I teach flaps up (in C152 and C172) as soon as touched down and STAYED DOWN, otherwise the flukey winds here tend to pick you up again. Also a good habit to form (I've found) for short strips to stick to the ground instead of bouncy-bouncy-bouncing down the runway.
I recently did a night rating for a guy who hadn't flown with an instructor since his PPL BFR 18 months ago. He flew so well I didn't dare demonstrate anything
and accepted his habits (in general) until I saw him put the carb heat away at 500' on final. Told him the story of the B-Cat instructor doing the A-Cat flight test, carb heat off at 500' and engine failed at 300'. The moral (which is policy and SOP here) is don't go CH cold until you need full power, the reasoning is you get more from the throttle than you do from the CH in the event of a go around.
Where I learnt, the reasoning for putting it cold at 300' was "it's in the checklist, and you'll follow the checklist or you'll never graduate." Guess which one I prefer.
I think the "follow checklists" vs. "think about what you are doing, and operate appropriately" are not, repeat NOT mutually exclusive. The checklist is there for normal operations. If there is anything abnormal in the pilot's opinion, then it MUST be their responsibility to deviate from the normal procedures.
I thought I read "rouge pilot" somewhere here, is that too much makeup on and the headset keeps sliding off?
A fine thread this is too. But please don't start me on American pilots.
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Confident, cocky, lazy, dead.