So I had an appointment to do some twin-engine refresher training Wed. evening.

The weather was crap all day, but at 3 PM it cleared, so we decided to try for the 5 PM scheduled time.

Overcast 11,000 and vis of 7 miles, so doable.

Pulled the plane out, did the preflight, spent about 15 minutes in the cockpit doing some familiarization, going over the emergency procedures, etc.

Started the left engine, all good, started the right engine, all good.

Went to cycle the flaps and had zero hydraulics. As in none. Apparently the engine driven hydraulic system was not working. We were able to move them with the hand pump, but that is a hard failure on the MEL, so we shut it down and rescheduled for Friday. Such is the quality of the rental airplane market in NW Indiana.

That is now 3 times I have not been able to fly in the Apache…first the Canadian wildfire smoke (twice!) then thunderstorms, and now this.

It may be that I do the first flight in the 340 (which should, hopefully, be next week) could happen without any refresher training.