Day 1: Ground School
While the days will NOT be back to back and I will most likely NOT post on the day of training, I will detail them as each day I spend working towards me MEL. I arrived early in the morning with a plan of doing some ground in the morning and actually fly in the afternoon. They didn’t have the training material when I was there the other day, so I was not in a position to prep for this first ground lesson. There was snow fog at the field, and while they indicated it was burn off by 10am, it didn’t.
We started ground with basic information about ME aircraft, and each time we discuss systems on aircraft, we pulled out the POH and discuss it more in detail and specific to the aircraft then the generic in the book. I had to explain more electrical and hydraulic information to instructor, but that is my background. The morning went actually quickly, and before I knew it I needed to leave for an eye doctor appointment.
When I returned after the appointment the weather conditions were still not the best for an initial flight, so we decided to work on Weight and Balance and Performance. Glad we did. I am a bigger guy, and we actually found a small problem with C.G. related to myself and the MEI in the aircraft. We worked a few things and determined the amount of weight that would be needed to be added to the back to get us back into the C.G. Envelope. I decided I would convert a W&B Spreadsheet I have for the Cirrus to the Geronimo so we would have both the takeoff and landing spreadsheet.
We discuss performance both as the POH indicates (160hp engines) and the upgrades (180hp). Single engine performance and how training is done for single engine. They do a zero-thrust training most importantly to a single solenoid after the master switch for the starter system. A single point failure with this solenoid could create a true safety issue to flight.