Page 30 - Dec 19 TNT

as the dual nose wheels often need to be moved slightly for the pin’s holes to line up. This requires grab- bing the tires with both hands and twisting them slightly in order for the pin to line up correctly. But with both hands busy, it makes placing the pin nearly impossible if a pilot is doing the pref light by himself. So, it is not uncommon to see two G150 pilots getting their pants dirty while crawling under the airplane near the nose wheel. Learjets don’t share this issue, which is one reason we had to pay special attention to it during the G150 checkout.
After ensuring all the sneaky pre- flight items are completed, it is time to board and start the engines. How- ever, before actually pushing the “start” buttons, you must first work your way through a 45-item check- list, including everything from the coffeemaker to the fire extinguish- ing system. Once that is complete, starting the engines just requires
the push of a single button once the power levers are placed in the idle position. With the engines running, there are 17 more items to check and you are finally ready to taxi. But, don’t be too quick about releasing the brakes. The rudder pedals only control the first 3 degrees of nose wheel movement. The remaining 60 degrees of turn is managed by a small steering wheel on the left side of the cockpit (similar to most airline aircraft). The steering wheel itself has an on/off switch, so make sure that switch is on before advancing power. With only 3 degrees of move- ment via the pedals, you will almost certainly hit the hangar door even with your foot on the rudder buried right to the stop.
After successfully taxiing out, we run a series of other checklist items fairly common to small jets (such as cycling the spoilers) and get to the lineup portion and takeoff briefing. The main difference here
is only the pilot in the left seat of the G150 has good directional con- trol of the aircraft during the initial portion of the takeoff roll – and he does this using his left hand on the small steering wheel and right hand on the throttles. So, if the left seat pilot is the one flying, the control wheel must be properly positioned and held for the wind conditions by the pilot in the right seat until sufficient speed is reached (usually about 80 knots). At that point, the left seat pilot releases the small steering wheel with his left hand, places it on the control column and announces “my wheel.” Shortly after that, V1 is called by the monitoring pilot and the pilot f lying releases the throttles and places both hands on the control column. This is a common practice in airline aircraft, but not required in lighter jets like Lears. The process takes a few takeoffs to get the team- work down but comes fairly quickly when briefed in advance.
Aeromania
28 • TWIN & TURBINE / December 2019 Jet Journal