Procedures

[Big Pistons Forever]

Originally Posted by double_barrel

Thanks, all worth thinking about.....but a few to follow-up on.....

• Mixture Set When would this not be full rich ?

every time I have taken off so far !!!

Fine at near sea level airports but with a Density Altitude of 5000 ft or higher ( eg 2500 ft ASL airport on a 32 deg C day) you should lean to highest RPM during a full power runup and leave the mixture there for takeoff

• what about carb heat ?

Yea, oddly (?) that's not a pre-take off item, but its just been used in the power checks

If you had indications of carb ice during the taxi out or runup I would suggest you consider leaving the carb heat on until you are ready to apply full power

• Radios Set up What should the last step always be ?

I always double check the audio panel selections as the last item on the radio set up. This seems to be the place where you are most likely to miss set something
I don't know? On a boat I would wind down the squelch to confirm everything working and back to just silence the squelch. Where I fly the constant chatter makes that redundant.

• T’s & P’s Green What is the relationship between oil temp and pressure ?

Does P drop as T rises?

Yes but you should mentally do a gross error check. eg the oil temp is a the bottom of the green and so is the oil pressure. Are you going to takeoff ?

• Controls Full, free, sense If a control was to be obstructed where in the check would you most likely see it ?

I don't know? At the extreme of the movement I guess? Which perhaps raises the question how would I detect an incipient obstruction just before the stop?

I check the controls by going full aft then full left, full right and then full forward, then full left and right . One day I did this check on a club airplane. When I got to full aft and full right the controls locked solid. Some radio work had been done and a wire bundle was improperly secured. At the full travel the control T bar snagged the wire bundle and locked the controls. The aircraft had done over 50 flights since the work had been done......