Well, I feel old as I am approaching forty... but I don't know about bold!
I am a student with around 16 hrs (about 3 solo) on Tomahawks... I have had two recent experiences which I feel taught me lessons which will stay with me for a long time... not very exciting really, but to get the ball rolling here goes:
1) Why it is important to do the magneto checks before take-off:
Previously, the mag checks seemed like a sort of ritual to me - something you should do before you go... OK, I knew why it mattered, but expected it to work according the checklist every time.
A couple of weeks ago, taxi's to the hold solo and did the run-ups and had one engine running very rough on one mag. The thing really shook when on the right mags only... but seemed real smooth on "both". Tried to "burn it off" as I had been shown, but didn't help, so taxi'd back to the apron and switched a/craft. Found out later that a cylinder is "glazed" (whatever that means) and this was the cause of the problem.
This "incident" really made appreciate the imprtance of the mag-checks - which I think will ensure I never fail to take them seriously or ruch them in future!
2) Why it is important to keep an eye on the t's & P's during the take-off ground run:
Again, I had bene taight and (mostly) always looked checked a) RPM up to speed on full throttle and b) T's & P's OK. But I must admit I never really expect to see anything wrong when I flick my eyes across to the guages as I quickly commit myself to the rest of the t/off run.
Last weekend, I was surprised to see the a/c ahead of me (also a Tomahawk) abort his t/off during the ground run... He explained to the Tower that his Oil Temp had max'd out.
So now I know that it can go wrong, I find myself looking more closely at those guages!
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Apologies for these rather dull and anti-herioc contributions :-)
Andy