After not being able to schedule a flight in the Westminster College Piper Seminole for quite some time due to weather and scheduling conflicts I finally got to take a ride in the multi-engine aircraft. I was very excited to finally get to take a ride in the plane, many of my friends and colleagues have flown this plane and I have heard many good things. I took my observation flight on March 15, 2011. I flew with Moose being the CFI in charge and Hunter as the student pilot, I was sitting in the back seat. For the most part the plane did not seem too different from the Piper Arrow that I am very familiar with, with the main exception that the Seminole has two engines. The pre-flight was very similar, just more redundant. This was the same for the run up and take offs. the main thing I noticed during the flight was that similarities to single engine planes in normal flight, though this all seemed to change when one engine was lost. When the CFI would decrease the power in one of the engines on Hunter the entire flight changed. The noise was much greater and at times it seemed that hunter was making very big changes in his control input to manage straight and level flight. The landings were very impressive and I was in awe of the awesome flying prowess of my friend and roommate.
In all, I had a very good experience observing my first flight in a multi-engine aircraft. It was very good to get a first hand look at what it takes to fly a twin and I was very impressed. I am very excited to begin flying the aircraft myself!
-Chappy
