Almost two years after leaving the Azores, I can finally say: “I’m a Pilot!“.

Last Friday, January 29th, 2010, I made my final exam on a Piper Seneca II, registration CS-DCW (Charlie Charlie Whiskey!), from Cascais (LPCS) to Faro (LPFR) and back.

The night before the exam I could hardly sleep. I was feeling so anxious that for most of the night I was wide awake thinking about all the things I was sure were going to be wrong during the three hour flight. Moments after finally deciding to grab the Seneca’s manual to review it one last time, I was overcome by exhaustion and fell asleep until the next morning, where I woke up with a hugeeee pile of drool on the flight manual by my side.

The examination flight was scheduled for 13:15. At 11:00 I arrived at OMNI’s Hangar to review all the paperwork I had done and to start preparing the aircraft. As I waited for CS-DCW to arrive from it’s flight, the examiner showed up. I had only spoken to him once on the previous day, so I knew nothing about the man. While the examiner was reviewing my planning I telephoned to Cascais’s ARO to issue a delay for my flight, since the airplane was a bit late.

As soon as CS-DCW landed, I was already asking the flight line mechanic to call the fuel truck. We would be taking 360 liters of fuel (95 US Gal) and estimating to burn roughly 240 liters (63 US Gal).

I took the usual 10 / 15 minutes to complete the preflight inspection to Charlie Charlie Whiskey. Just a few minutes after signing the Technical log, in which I state to have inspected and approved the aircraft, I was getting airborne on the 1800 kg, 400 brake horse power flying machine for the last time.

Everything was going smooth. At least until ESP VOR!… I was flying at Flight Level 70 (7.000 ft), as cleared by Lisbon Control, when, all of a sudden, the first emergency of the afternoon happened. The right engine had failed in flight! I calmly maintained the aircraft under control and advanced the mixture and propeller levers to the fully forward position, and then adjusted the throttles to maintain 7.000 ft. Having completed the rest of the procedures, the right engine was once again working normally and we continued to Faro.

Shortly after crossing position ODEMI, I requested Faro Approach to descent. We would fly two ILS approaches to LPFR, both starting at VFA VOR.

Two miles before overflying VFA, another emergency. Apparently this time it was the left engine which had failed. Having to turn towards the inoperative engine to comply with the ILS, meant that now I would have to be extra cautious. As usual, standard procedures and all went fine. When approaching the decision altitude for the ILS, it was time to fly a go-around. A single engine go-around!

The problem with most light twins is that they fly very badly with an engine failure. A single engine go-around should be avoided if at all possible, but it’s still something we have to train for. Already with the gear and flaps up, maximum continuous power and 5º of bank towards the operating engine, we were struggling to reach a mere 200 feet per minute climb rate.

The second approach was made under twin-engine operations using a normal configuration. At minimums, a go-around to ODEMI to start the return flight to Cascais.

This time cruising at 6.000 ft, only 300 ft above the clouds top, the examiner asked a lot of questions about the normal operation of the aircraft and it’s systems. Fortunately the reason that made me drool over the flight manual had helped me out for this part of the exam!

This time in contact with Lisbon Approach, and since I still had some minutes to spare, I asked for an ILS approach to runway 03 at Lisbon. As usual, the ILS would be approved but first I had fly a holding at ESP to give way to some commercial traffic. This would be an high speed approach, so not to mess with the other traffic around, but since I didn’t want to get on the examiner’s good mood, I opted to fly at a lower speed of 140 knots… Passing 1000ft for the 580ft minimums, Lisbon Tower cleared us for a low pass. My first and only low pass at the commands of a twin-engine! I again opted to fly at just 140 knots but I wasn’t able to resist and flew it as low as possible. About midway down the runway, the instructor told me to proceed to Cascais, and so I did… But not before pitching the nose up and baking hard to the left.

At Cascais we flew the 8 DME ARC for the VOR/DME Approach to runway 35. After a twin-engine touch and go, another failure. This time the right engine failed immediately after rotation. Again… Performance on these airplanes is marginal and not being able to climb enough to avoid Monte Manique, a known obstacle for all student pilots at Cascais, my only chance was to manoeuvre by the left of the obstacle and then climb to the safety altitude. On short final, another single engine go-around. This one was absolute rubbish! Maybe it was the strong winds or I was just a bit tired, but it was my worst single engine go-around ever! Nevertheless, the instructor said it wasn’t too bad.

We finally lined up for the last time. To finish my examination flight, a beautiful smooth touchdown. My best landing ever on the twin-engine…

Immediately after shutting down the engines, the examiner looked at me and said: “Congratulations. You’re a Pilot!”.

A new chapter is about to begin!

Photos by Carlos Gomes and Miguel Grilo.

Thanks for reading!