103 Final Stage

[JaceTheAce]

I was wondering if anyone has a sample "103 Plan Of Action" doc that they can send me. It'd be greatly appreciated... I have it coming up really soon.

Also, are there any other suggestions for studying for the 103?

[Dugie8]

Originally Posted by JaceTheAce

I was wondering if anyone has a sample "103 Plan Of Action" doc that they can send me. It'd be greatly appreciated... I have it coming up really soon.

Also, are there any other suggestions for studying for the 103?

Obvious stuff first

Know Vmc factors COLD, not rote, apply them to situations
Take off decision making, be able to explain why or why not you would continue a takeoff with an engine failed at certain points
Hint on the above, don't limit yourself to taking off one direction, what is off the ends of the runway, what is off the sides, etc
Seminole systems, know them, know the stupid stuff (number of spark plugs on the airplane, how many ways to unfeather the prop, etc)
KNOW HOW TO USE THE GPS AND AUTOPILOT PROPERLY!
Know all your commercial and instrument regs and procedures.
Aerodynamics


Not so obvious
Required docs on board (AROW)
Weight and balance shift calculations
Performance factor(s) (uphill, downhill, high density altitude, overweight, and so on)
Believe it or not, emergency procedures and WHY you do each step and how that step may effect systems


That's the short list.

[UAL747400]

Whatever you do, don't do what I did and be a smart ass about the factors that affect VMC that are questionable as to wheather or not certain ones actually have an affect on the seminole. To not confuse you, I'll leave it to you to figure out which ones those are if you don't know them already.

Let's just say I'm glad my stage pilot was reasonable.

[eglplt]

Originally Posted by Dugie8

Obvious stuff first

Required docs on board (AROW)
Weight and balance shift calculations
Performance factor(s) (uphill, downhill, high density altitude, overweight, and so on)
Believe it or not, emergency procedures and WHY you do each step and how that step may effect systems


That's the short list.

This is good information that is OFTEN overlooked. Don't forget to break out the commercial pilot pts and make sure you can answer all areas in there.

[Dugie8]

Originally Posted by UAL747400

Whatever you do, don't do what I did and be a smart ass about the factors that affect VMC that are questionable as to wheather or not certain ones actually have an affect on the seminole. To not confuse you, I'll leave it to you to figure out which ones those are if you don't know them already.

Let's just say I'm glad my stage pilot was reasonable.

??edumacate me....

[UAL747400]

IIRC it's supposedly debatable as to weather or not flaps affect Vmca in the seminole. From what I've read and heard flaps only affect Vmca in airplanes when the control system for the rudder limits the amount of travel to a lesser amount with flaps up and more travel with flaps extended(which would give you more rudder authority and therefore lower Vmca). That and weather or not the keel effect you get from the landing gear is actually significant.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I've seen you say this very thing on the forums. Maybe it was somebody else though.

I'm still pretty inexperianced so I'm completely open to arguments from both sides. These are just a couple things I've heard.

I think the stage instructor was just making sure I had actually gotten that information from credible sources and not from you know where.

[Dugie8]

Originally Posted by UAL747400

IIRC it's supposedly debatable as to weather or not flaps affect Vmca in the seminole. From what I've read and heard flaps only affect Vmca in airplanes when the control system for the rudder limits the amount of travel to a lesser amount with flaps up and more travel with flaps extended(which would give you more rudder authority and therefore lower Vmca). That and weather or not the keel effect you get from the landing gear is actually significant.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I've seen you say this very thing on the forums. Maybe it was somebody else though.

I'm still pretty inexperianced so I'm completely open to arguments from both sides. These are just a couple things I've heard.

I think the stage instructor was just making sure I had actually gotten that information from credible sources and not from you know where.

Ohhh, that has always been one of those "debates". It is something you really can't measure on a seminole, the conditions will never be exact from one Vmc(a) trial to another, so you don't know if the flaps had the reduction or addition to Vmc effect or was it something else.

If you really wanted to get nitty gritty and argue about it, I would say they raise Vmc slightly in the majority of the situations since the propwash over the flap on the good engine side would cause more of a rolling moment, thus causing more aileron to be deflected to roll the airplane. BUT that doesn't really deal with directional control more of roll control.

[UAL747400]

Originally Posted by Dugie8

Ohhh, that has always been one of those "debates". It is something you really can't measure on a seminole, the conditions will never be exact from one Vmc(a) trial to another, so you don't know if the flaps had the reduction or addition to Vmc effect or was it something else.

If you really wanted to get nitty gritty and argue about it, I would say they raise Vmc slightly in the majority of the situations since the propwash over the flap on the good engine side would cause more of a rolling moment, thus causing more aileron to be deflected to roll the airplane. BUT that doesn't really deal with directional control more of roll control.

Yeah, one argument for the lowering of Vmca that I've heard is that flaps have a "wake" effect in that they displace more air and make the airplane more stable. Having never seen this actually writen anywhere, I just don't buy that. I don't care for theories that "sound" like they MIGHT make sense.

What you're saying about flaps actually raising Vmca is pretty clear as to why that would make sense. Might be a negligable effect, but I believe whatever effect they have it's pretty negligable regardless of what it actually does. I didn't get a chance to really mess around with that stuff when I got my mult-engine rating. I was just kinda like "yeah yeah yeah, complete the lesson". When I do MEI I'll definitly play around with that stuff more.