Twin Comanche being the only other Twin I've flown before the Navajo, naturally I have some comparisons of the two airplanes: In one sense they're very similar. They have the same wing shape, the engine positioning is the same, and actually looking out the side window at the wings and engines is very much Deja Vu to the Comanche. The engines and wing have the same proportions, the Navajo is just scaled up a little bit. The engine start procedures are basically the same between the two airplanes, so I'll be at home there, and the approaches for landing are even made at the same airspeed (110 mph). The Twin Comanche, although a slightly slower and less powerful airplane, actually has a slightly higher Vmc (minimum speed at which the airplane can be controlled with a failed engine), and that is mainly what dictates what speed you can fly the approach at. The only thing I think may take some getting used to is the stance the Navajo has on the runway. The Navajo sits fairly high in comparison, while the Comanche was a true low-rider. I'm going to have to develop a new sense for when to start my flair for landing and touching down. But, realistically I'll have lots of chance to develop that because most of the takeoffs and landings will still be done by the Captain. I am just the co-pilot after all. In the other sense of comparison, the Navajo is built and flown like a transport category aircraft. Its solid and the engines need to be operated in a very precise, by the book way otherwise cylinders start cracking and things wear out too fast. The Twin Comanche on the other hand is really just a small private airplane with two engines. It doesn't have a proper flight manual, and other than some of the flight characteristics that were a little bit tricky in comparison to other private airplanes (due to the wing design and high Vmc), the engines were still just your typical Cessna 172 engine. A simple little 4-banger. Overall the Navajo is definitely a step up, but I think my experience in the Twin Comanche will go a long way in helping to prepare me for flying the Navajo.

Hopefully in the next couple days we'll get the flying portion of my Navajo checkout done, and I can officially call myself a Navajo pilot! After that, because of the mass amounts of PIC flight time I've already accumulated and my Twin Comanche multi-PIC time, I'll be eligible for the upgrade to Captain as soon as I get 250 hrs on type.

When I get my checkout done, I'll post again on my experiences in learning to fly the Navajo, because until now I've only flown a few times in it as an Operator, and I have to get the exams finished first before I start the flying portion of my checkout.