Training

Multi-Engine Trainers: A Strong Field

Acquiring a multi-engine rating is a rite of passage for any pilot who dreams of flying for a living. There's no denying the feeling of power you get on first grabbing a fistful of throttles and shoving them up to the stop. There's also no denying that, unless you pay for a type rating yourself, its the most costly rating you'll get on a per-hour basis. With the market offering three production twins being regularly used as trainers, we were curious as to how they stacked up. We flew each one, spoke to several instructors at flight schools that did a significant amount of multi-engine instruction and used an out-of-production twin thats still used for training for comparison. After all the Vmc demos and engine-out simulations, we came away of the opinion that all of the airplanes have some weaknesses, but none that are crippling-although someone who learns in a Twin Star will need significant additional training to fly anything other than a jet-and that the Tecnam P2006T has the potential to take over the multi-engine training market.

Rick Durden
Verified

Acquiring a multi-engine rating is a rite of passage for any pilot who dreams of flying for a living. There’s no denying the feeling of power you get on first grabbing a fistful of throttles and shoving them up to the stop. There’s also no denying that, unless you pay for a type rating yourself, its the most costly rating you’ll get on a per-hour basis.

With the market offering three production twins being regularly used as trainers, we were curious as to how they stacked up. We flew each one, spoke to several instructors at flight schools that did a significant amount of multi-engine instruction and used an out-of-production twin thats still used for training for comparison.

Rick Durden

Senior Editor Rick Durden has written for Aviation Consumer since 1994 and specializes in aviation law. Rick is an active CFII and holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He is the author of The Thinking Pilot’s Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vols. 1 & 2.