I AM NOT A EMPLOYEE OF ARIBEN
First off you got booted from jetcareers cause you were posting under multiple screen names and lieing about it even after a moderator and the site owners called you out on it.
Second it won't take you long to figure out who I am by my screen name so lets limit the bull$&*@.
For those of you who want to act as the jury. I flew 11.5 of his 16.9 hours while at Ariben.
So lets cover his issues! First off let me tell you I have spent alot of time in every single Duchess at Ariben and all of them are airworthy and comply with regulations for Day/Night VFR and IFR flight. Every Aircraft also complies with the POH and its required equipment list for known operations of flight. Are some aircraft better then others ofcourse but what school isn't that way.
First off his fuel pressure issue! The fuel pressure gauge on the right engine was at the lower end of the exceptable limits while inflight even with the back up electrical driven fuel pump on. I made note of it early inflight and kept my eye on it. Well after 2.8 flight hours and multiple full stop taxi back landings we decided to call it quits because at static the right engine was only producing 2300 to 2400 rpms. My guess is because Dan landed without putting the props forward! Remember that cause I do? Not only that but he took the runway for take off and ran the engines to full throttle when I looked down and caught it called for the abort and went back to the run up area. On a previous flight we had a debate about putting the props forward while on approach and he informed me that at ATP they didn't do this. Keep in mind this was a approach were he knew our intentions are togo missed.
Second his altinator issue. I was not the other pilot on that flight but my roomate was and the story he tells is a bit different then the one on here. Never once did he say we have another one lets just continue he infact demonstrated by using different power settings, turning on landing lights and turning off opposite altinator switches that both altinators were infact functioning. Anyone who has flown the Duchess or is familar with the electrical system knows that when in cruise flight with a light load being split between both altinators one if not both guages will show little or no load.
I myself coached you through the whole electrical system when you thought we had that problem on one of our flights and we continued on. Why because I demonstrated by turning off the opposite switch the amp meter then showed a load. I myself did have a altinator failure in a Duchess and can tell you that if you turn off the opposite switch without reducing the load almost immediatly you will see the dash lights dim and the screen on the garmin dim aswell. Which I told you! By the way the checklist and poh both state to check for failure by turning off opposite switch.
This ended up in dcramer squaking the airplane for the rt altinator failure and to quote "nose gear strut doesn't look right" After talking to his partner we learned that it was due to a very firm 3 point or possibly nose gear first landing. His partner a CFI/CFII with over 4 times the flight time that dcramer has grabbed the controls in time to save possibly shearing off the nose gear but alittle late to get a main gear first landing. The altinator was found to be working propperly and the shimmy damper had to repaired because the seals were blown out.
Make note to the situation above and refer to our fuel pump problem while doing multiple landings. This was because I had a similar situation with him and we discussed it and determined we needed to get him more landings. So our next flight we did just that with me demonstrating to him different techniques to help him with the different landing picture and characteristics of the Duchess.
Wireless internet!!!!! Who cares you are there to fly airplanes not play online!!! I did't have a computer but was able to use 1 of the 6 at the school 24hrs aday. When we flew and you made me aware of your concerns I told you not to worry give the system time, live at the airport and you will get done. Like the day we had the gear intransit light you left to eat I stayed another airplane came up and I got a extra 4 hours. Besides hanging at the airport talking to other pilots, instructors and mechanics is how you learn.
Lets address the gear intransit light problem. Not a big deal we returned to base because the poh states the system must be checked before your next flight. So obviously we couldn't continue on land and return. I hope that if you learned anything from that event it was that you don't attempt to troubleshoot a problem while in HARD IFR!!! Unless ofcourse it pertains to saftey of flight or keeping the aircraft airborne.
You got kicked out because you never told anyone to thier face your problems you went on a internet message board and blasted them.
Anytime I had a problem or delay I went to Mike or Mary and the problem was fixed immediatly. When I was there the first time I did have some delays and they did everything in thier power to make it right.
You wanna continue on with this debate I am more then willing. But I promise you that you will not like the outcome!
As for those of you that are thinking about the Aviator I would strongly suggest you do more research then on a message board that seems to harbor negativity. Why don't you check thier saftey record with the NTSB. Or for that matter PM me and I will give you either my email or cell phone and will answer every question you ask me the best I can with honesty.
Just take this into consideration at the Aviator those planes are going 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They spend the day doing training events and the night going time building. You can either go 2.5 hrs oneway and return or spend the time doing what I did which is multiple approaches at different airports allover Florida. I challenge you to find a school that flies thier airplanes more. Take this into consideration the more they fly especially doing training flights the more problems will come up.
Never once did I feel unsafe at the Aviator and never once did something I squaked not get fixed. I left there with a great experience and can honestly tell you I am a much better pilot from my experiences and friendships developed there.
