Originally Posted by
The500man
POH checklists tend to be a bit lacking in general, and no one uses the emergency one's during an emergency.
I completely disagree with this statement. All the typical later model aircraft you will find at flight schools and clubs have a pretty comprehensive set of procedures for the likely emergencies and they all specifically cover the cabin fire emergency.
The outfit where I do some part time instructing flies C 172P's. The POH for this aircraft has emergency procedures which follow the industry convention of showing those items which are meant to be done by memory in bold face type and the remainder in plain type. I require my students to know
all of the bold items by memory and quiz them regularly to insure they know them. There are not a lot of procedures to memorize so I do not consider this an onerous task.
When the bad thing happens and the pressure is on, this is not the time to start making things up, you have to have the initial procedures down cold. The POH emergency procedures are not perfect and will not fit every problem but I firmly believe every emergency should start with the publish procedure and deviations from it should only occur when its actions are not making the situation better.
The bottom line is a cabin fire in a light aircraft is IMO the worst possible emergency. They are almost invariably caused by electrical problems and removing power ASAP is vital to limit the progression of smoke/flames. I would also add that at the accident record suggests that the majority of the accidents caused by electrically induced cabin fires where in aircraft with known or knowable preexisting electrical problems.
My person belief is that flight schools do place sufficient emphasis on the potential dangers of misbehaving electrical services. I am also surprised and disappointed with what seems to be a widespread UK attitude in UK light aviation towards the POH. It seems to me that the POH of a UK aircraft generally sits on some shelf still in its original wrapper and instead aircraft are operated on a series of locally made up procedures. The POH, especially the ones for later model Cessna's and Pipers has a wealth of valuable operating data and IMO should be well read and understood by every pilot.