Mutli Engine Flight Test: Two engines: Twice the fun.

July 16 was one of the best days of my life. A day that proved to me that i can do things that utterly and totally surprise me, things i never imagined were possible. Strangely enough, 26 years ago, if it weren't for that day, i would not have been alive at all! July 16th is in fact my birthday....and the day i became licensed to fly twin engine aircraft. In my absence from writing i began working on my Multi Engine rating. At first it was literally the most challenging thing i had ever done in my life. First of all, there was too much happening to keep track of. The first time i got in the airplane, the only things i recognized were the control column and the altimeter. I could barely find the heading indicator! I felt like a two year old sitting in a plastic pedal car. I just looked around wildly and waited for someone else to push me so i could go.

Over the next 15.5 hours, i struggled uphill both ways towards a multi engine rating. I started with one instructor who clearly did not have enough time for me. Despite my open availability, i only managed to get 3 flights in with him in a month. I was frustrated beyond belief. Amazingly, it was on a vacation to Morocco that i truly found my focus. Long hours bouncing across gorgeously stark desert roads, reciting in whispered tones my emergency procedures, i finally allowed myself the time and the confidence to work hard to memorize what i needed to learn to pass. A particularily poignant memory comes to me, as we drove in a rickety Toyota, screaming around mountain corners, i barely looked up from my note sin time to see us turning sharply around what looked to be an endlessly cavernous cliff! Two months after i arrived home, after exhausting hours of pushing myself to the limit in that tiny, shuddering, stifling cockpit on (strangely!) sheepskin seats, 'twas the night before flight test!

As the sun set across the fie

ld from the hangar, i placed my hand on one of the Seminole's Lycoming engines, and i whispered to her. It was just her and i, alone on the ramp, and i tried to tangibly connect with the airplane. How hilarious! how many hours of practice, studying, talking to myself alone in my apartment while my roomate giggled at me in wonder, and here i was, resorting to a spiritual, almost supersticious ceremony to get me though the next day. I can't remember my words exactly, but i know that i was unintentionally practicing positive reinforcement and self love...with an inanimate object! As silly as i must have sounded and looked, stroking and whispering to an airplane in the sunset, i think this practice set me up for success. You can do this. You have worked hard. you have all the knowledge and the strength of spirit to get through this test. This flight will be like any other. It is a process which only exists to make you, and thus, everyone in the skies, safer.

Of course, it didn't feel like just any other flight. It was 32 degrees. i could see beads of sweat literally forming on my thighs as we waited for takeoff. there was an 18 knot wind, and at least a 9 knot crosswind on the circuits. i almost botched my first procedure entirely by coming in way too low due to nerves. But when it came down to the wire, i did it. i performed every procedure to standards, i was careful, organized, calm, and confident in my actions. and i succeeded. it was the happiest day of my life!

And to top it all off, i celebrated in the best way possible... several hours later, (though plagued by total exhaustion and an epic stress headache!) My roomate and boyfriend conspired to throw me a surprise party on a BEACH!!!!!!! Life...is beautiful. Whenever i feel stuck, as i have been feeling the past month while slogging through my Multi IFR, i remember this day with joy, and smile!!!