More training today. Focus today was on instrument work and one engine inoperative. A twin is great and you have options when an engine quits that you don't have in a single but... You need to do stuff correctly and that means practicing. When an engine quits you have an imbalance of power so you need to use rudder and bank to keep the plane going straight. You also need to keep sufficient speed so that your controls are effective.
Shooting an approach on one is actually not that much harder than normal. In a gentle descent, there is not much asymmetric thrust so staying straight is easy. Going around is harder because you have the gear down and you need to transition from a descent to a climb. Shooting the approach at 130 makes this all much easier.
The single engine go around starts with adding power. A smooth slow application is preferred as this allows you to add rudder and keep everything smooth. Next step is getting the gear up. Having 130 knots means you can level off while you do all this and still have 120+ knots left when cleaned up. Only at this point do you begin to gently pitch for a climb. Today with the cool air, I was able to climb 300+ fpm at 120. If I was heavy and it was hot, I would have climbed right at 100, the best rate speed.
After plenty of instrument work and some holding practice, we flew around and practiced the electronics. The Garmin equipment makes it easy to split screens and project a lot of information. You can also put different sources on different screens to compare them. For example I can watch the onboard radar on one screen while looking at the ground based picture on the other.
I am just learning how to interpret the onboard radar. Using it is a lesson in physics and geometry. While it has a range of up to 320 miles, the practical distance is closer to 40-60 miles. Beyond this the radar beam gets exceedingly wide so the resolution drops. Also pointing it becomes a challenge. Point it straight ahead and a lot of your beam bounces off the ground and back at you. Tilt it up to avoid the ground and then the center of the beam is miles above your path and points at a part of storms that don't reflect well.
Finally, the big problem. Don't tell anyone but the earth is not flat. Flying at 3000 feet, at 120 miles the center of your beam is around 16,000 feet if you point it straight ahead. If you tilt up 2 degrees to avoid some of the ground returns, your beam center is at 20,000 feet 60 miles out.
There was a small shower North of Tampa this morning and down low at 3000 we could not detect it, nor was I surprised. All this is fine, at cruise we can see 60 miles without issue which is 20 minutes away, plenty of time to maneuver. I'll be looking for some days with nearby storms to practice my radar skills as I continue to learn.
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