Check list mnemonics/lists

[tonyhalsall]

Had a refresher flight in a Cherokee over the week-end - first flight for ten years in a group A aircraft.

The flight went very well except for calling out the various checklists (pre take off, cruise, down-wind, pre landing, pre stall etc). My microlight has very simple operating systems so I don't often check mixture, undercarriage and carb heat.

Anyone got a downloadable list of checklists for SEP group A types that I can attach to my knee board??

Thanks

Tony

PS - If you are interested, my flight took the form of a mock GST which apart from the glide approach, I would have passed - not bad I thought after a 10 year break from Cherokees.

[Keef]

Not got a downloadable one, but written on my Plogboard it says:

BUFPANEFI
FREDA
BUMPFFHHCC
CUMP
Reds Blues Greens

There are more (IFR missed approach, and such) but you probably don't want those.

They mean:

After Takeoff
Brakes (on briefly to stop wheels)
Undercarriage (up)
Flaps (up)
Power (MAP and RPM back)
Altimeter (makes sense)
Navaids (coming alive)
Engine (indications OK)
Fuel (pump off, anything else type-specific)
Icing (check)

Enroute and Airfield Approach
Fuel (correct tank?)
Radio (frequency selected)
Engine (happy)
DI (agrees with compass)
Altimeter (QNH/QFE set)

Downwind
Brakes (off)
Undercarriage (down)
Mixture (set as appropriate)
Pitch (set)
Fuel (pump on)
Flaps (as required)
Harnesses (tight)
Hatches (closed and locked)
Cowl flaps (as required)
Carb heat (if relevant)

Turning Final
Cowl flaps
Undercarriage
Mixture
Pitch

Short Final
Reds - mixture
Blues - pitch
Greens - gear down and 3 green lights.


I don't have a pre-takeoff or after-landing one because I use the aircraft checklist for that.

Also have "Icing checks" as a regular feature enroute, and "Change tanks" on the hour and half hour.

Hope it helps.

[compressor stall]

Open that tattered book that should be in the aircraft entitled "Aircraft Flight Manual" or "Pilot's Operating Handbook". Photocopy the relevant checklists and scan them in, then format to your heart's content.

To use any other bastardised checklist other than the aircraft's manufacturer (or you employer which is irrelevant for private flying) opens you up to litigation and negligence for not operating the aircraft correctly.

Fly safe!

CS

[Circuit Basher]

A starting point to find the basics of a checklist (which should then be rigourously checked against the contents of the POH, as previously stated) is at this site (http://www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/Freebies/HandlingNotes/). I don't know which flavour of PA28 you were in, but there are a variety available here.

I have recently done a checklist for our club Fuji FA200, which is not a million miles from a PA28 in terms of equipment, etc, but the sort of thing which does need close scrutiny is all the critical speeds, etc.

[Bear 555]

CB,

What a great web-site! I have spent hours browsing through their stuff.

Recommended

Bear 555

[Keef]

Are you folks saying you use the aircraft checklist in the air? On the ground, absolutely. In the air, I prefer to be watching out of the windows, and use the mnemonics.

[Circuit Basher]

I don't use checklists in the air - emergencies are not the time to be pfaffing with checklists! In terms of 'Leaving the Circuit', 'Downwind', HASELL, 'Finals', etc - I just run from memory.

Things do occasionally get missed :O, but I try to make sure it's just minor things! In an emergency, I'd try to do everything by memory and if I had a pax, just get them at a convenient moment in the emergency (if I get one) to sing out items from the list as a double check to ensure I hadn't missed anything.

[Timothy]

I advocate that the best checklist is the panel in front of you. Just scan your eyes over every switch and instrument and check that it is in the position you would like it to be in.

This works for even complex aircraft, and is particularly helpful if you swap between aircraft.

I think that checklists are only good for multi-crew operation.

W

[MLS-12D]

Pre-takeoff

H: hood, harness, hydraulics
T: trim, tension, temperatures
M: mixture, carb. heat
P: propellor
F: fuel, flaps
G: gills
G: gyros
S: switches

Pre-landing

H: hood, harness, hydraulics
U: undercarriage (select down)
G: gas
B: brakes
U: undercarriage (confirm down and locked)
M: mixture, carb. heat
P: propellor
F: flaps

Circuit Basher and WCollins: this article (http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182037-1.html) may be of interest, as may this one (http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182038-1.html).

[Circuit Basher]

MLS12D - there's no right or wrong on this one, but I am not used to operating without a checklist! I do on occasions go through start / power checks without using checklist, but there's always a nagging doubt in my mind that I've forgotten something, even when checking the obvious!

I feel more comfortable in situations like this just to review a checklist to make sure that nothing's been missed.

As I said - it's a 'what I'm used to' thing, rather than being right / wrong. I also like to use a comprehensive checklist (as per AFE for the UK pilots) so that if I get interrupted by an ATC call during taxi, etc, I can get back to where I left off.

[The Nr Fairy]

WCollins:

I agree that checking switches are in the right position is a good way to start. However, I don't agree that checklists should be restricted to multi-crew types, whether fixed or rotary.

When I get in my little eggbeater / gravity defier, I have committed to memory what I need to do up to the point where I need to start the thing up. So I follow the flow round the cockpit, left to right, rear to front, up the console, and THEN I dig out the checklist and run through it to ensure I've not missed something.

When it comes to shutdown, I get to the point where I'm running to cool down, then out comes the checklist and I run through it to make sure I've missed nothing vital.

Emergency procedures are committed to memory - that is sensible, I think !

In the days when jumpseat visits were allowed, I saw plenty of crews doing all the things the checklist said well before the point the checklist was actually pulled out - at that stage all that was needed was to run through the items on the list and confirm they were set accordingly.

[tonyhalsall]

Thanks everyone -

I am calling them out to myself in the car - and its working

Tony

[Airbedane]

This subject is a real biggy! I've operated with generic lists, memory only, read only, some memory items with some read items, do then check, and only do when read, all with various outfits and operations and all had good reason for their methods.

I suppose the only fundamental is that you should only use the approved and certified checklist for the machine you're flying. Having said that, if a generic list is checked against the certified list, then it may work, but why bother if you're only flying one or two types.

The other fundamental is to make sure you actually do the check. I have a major problem with instructors who teach C150 downwind VA's to include 'undercarriage down'. It's irelevant to the Cessna and all the student will learn is to do nothing when 'Undercarriage' comes up on the list. It seems to me to be a perfect set up for a cognitive wheels up, if ever there was one.

I was given the following mnemonics for the Chipmunk pre-take off and pre-landing checks whilst on a UAS at White Waltham (aaaaaaaaaah!) in 1969:

'Typhoo Tea Makes Fiery Fred's Goolies Go Purple Ha Ha!' and 'My Friend Fred Has Hairy Balls'. Respectively: 'trim, throttle friction, mixture, fuel, flaps, gyros, gauges, pitot heat, harness, hood' and 'mixture, fuel, flaps harness, hood, brakes'.

While relating this to an 'Old Hairy' who was teaching me to fly 1-11's in the 90's, he gave me his pre-take off mnemonic: "Tickle My P***s For (a) F*****g Great Hard"! Perhaps better suited to Jet Blast than here, but unforgettable, all the same..........;)

A

[KCDW]

Then there is the alternative view in this classic article...

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182037-1.html

I considered it for about 3 seconds and then sanity kicked in!!!

[Ross Joy]

The benifit of Checklists have long been debated one way or another. For pilots using differant types or even models of aircraft, how can anyone remember all the Abnormal and Emergency checks from memory? when you may be required to be flying two or three types, especially when an emergency has not come up for some time, will you remember everything?

On a dark and stormy night when you wish you were home in bed and things go from bad to worse, this is not the time to be trying to fly the aircraft and read a checklist at the same time and, even harder if you are on your own.

There is now help for some of us who wish to have a long life without too much stress.
There is a company now making low cost Electronic Checklists that are programmable and will turn text into speech, they have Normal, Emergency, Abnormal and Custom checks, most checks accessable from two control wheel buttons.
It's like having a co-pilot helping to keep things under control.

[BEagle]

TWU checklist circa 1975:

1. Check it's the allocated aeroplane.
2. Kick its tyres.
3. Strap in.
4. Start it up.
5. Examine cockpit for switches:
6. Move any shiny ones to the opposite setting on account of the fact that they're obviously moved very often.
7. Don't touch any rusty ones as they're obviously never moved.
8. Check-in anyone you're in formation with on Guard
9. Tell the tower you're taxying.....
10. Take-off

Hence "Kick the tyres, light the fires. Move the shinies, leave the rusties, brief on Guard, last one airborne's a poof....."

No - of course I'm not being serious. You NEVER brief on Guard!

;) ;) ;)

[Mike Cross]

The one I was taught in training still comes in useful, two versions a clean and a not-so-clean.

Three Mince Pies For Good Health

or:-

Three Male Prostitutes Fornicating Gents Hourly

Each initial letter covers three items

Temps
Trim
Throttle Friction

Mixture
Mags
Master switches

Pitch
Pitot
Pressures

Flaps
Fuel
Full & Free movement

Generator charging
Gyros & Gauges
Gills (or cowl flaps)

Hatches
Harnesses
Hour (note take-off time)

Mike

[shortstripper]

I hate checklists ... for some reason they make me miss things!

Certainly for most light single's I reckon they are a clumsy way of doing things. When rushed it's only too easy to gloss over or skip a line. Better IMHO to get into a fixed routine for all and stick to it. Walk rounds are very routine and once you learn how to do it "properly", and you will spot more than you would with a checklist ( they never mention wing waggles or standing back and checking symetry for a start! ). In the cockpit you can use phnemonics or scan, whichever you prefer. I still use and just adapt the old glider CBSIFTCB and add a simple engine routine. In the air you shouldn't use a checklist anyway, as I'm sure all will agree. About the only time I do use checklists is when some grumpy FI (usually AFI as they tend to be more predantic) insists. I do usually have a flick through before I even get near the aeroplane in case there is anything strange on a particular type ... but it's better to get this info and speeds ect from the POH, so if it's available....


IM

[Dan Winterland]

The only checklist that is authorised for any type is the one in the POH. If you have an incident using any other checklist, you could be held liable and/or invalidate you insurance cover.

My club produces it's own checklist books which we insist the club members use. The content is stright from the POH. We have highlighted the lists which we think the club members should know of by heart, but these are only the after take-off, routine, pre-landing and some emergency checks.

[bookworm]

The only checklist that is authorised for any type is the one in the POH.

Yes, but what does that mean?

1) I must use the checklist as printed in the authorised flight manual

2) I must use a copy of the checklist as printed in the authorised flight manual

3) I must use a checklist that contains the items in the POH checklist (and only those items) but they may be reformatted

4) I must use a checklist that contains the items in the POH checklist (and only those items) but they may reformatted and reordered

5) I must use a checklist that contains the items in the POH checklist but they may reformatted and items may be added but not removed nor reordered

6) I must use a checklist that contains the items in the POH checklist but they may reformatted, reordered and items may be added but not removed

7) I must use a checklist that is substantially the same as the items in the POH checklist, with variations appropriate to operating procedures.

Thoughts?

[FlyingForFun]

Thoughts?No idea on most of the options you've given - but you should certainly, IMHO, have the option of adding to the POH checklist.

A few months ago I took another pilot flying. On the pre-flight, he noticed something unusual in the undercarriage arm that I'd missed. Turned out to be a stray chock that had got caught there when the aircraft was taken out of the hangar - invisible from almost every angle unless you get down on the floor, I still can't understand how he spotted it but I'm pleased he did. New item added to my check-list: "Check behind undercarriage arm for foreign objects."

I hate flying aircraft where I have to share a check-list with other pilots. Where I have my own check-list, I can write on it and add to it. I've lost count of the number of times I've got to the holding point, or even taken off, before remembering to switch off my mobile phone. But it never happens in aircraft where I have my own copy of the checklist, because I always write "Mobile phone off" somewhere near the top of the pre-start checks.

I believe that check-lists should be constantly evolving things.

FFF
-------------

[Mike Cross]

The only checklist that is authorised for any type is the one in the POH.

mmmm..... Authorised by whom precisely?
The ANO requires you to ensure that the flight can be made safely. This is a nice bit of catch-all legislation designed so the can get you any way they want. Would you care to specify where it says you have to use the checklist in the POH?

If you'd had equipment added and modified your check list to incorporate it would you be in the wrong?

Mike

[shortstripper]

Check lists are fine if you prefer to use them ... I'm not knocking those who do. Anybody who thinks they are compulsary though is a robot and should not be flying. You don't fly by numbers ( I hope ) so why be dictated to by them? Why can't you trust your experience and judgement to check the aircraft and your actions. If you find that hard by all means use a checklist ... but believe me, they are not required by law and are not inffallable ( like my spelling).We are only talking simple aircraft here after all ... keep it simple use your noggin and don't pretend to be an airline pilot. They might need checklists ... but then there's one to call it, one to do it, much more to check ... and 300 passengers in the back!


IM

[Wind Up Turn]

Mike,
You asked......."Authorised by whom precisely?"

I seem to remember that the Flight Manual forms part of an aircraft's Certificate of Airworthiness. The Flight Manual contains the manufacturer's Normal and Emergency Procedures for operating the aircraft. Of course, we are legally obliged to operate the aircraft in accordance with its CofA and hence its Flight Manual. Therefore, strictly speaking, we're obliged to use the checklist in the Flight Manual (not the Pilots Operating Handbook, since it's the Flight Manual. not the POH, that's kept up to date - manufacturer's and/or CAA amendments, etc.).

So, there's the answer that the authorities might give you.

Now, I'm not saying that there's no place for third-party checklists, far from it. In fact that's exactly what I've always used and they've been perfectly adequate in my personal view. But you did ask the question.