V-03 Debrief

[ridikamus]

Well, I passed the V-03, and it proved mostly that I need more time on PE talking to controllers while flying an airplane, especially one such as the Royal Turbine Duke I chose for this flight. It's a magnificent aircraft - in case you haven't heard about it, it's a Beechcraft Duke with PT6 turbines on the wings. 4000 ft/min off the deck, climbs to 25,000 in 9 minutes, and cruises just below 300 knots (way up high, of course). My cruise speed for this flight was 180 knots. One final note before we get started, lest you folks read this post and become worried I'm going to kill myself or others in a real airplane, I'm not a licensed pilot and I've been flying sims for about 3 months. I'm here because I plan on starting my flight training next year and want to get used to ATC interaction so I'm more comfortable when it's all for real.

On to the flight! I studied up, read transcripts, watched videos, wrote out a flight plan with expected frequencies, navigation changes and origin/destination airport info. Clearance request and departure from John Wayne went swimmingly, and i started to settle down. My radio handoffs went smoothly, and the coastal transition was accomplished with no mishaps. The return leg via the mini-route is when things started teetering.

I was descending on autopilot from 6500 to 2500 at more or less flight idle at 160 knots as I initiated contact with Santa Monica tower. The controller gave the expected call - Santa Monica 128 radial, 2500 feet, remain outside the bravo, report over the airport. What I read back was "Santa Monica 128 radial, 2500 feet, remain outside the bravo, report overhead the TOWER". It is my guess that the controller assumed I meant Santa Monica tower, when in fact I had skipped ahead in my mind to the next part of the transition and was expecting to report overhead LA tower (my fault, not the controller's). After barreling toward the bravo for a few minutes I became fixated on that scary blue bravo line and asked Santa Monica tower about my bravo clearance. He responded (properly) that he cannot issue clearance, that will be handled by LA tower, and repeats "report overhead Santa Monica VOR" at which point my brain kicked in and I frantically checked the DME...phew, still 4 miles to go.

It was at that point the plane reminded me that I was still at flight idle. It had finally bled off 60+ knots in level flight and the autopilot started pitching up to try and maintain altitude. I brought the throttles way up, but...turbines. Yeah. I was down to 80 knots in a clean configuration by the time the turbines spooled back up. That close to the VOR the needle was jumpy, and the autopilot was trying to "help" with that too. I hadn't managed to pull it out of NAV mode because of the mistake I made with the visual reporting waypoints and the "avoid falling out of the sky" crisis. Now I have quite a few more problems to deal with - an aircraft trying to accelerate from a near stall, with an autopilot trying to prove how well it can manage dutch rolls, oscillating back and forth across my assigned radial, 4 miles from busting into the LA Bravo airspace. Talk about a snowball, eh?

I whacked the AP disengage and stabilized the plane, figured I was already late on my position report, and called Santa Monica tower to report overhead the VOR. The controller did a little whacking of his own, something like "You're actually about 1.5 miles northwest. Contact LA tower" but I didn't mind - I deserved that and more for getting so far behind the plane. I called up LA tower while watching the speed climb and attempting to maintain 2500, got my clearance and instruction to report overhead the tower, then did my best to maintain altitude and heading (Side note: I have a Saitek trim wheel, which I was terrified to touch after disengaging the autopilot because as soon as I touch it, the simulator trim snaps to the last position used before the autopilot was engaged. So I flew the entire mini-route with a massive amount of forward pressure to maintain altitude). I reported, handed off to Hawthorne tower, handed off to KTOA tower, and flew the worst pattern of my life but got down safely, thanked the controller for the help, taxied, and parked. I shut down the airplane and just stared out the windows for a while, and eventually flew a meandering VFR flight back to John Wayne.

[stevekirks]

Quick reply to say great write up!

[par2005]

nice writeup.

You made it a bit more difficult for yourself than it had to be, but it was good fun I suppose, and a good lesson Should you have flown something slower like cherokee or cessna, you would had much more time and be able to stay ahead of the plane, rather than behind it in those few rare cases.

Imagine doing heads down IFR with a Duke - That will be a proper fun

P.s. I am looking forward to this aircraft myself. But I want to have very strong fundamentals before I take something like Turbine Duke.. For now, the Cherokee is a pleasure to fly

[Bidimus]

Great write up! Reminds me of some of my own adventures.

Mistakes happen, especially self induced ones. Not just in flying but with any activity with exacting performance metrics. What separates us as pilots isn't how many mistakes we make but how we handle them when they happen. I've known many people who are awesome at what they do as long as it's consistent. Throw in one good speed bump though and they crumble. You sir did not crumble but made some very smart logical decisions. Bravo! (no pun intended)