IO,

Agree with you that kegally you may not be responsible, however, I am sure that if you signed someone off for the club you instructed for and he then promptly rented the complex and stuffed it into the deck doing £££s worth of damage you WOULD be responsible in your employers eyes and looking for a new job!

The club I use wants 5 hours dual to rent the complex and either 25 hours dual multi with one of their instructors or 50 hours TT multi for solo hire.

Julian.

25hrs dual multi????? that just smacks of people being used to fund hours builders and is disgusting.

Way back when I did my twin rating I did the rating and the following weekend took it to Guernsey. Flown quite a few hundred hours in it since without problems.

People, there is nothing difficult about flying a complex or a twin, it just takes common sense. Anybody who tries to convince you otherwise is just trying to build up there own self image!

Stay current and follow the checks like any aircraft and enjoy the flying.

As far as an Instructor being responsible for someone stuffing any rental aircraft it would be a very narrow minded person who punished them. Aircraft get binned all the time. You could make a pilot do a 100hrs duel but it would still not stop them having a lapse or a bad day. Thats the nature of flying!

It IS an insurance requirement, I had a chat to the boss about it. There is nothing they can do about it, its not worth their while droping the requirments ($20,000 premium as opposed to $5000). In fact in the USA, this figure is one of the better ones around. Try renting a ME down the road, and they require 100 ME time, 500TT, and a checkout before they let you free on your own. In fact you'll be very hard pressed to find anywhere in the USA who'll have vastly lower requirments for ME rental.
or a litigation lawyer;) The trouble is these days, everyone wants their slice of the financial compensation cake in the event of an accident. Just like the families of the "Washington Sniper" victims sued (and was settled out of court) the rifle manufacturer. Thats like me suing Draper because I hit my thumb with a hammer made by them. How mad is that? But its real life unfortunately.

EA

;)

Obs Cop, suggest you have a good look at the POH for the aircraft
concerned for the figures, you'll be much better prepared beforehand without having to remember what the instructors telling you, it'll save you time and money.
It doesn't cost you anything to read the POH on the ground but it sure costs a small fortune when the fan starts.

Arrow III & IV available in turbo and normally aspirated.

Where are you doing your training?

7700

Squawking,

I'll have a good read, although it won't be for 2 or 3 months yet. I'm training at a well know training provider at Coventry Airport.

;)

Obs cop

I echo what Squawking 7700 says.

Looking at the POH on the ground, and making the appropriate notes, and committing the vital numbers to memory not only saves time in the air when you're paying, but it also saves a lot of mental effort.

The peace of mind gained is well worth the effort of obtaining and reading the book!

And remember that it's not just the speeds you'll need to remember for a complex aircraft... you'll also need to memorise the correct Manifold Pressure and RPM settings. And probably fuel flows, too.

FFF
-------------

Far better to make a little piece of paper with the cruise settings on it (say 45 55 65 75%) and stick it somewhere.

When checking out other pilots the thing I find almost everyone knows nothing about is engine management.

Cor blimey guvnor,

All damned fine information, but could someone please outline a few good practices for engine management. Whilst no doubt I will discuss it more thoroughly with my instructor, some prior information would help.

All of my PPL notes tell me how a wobbly prop and carb work, but not how to best use them. This I feel is the essence of becoming an above average prop wobbler and indeed, sharing the information may well urge existing complex flyers to adapt their flying to improve the engine handling and management.

Here's hoping

Obs cop

As said allready, it's up to the instructor to how long it will take. I just finished (today actually) my convex onto a baron 55 with no previous retractible gear or twin on my license at it took 4 hours. I had a VP endorsement though.

Most of the engine management stuff is in the POH for the aircraft for all the numbers, 55% power at such and such MAP and RPM, 60% and 75%. Most guys I know take a piece of paper with these numbers on them and stick it on the dash somewhere for easy reference. The rest is just good common sense like not to decent at 1500 fpm with less than 20" power but rather at 500 fpm at 20" and so. It's better for the engine and more comfy for the self loading freight :D These things now fly a little faster and need a little more planning ahead that a C172. If you do that there should be no problems.