Page 17 - Volume 21 Number 11

position using a T handle attached to a cable, while the upper half is still open. The lower door is then locked in place with a rotary handle, then the upper half pulled down. One then activates a hook driven by an electric motor contained within the lower door itself, to cinch down the upper door. The motor is controlled by a small, very hard-to-find toggle switch lost in the upholstery, located on the forward side of the lower entry door. Looking lost and muttering under your breath while you are groping for the switch, does not enhance the image of your piloting skills to the two pax sitting less than 4 feet away.
Once the doors are cinched together by the electrically powered hook, the upper door handle can be thrown over into the fully locked position. The electric motorized hook, however, is still holding the door fast, which would make exit during an emergency evacuation impossible. Thus, the next step is to reverse the hook’s motor, in the process disconnecting the hook entirely. The final step is to call out “door closed,” while your buddy sitting in the cockpit with the master switch on checks to make sure the “door” annunciator panel light has gone out, at which time he says, “light out.” Miss a single step and the light remains on, which causes the passengers to wonder just how good of a crew you are, if you can’t even figure out how to close the door. Luckily, we know the drill, so with the door now closed, the engines are started, which is a relatively simple task.
Stay Out of the Grass
Now it is time to taxi the aircraft and another potentially embarrassing “gotcha” presents itself: the nose-wheel steering. This system is operated through the rudder pedals, but is electrically driven by a motor that has variable authority depending upon aircraft speed. From a practical point of view, this means that the pilot (at least until very familiar with the airplane), can never quite tell how much the nose wheel will turn for a given amount of rudder pedal movement. In addition, small inputs to the rudder pedals result in the system making a squealing sound similar to that of a pig being castrated, which in all its unpleasantness is clearly audible to the passengers.
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November 2017
TWIN & TURBINE • 15