My friend John Crump has asked about whether the 'plane is heated. Well the Duchess does have a heater, but unlike most single engined aircraft, which use heat directed from the engine to heat the cabin, the Duchess, having engines out on the wings, has a separate unit.
This runs on Aviation Gasoline (AvGas, the same stuff that the engines use), but it burns in a cylindrical box just in front of the pilots' feet. Sounds dodgy? Yep, it is. But the worst thing is that they are notorious for going wrong, so yesterday we flew without one, and after an hour I couldn't feel my feet.
Today however the heater was working on the aircraft, and so we flew in relative comfort. More circuits, and as promised, they included simulated engine failures. It's even more hard work than yesterday, with the speed at which everything happens being the biggest challenge. If only I could slow down time or speed up my brain.
Still, that exercise is complete, and apart from a short flight to consolidate my progress so far, the Multi-engine training is now complete. Next comes the CPL, which is made up of around 4 hours in a simulator and 18 hours in the Duchess, followed by a CAA test with an Examiner. The syllabus is mainly related to navigation techniques and some instrument flying, along with 'general handling' which is what the last two weeks have been about.
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