I started my MEP training yesterday with old Seneca through shower at takeoff then flying one hour of different skill lessons and waiting in holding for thunderstorm to pass the airport. We finally decided for alternate when suddenly crack appared between CBs in direction of our field and I directed the aircraft through one more shower towards landing strip. Although all the time we were in VMC and majority of the time with clear sky above us, takeoff and landing were quite challenging.
Why not train in a DA42, when you will be getting one? You would then have currency on type – priceless IMHO 
The only value of MEP training in a Seneca is that it’s a twin so does weird things (yaw) when one engine packs up. But these old light twins differ so much in their single engine capability that the training could be highly unrepresentative.
That’s the only MEP training available in vicinity. The idea is to take basic MEP and get rating before picking up my aircraft. Then I’ll do some training to get used to it there in Sweden and then when I’m back I’ll do IR.
The DA42 can be used for ab initio MEP training, but you will need to log differences training for a legacy twin with prop and mixture controls. Also you will need to do limited panel sign off for IR purposes in a legacy six pack panel twin.
The Seneca 1 while having unusual control forces, (instead of a classic A-E-R harmony it is more like R-E-A, with the weak ailerons interconnected to the rudder) does enjoy a decent training safety record with no recorded Vmc departure accidents in over forty years of service. It also is a good trainer in that it’s SE RoC only materialises in earnest if you are flying blue line for the weight.
I did my ME in a Seneca and all I can say is I hope I never have to fly one again ever. That said, it’s not a bad plane to train on, I just didn’t care for it.
I did my ME in a Seminole and all I can say is I hope I never have to fly one again ever. That said, it’s not a bad plane to train on, I just didn’t care for it.
Piper’s small twins, urgh. The Chrysler of the air.
Emir, if there’s any way whatsoever where you & an ME-qualified friend or instructor can fly the DA42 down from Sweden, it’d be almost infinitely better to train on your own DA42. A DA42 handles quite differently from a Piper twin, so you’d need cross-training anyway.
Maybe I’m being a bit hard on the Pipers – they did open my eyes for the joys of flying a twin. I was sold on the spot after my 1st lesson.
[quote fixed] (unquote fixed – it was an adjusted mimic, not a quote )
Emir, if there’s any way whatsoever where you & an ME-qualified friend or instructor can fly the DA42 down from Sweden, it’d be almost infinitely better to train on your own DA42. A DA42 handles quite differently from a Piper twin, so you’d need cross-training anyway.
I plan to fly some six hours in Sweden with the instructor from local flight school (with whome I did aircraft check flight) and then I’ll fly with him back to Zagreb. So I guess I’ll record some 10 hours and I believe it’s sufficient. After that I’ll do IR training on my DA42.
The DA42 can be used for ab initio MEP training, but you will need to log differences training for a legacy twin with prop and mixture controls. Also you will need to do limited panel sign off for IR purposes in a legacy six pack panel twin.
This may apply to the UK, but definitely not to Austria. I did all my MEP and IR training in the DA42 without any resulting limitations.
That said, a few hours in an aircraft with a “classic” cockpit would have been good, because I fehlt quite insecure when starting to fly IFR on my own in my steam-gauge aircraft with basic avionics. I therefore took an instructor friend with me on the first few flights, which definitely was a good idea.
I wasn’t too impressed with the DA42 (NG), by the way. Yes, it is easy to handle, with s/e procedures being a no-brainer and landings a delight. But the cockpit felt small, hardly bigger then in a DA40, and I found it too sensitive especially in the lateral axis. This seems to apply to all Diamond designs, but I reckon some other people may prefer it over “truck-like” spamcans …
The DA42 can be used for ab initio MEP training, but you will need to log differences training for a legacy twin with prop and mixture controls.
I believe there is only a required differences training for single lever control, not for multi lever. Totally perverted
People who do a ME PPL at Egnatia in Greece, on a DA42, also come out with no limitations, as far as I recall (I visited them twice). Most of them are ATPL cadets.
