Known as the Piper Seminole, one of the strangest things I found to get used to was I was now flying a Piper and not a Cessna. It didn't take long to remember an airplane is an airplane, and as wacky as their performance charts seemed to be, I was about to embark on my first Multi-Engine flight.

The twin engine Piper Seminole is, in this part of the world anyway, a very popular twin engine trainer. This also being my first experience piloting a low wing aircraft it was different experience to climb onto the wing to enter from the passenger side.

One thing that struck me was although I had seen it before, I didn't particularly like only being able to climb in and out via the passenger side. For those who haven't seen most Piper aircraft, they usually have a door on the right side only.

Once inside, I actually felt like I was moving up in the world of aviation, no more throttle stick and carb heat, it actually felt like I was making a step into the airline world now seeing a cluster of controls in front of me. Two levers for throttle, two for propeller pitch, and two for mixture, each color coordinated for the forgetful pilot.

I found the Seminole to be rather uncomfortable, I'm a large fellow, at 6'4 and 235 lbs I found the seats in the Seminole to be unusually narrow, even a Cessna 150 has seats which easily accommodate me, I'm not sure why the seats were made so thin which little seating area, well little seating area compared to other aircraft.
Also being as large as I am comes oversized skis which I walk on, my size 13 shoes did not fit well onto the rudder pedals. The way the rudder pedals are setup they are not meant for wide feet, and the way they are attached to the aircraft makes it troublesome to place my feet firmly on the pedals.

All of this aside, once in the airplane with my instructor (who was about 5'4 and 150 pounds) I was getting fairly excited, the instruments looked just like the simulator, but seeing the two big, (to me anyway) engines on either side of me really added to the experience.

Starting the aircraft, and system checks were performed through a control panel by my left knee, starting the aircraft was obviously one engine at a time, bringing fuel online and pushing the start button, the prop to my left started winding over, after about five seconds the airplane's mighty left engine fired to life, on the cold winter day the puff of smoke from the exhaust quickly blew past in the prop wash.
Engine running, Oil Pressure and temps normal, we let the engine run for abot 15 seconds monitoring it before starting the start procedure for #2. Starting just as easily engine #2 lit up and once we brought the manifold pressure and RPM to match #1, you started getting the hum of the two props running together in perfect harmony. Now this was definitely turning into a rewarding experience. With every step up I've taken so far in aviation I just want to go further and faster, and this was definitely pushing me further and faster than ever before.

Taxiing out to the single runway at Summerstown, ON we moved onto the ice covered taxiway Alpha, the only one open in the winter, with limited winter maintenance compared to airports I was used to, most of the steering was being controlled with differential thrust, which took a little getting used to, being accurate with turns using light braking and differential thrust takes a lot of practice to be smooth.

On the runway we did our final control continuity checks, engines (The plural form was still astounding me) were working perfectly, we were ready to go. Full power now, with full prop and mixture, having six levers rammed forward as opposed to my usual two really added to the feeling of power!

Upon lift-off and a positive rate of climb was established, it was gear-up, that was cool, RPM's and Manifold Pressure to climb power, which in the Seminole is 2500RPM and 25” of Manifold Pressure, which is easy Climb= 25/25. I couldn't get over the climb rate this plane was giving me, before I knew it we were hitting our altitude for the flight at 5000 feet, and of course I over-shot by 75 feet not grasping the reins of this aircraft quite as tightly as they needed to be.

Once at altitude, we practiced gentle turns, followed by steep turns. The biggest although not a difficult problem I found was maintaining altitude in extreme attitudes, the extra power would rocket the Seminole out of your assigned altitude if not trimmed and maintained properly.

The aircraft itself flies incredible smooth, the extra speed rides through light chop so much better than any single engine pond-hopper I had flown before. In cruise attitude we were running 23” of manifold pressure with 2300 RPM. I was in heaven, looking out of the window at this seemingly large engine and propeller right beside me was amazing, again I felt like I was flying with the big boys now. We practiced emergency lowering of the landing gear, the thump from the emergency system blowing the gear down was somewhat startling the first time.

The cockpit gave a good amount of visibility, and the cruising attitude of the Seminole gives an excellent forward view, this would help making my first ever twin engine approach. Downwind checks, engines running 20/23 now through the descent, engine oil pressure/temps were still ok, fuel in the tanks in case we needed a go around, RPM's matching, Mg pressure matching, speed being reduced into flap extension speed, gear down (still so cool) three green lights indicate all down and locked, and a quick glance at the mirror on the engine nacelle verifies nose gear is down and locked visually.

A much wider approach then I was used to due to the higher airspeed we were flying, and with a twin, we're less worried about having an engine failure and not making the field. Final approach we set ten degrees of flaps, slowly reducing the power, we crossed the threshold at about 80MPH and the plane was very easy to float down onto the runway. The only thing I did not like was trying to stop this heavier aircraft on the icey/sandy runway for the first time. The brakes were almost too easy to lockup even on the gripper sand, I would imagine this is mostly cause by my too high of airspeed, and the heavier weight of the aircraft, combined with my intent to make a good landing with at least some runway left for forgiveness.

Down and stopped we used a large amount of differential thrust to turn the aircraft back down the “icy beach” to taxiway Alpha... I was finished, I had just completed by first Multi-Engine flight. A 0.9 in my logbook, and about $260CDN later for plane and instructor, I had successfully logged my first Multi-Engine flight.

For those trying to decide to complete a multi-rating, don't try to decide, decide to try!