Asymmetrics & Solo Night Flying

This week, I've had all 3 of my asymmetric lessons in the DA42 Twinstar. These lessons are all focused on engine failures, and how to control and recover from them. The first 2 lessons I left Hamilton's airspace and we simulated a number of engine shutdowns on one engine, then I had to respond by controlling the aircraft. The main control that is used is the rudder, which is controlled by your feet. Even though this sounds simple, and in principle it is, due to the large amount of asymmetrical forces produced by the engines, which you are trying to counteract with your feet, your legs can become very painful and tired - especially after an hour or two of doing this (its about 150lbs of force in one leg you are pressing against) !!!!

We did get to shutdown an engine once

The third lesson was all in the Hamilton circuit. In each circuit we simulated an 'engine failure after take-off' (EFATO), going through all the necessary checks/drills then completing a circuit to land. After dealing with the EFATO and getting the correct speed, the rest of the circuit is relatively similar to the normal one. The main difference/consideration is that we cannot put flap down until we are absolutely sure that we are going to be able to make a safe stable approach. The reason for this is as soon as we put flap down, the performance of the aircraft decreases due to the extra drag, which means we are unable to get a positive rate of climb and we are therefore committed to land.

My Final DA20 Aircraft ZK-CSA

Anyway, enough of the technical flying. Tonight I finally had the chance to have my 1 hour solo night flight. After a 0.3 hour instructor check flight, I was cleared to go up in the Hamilton circuits in my DA20, where I managed to fit in 8 circuits. Luckily, I was the only aircraft in the circuit and there was only a couple of aircraft doing IFR approaches into the runway. It was quite a sad end to the night though, as this flight marked my last DA20 flight and my last solo-flight :(


I did try and take a few pictures, but most of them aren't very clear so here are a couple of the better ones....

Hamilton City

Lined Up 18L

I have no flights scheduled tomorrow (Sunday) but I hope to be in the simulator getting a few more flights done this week.