I'm getting my MEI soon, should be an easy ride BUT...
C'mon people, who has an MEI gouge...
Why worry about it if it's such as "easy ride?"
If you're going somewhere else...well...you'd do well not to approach any of your flight training as though it's an "easy ride." Take it seriously. Study.
Just trim it out don't make your life harder.
This from an individual who doesn't have a multi engine instructor rating, and who isn't a flight instructor? Really? Just "trim it out" when training a student to fly a multi engine airplane? That's your advice and counsel for giving multi-engine flight instruction?? This, after you just said...
During my Comm Multi I had to do unusual attitudes. That was definetly not in the PTS.
Upgrading to a commercial from a private pilot certificate with instrument privileges, and you wonder why you might have to demonstrate instrument proficiency at the commercial level, genius? And you're in the process of obtaining your CFII, are you? What a prize a potential student has in you.
It's okay...just make it wasy on yourself, trim it out, right?
What would you say
if you actually had multi engine instructor privileges? Or
any instructor privileges for that matter?
As for the original question, remember that you're undertaking a rating which permits you to pass on some critical skills, like any instructor rating. Bear in mind that you have a short time with any student to pass along information that must enable him or her to operate safely in your absence.
One of the key issues in teaching multi engine operation in a light twin is convincingly demonstrating control, to include an intuitive response to a low speed loss of control situation. As an instructor in a single engine airplane, you've taught use of the aerodynamic controls to rectify a control issue. The student is taught to save the airplane with rudder and elevator and ailerons.
In a multi engine airplane, the full aerodynamic limits are reached, and the aircraft still may depart controlled flight because of assymetrical thrust. Convincing the student to retard the power on the good engine at the appropriate time is a response that may save the student's life. Doing so in a way that preserves your own while teaching these principles is the key to providing proper multi engine instruction.
Blocking the rudder to prevent the student being able to use full rudder during Vmc demostrations is a wise technique that enables you to have some rudder reserve as a safety device; the student gets some rudder, but you get the rest, by preventing the student from using full rudder; the airplane begins to depart at a higher speed, which means you have aerodynamic control in reserve for the ham-fisted or slower student. Safety in your pocket.
Too often multi engine instruction is approaches as though assymetrical control is the only part of the process, and it's not. Often the airplane in use will be the heaviest and most complex that the student has yet seen. This is the time to remember primacy of learning, and that the lessons you teach here will be long remembered. Teaching systems knowledge is very important at this point, and often neglected. Teaching the student to use the increased performance under power, and to understand the reduced performance without power, is also very important.
Teaching the student to maintain centerline, for example, is important...it was important as a single engine instructor, but now with propellers closer to taxiway lights and a wider wingspan, it's more important. Before you were able to teach a power off glide, but now the glide ratio is drastically reduced, and thus energy management is more imporant than ever. Advance planning on climbs and descents is important to teach.
Too often multi engine training is restricted to control with one engine inoperative...which leads people to think it should be an "easy ride." It shouldn't be an easy ride. It should be thorough.
Fuel mismanagement continues to be problematic, and fuel management in many light twins only complicates matters. Multiple tanks, crossfeeding, crossflowing, etc, can't just be brushed over; these must be convincingly taught so that the student understands it isn't an "easy ride." Teach the student to take it seriously.
Don't approach your training, your rating, or the duties that come with it as an easy ride. It shouldn't be.
