Originally Posted by
gijoe
Alex,
How about these final checks that you can say to yourself, and therefore force yourself to glance quickly at the correct instrument, as you are starting to roll?
RPM - Good?
Temps and pressures - In the green?
Airspeed - Increasing?
RPM - if not what you are expecting then STOP.
For this check to have meaning you have to know what the alowable static RPM range is (this information will be in the POH). For example for the C 152 it is 2280 to 2380 RPM. So when you have got the throttle full in that is the number you should be seeing. Any lower or higher RPM is immediate grounds to reject the takeoff. Unfortunately my experience is that virtually none of the PPL's and even their instructors, I flown with know what the correct static RPM range is for their airplane and everybody just seems to use the "OK I have lots of RPM" method, which is pretty much useless as a check.
Note: This of course applies only to aircraft with fixed pitch props.