In description the SA-227 is a 19 seat twin pressurized turboprop that was used in the Regional market to provide connecting service to smaller cities to large airports.
 
 Powered by Garrett TPE-331 1000 s.h.p. engines, each engine could be boosted to 1100 s.h.p. through the use of continuous water alcohol injection called C.A.W.I. which was only used in the hot and high environment.
 
 My experience in the SA-227 began with a one month ground school followed by one month in a flight simulator. This course was taught by FlightSafety in St. Louis because the airline I worked for did not have a training department. It was the best training I have received to date. The classroom portion dissected the airframe from radome to tailcone through a very organized instruction manual. Upon passing our orals we began class in the simulator which was only two axis: pitch and roll; no yaw axis.
 
 The Flight Simulator was only an approximation of the real aircraft but, since no one in my class had flown the real airframe this was lost on us. In the simulator the ailerons were very heavy and at 200ft above the runway on approach would become over sensitive which would result in roll oscillation. Another characteristic that I noticed in the simulator was the difficulty in aircraft control with an engine out. Full Rudder deflection was the only way to control the simulator; foot all the way to the stop. Although I never lost an engine in the real airplane I do not feel such large rudder input would have been needed for control, I did feel the simulator had more power available than the real airframe would have had in an engine out.
 
 Upon completion of "School house" training we were sent to Hot Springs Arkansas for completion in a series of Take-off and Landings. This was done from midnight to the early morning hours from the right seat with an Instructor sitting in the Left Seat giving us guidance. After each new pilot completed three T/O & Landings we would go back to the cabin and sit while another new pilot completed his landings. Once finished we were line pilots.
 
 The MetroLiner was an easy airplane to fly if you understood it. If you look at a MetroLiner in plain form you will see that like all Swearingen designs it has a high wing loading. This means that to fly the aircraft correctly you need to maintain a higher airspeed than other airframes of the same class. Another oddity of the MetroLiner III was that the ailerons were located mid-span on the wing. This resulted in a fair amount of damping when entering or exiting a roll maneuver.
 
 In flight the MetroLiner was pitch heavy, roll dampened, and rudder sensitive. In addition control pressures changed with airspeed, thus you never really had the feel for the plane until you had around 100hrs flying it.
 
 From the cockpit the MetroLiner was a very nice fit with all controls and switches in comfortable reach however the layout was rather hap-hazard. This was due in large part to the fact that the MetroLiner III had grown out of a smaller airframe. As systems grew the physical dimension of the cockpit remained the same and new switches were slapped into any space where they fit. Later this was somewhat fixed in the Metro 23. The view out the windshields was rather limited in any banking turns because eyebrow windshields were not used even though they would have increased visibility.
 
 One aspect that could have used improvement was the environmental system. It never heated or cooled the cabin to a comfortable manner, thus in the summer the cabin was hot and cold in the winter. Another cabin problem was noise level. The Garrett engines produced a high pitch whine that pierced the cabin due to improper levels of sound proofing. In the passenger cabin conversation could only be carried on in a voice slightly lower than a yell.
 
 In service the MetroLiner was extremely dependable and a very strong airframe. Once you understood how to fly it, it could be flown in high winds, icing, rain, and the approach environment with ease. The largest failures I experienced were several hydraulic failures and a loss of engine oil which resulted in an engine shutdown. Neither were unmanageable and could be handled with ease from a properly trained flight crew.
 
 Overall my experience in the MetroLiner was very positive. It is an airplane that I am happy to have flown in commercial service, but it is also an experience I will be happy not to repeat.