Problem checklists
Just starting with a given - I think that checklists are a good thing and that we should use them.
On the other hand, I am open to discussion about whether we should use a particular set of checks as do-confirm, read-do, or challenge-respond (probably not the latter for PPL flying), and similarly I don't necessarily think that a checklist needs to be written or read. Memorised checks (HASELL, BUMFICHWL, CHIFTWAP....) can be fine.
What I'm getting increasingly irritable about is what I can only describe as "CRAP checklists".
A few days ago I was trying to convert a new PPL from the C172 he learned on over to an AA5. He came to the flight equipped with a commercially produced checklist - the particular offending article was published by Pooleys. I'm guessing, but don't know for sure, that it probably dates back to when Cabair was using AA5s for commercial training and was copied from them. If so, it's another good reason why the Cabair name deserves to be forgotten forever, other than as something with which to frighten badly behaved children.
- 6 pages of exterior checks, actively encouraging my student to go around reading the checklist carefully and barely glancing at the aeroplane.
- Take off and airfield approach checks that jumped all over the cockpit, and seemed deliberately designed to prevent memorisation. Okay, I don't actually mind somebody doing read-do on pre-t/o checks, but I really want airfield approach / downwind checks memorised thank you very much, so let's make it easy to do so.
- I asked my student to stall the aeroplane. He said he couldn't remember the HASELL checks - so I calmly said "right, get your checklist out and remind yourself quickly". It turned out that they weren't in there - no variation on HASELL, just missing altogether. Okay, he should have memorised that as well, but where the heck is he supposed to learn it from if not the checklist he has from the aeroplane?
This isn't the first time I have come across this - I recall being handed a checklist in Canada the size of a small paperback novel for a C172 I was about to hire.
Alternately, I occasionally back-end in a 4 engine jet and am trained as "pilot's assistant" for challenge-response using the main checklist if required: that's two sides of A4 card ! We can all cope with that!
So who out there is writing and perpetuating these badly constructed, illogical checklists which alternately miss out important information (like HASELL checks) and encourage massive over-reliance on the printed checks (like the walkaround) ? And what can we do about them?
G