Multi Engine Blog 4

Reading the article about the Aspen crash my first thought was they are going to get to Aspen after night.  they ended up crashing 34 minuets after sunset, 4 minutes after night.  The instrument approach at Aspen closes at night.  The pilots had 4 minutes before crashing where they should have said landing instrument is now illegal and called the approach off. 
One of the main factors that lead to the crash was weather.  If the flight had been VFR they likely would have been fine.  Another factor was pressure to complete the flight.  The pilots wanted to get their passengers to their destination for their meeting and to make the clients and boss happy rather than divert.  I think this should not have been a factor, they were past night fall and three other aircraft had gone missed before they got to the airport.  There was no reason for these pilots to expect to be able to land.  Their alternate would have been perfectly acceptable and had pretty good conditions.  No company would get mad at pilots for being safe and diverting especially considering using the instrument approach was illegal at night.  It was also partly the passengers fault they were late because they were in no hurry to takeoff.  It would not have been fair for them to be upset at diverting.  I do not think the pilots job would have been at stake in any way.
The Biggest reason they crashed was poor decision making.  There were three aircraft that went missed and they were doing the approach after night.  This should have been two big clues that they could not land.  I think the error chain began by starting the approach in the first place, they could tell they would not land until after night. It continued by not calling it off after three other aircraft went missed.  They next continued after night was official and the approach illegal, and they descended below minimums.  I think the right decision would have been to divert to the alternate before even trying to land at Aspen and give the passengers a little bit of extra time to drive to their destination.

Multi Engine Blog 3

Flying Single Pilot IFR makes me nervous, especially right now because I have not been flying IFR very much.  I think if I were more current I would be more willing to do it.  I would prefer to go somewhere where I have flown often such as Tooele or Ogden just because I would feel safer and more familiar with the area.  Even flying to an airport i have only been to a few times would be preferable.  I would also be more comfortable flying somewhere where they have a tower.  Flying in IFR conditions more would also make me more comfortable with flying SPIFR, like the article said you should get actual IFR experience with a seasoned IFR pilot before trying to do it on your own.
One thing the article said that I did not know was that when flying SPIFR for a charter flight you must have an auto pilot.  I think this is a good idea because it takes a lot of the workload off of the pilot especially when he is trying to use charts or read something.  I think it would be a good idea to do any SPIFR flight with an autopilot whether it is for a charter or not.
My favorite tip from this article is that if you cannot stay two minutes ahead of the aircraft, and if you can not do this you are not ready for SPIFR.  Staying ahead of the airplane is super important because if you get behind it you miss things and that can be fatal in VFR and even more dangerous in IFR.

Multi Engine Blog 2

After reading the article about electrical fires it seems like the best thing to do when you have an electrical fire is to put the fire out.  This seems pretty obvious to me however the article explains that all electrical systems should immediately be turned off and it explained how to turn systems back on and why.  when comparing the article to the Seminole procedures I notices they both focus on getting the fire out at fast as possible.  They also tell how to turn systems back on if needed, and they both make sure that you have the problem fixed before flying again.  For me, this reinforces that I need to turn all electrical components off right away and get the fire out.  I would then land as soon as possible.  if i had someone else flying with me i would let them attempt to turn components back on, because I would like radios, or I would do it myself if it was necessary. however my primary goal would be to land right away.  One thing i liked about the article was that is said the first indication of an electrical fire is the burning insulation smell which i imagine would smell like burning plastic, a very distinct smell.
The article also points out that many fires are caused by a short circuit, which is when electricity flows along an unintended path such as arching between wires or other conductive materials.