Moving up to a more complex, higher-performance aircraft involves several stages of learning. First is the research done to arrive at the decision to buy a particular make and model. Call it the kindergarten phase.
Second is primary school. It’s the formal pilot transition training that typically involves a deep dive into systems, limitations, normal operating procedures and emergency procedures, plus hands-on simulator or in-airplane flight training.
Next comes secondary school, which is the knowledge and confidence gained through the experience of real-world flying.
And, finally, there’s the fourth stage of learning, the graduate course. The textbook for this course is published by an institution of the highest learning—the school of hard knocks. The textbook’s authors are the many pilots who have been operating the same make and model aircraft for many hours over many years.
Collectively they’ve encountered all of the situations, all of the problems, and through trial and error, ingenuity and sometimes good old-fashioned luck they have figured out techniques, tips and tricks to solve problems or, better yet, avoid them in the first place. The lessons aren’t always about solving or avoiding problems, however; many are intended to accomplish tasks more efficiently.
The fourth stage of learning how to fly a particular airplane, in our case a Twin Commander, is acquiring the tribal knowledge.
We’d like to open that tribal knowledge textbook and see what it says, find out things we can do to make our flying more efficient, more problem free and more enjoyable. We’ll take those lessons from two sources. First is by picking the brains of the many highly experienced Twin Commander pilots flying today and who have come before. Second, we want to hear from you. What have you learned that makes you a better Twin Commander pilot? What tips, tricks, techniques and insights can you add to the tribal knowledge textbook so that others can benefit?
We’ll start where all Twin Commander flights start—with engine start. That’s the topic we’ll focus on in the next issue of Flight Levels. We’ll have some comments from recognized Twin Commander pilot experts, but we also want you to go to your bookshelf and pull out your annotated copy of Twin Commander Tribal Knowledge Secrets Revealed, turn to Chapter One, Engine Start, and let us know what notes you’ve made in the margins. What issues have you seen on engine start under a variety of conditions, and what workarounds have you used to deal with those issues? We’d like to include your comments in the next “Tribal Knowledge” column.
Please email your comments to Flight Levels editor, Ian Twombly, [email protected], and we’ll start our engines.
