Username Protected wrote:
The SFAR requirements are kinda odd IMO:
--You need at least 100 hrs multi to qualify.
You need 100 hours multi to ACT as PIC in an MU2.
You don't need 100 hours multi to start SFAR training. You can fly an MU2 after SFAR training with another pilot who ACTs as PIC.
I wasn't subject to the 100 hour rule (my training was done per SFAR but predates the official requirements). In any case, by the time I soloed the MU2, I had about 90 hours in type and I had 10 hours piston twin time (basically get the rating time), so I met the rule without trying.
I have seen this part of the rule misinterpreted to mean you had to get 100 hours multi time BEFORE you can do SFAR training. That is NOT the case. If you are a pilot with minimal multi time, droning along in a piston twin does little to prep your for an MU2, so you might as well skip that.
Quote:
--The MU2, OEI, handles completely differently (i.e., potentially dangerously, hence the SFAR) than a piston twin.
Not really. The basics are pretty much the same. Fly the airplane, trim it out. The main difference is not to retract flaps so you fly it more like a jet in that one regard. There is actually less to do in some sense.
One thing piston pilots need to learn is to SLOW DOWN. I've seen piston twin pilots in the MU2 sim who react crazily fast to engine failure. Maybe you need that for a piston twin, but in the MU2, fly the plane first, then after you have it well under control, calmly identify the failed engine and feather.
Part of my standard teaching exercise for this in the sim is to have the piston pilot handle the engine out WITHOUT feathering at all. The plane climbs quite fine in this condition outside of extremes of heavy, hot, high. Only after they have that mastered do we add feathering to process. YOU MUST FLY THE PLANE FIRST. With NTS, feathering is not nearly as critical as it is in a piston.
If you grab for levers, you may grab the wrong one (seen it happen in the sim a few times), or you may compromise aircraft control in those first few seconds where it is most critical (see that a lot in the sim).
Quote:
--The SFAR expects you to "unlearn" muscle memory responses to emergencies that you've spent 100 hrs + learning in a recip.
I take it the precip has emergencies constantly in those 100 hours? How else would 100 hours cause muscle memory?
Again, the 100 hours are not required to be in the precip, they can be in the MU2. And if your precip is constantly providing you with emergencies in those 100 hours, you are better off in the MU2, IMO.
Mike C.