Check list mnemonics/lists
Why do it if it's not fun?
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Bournemouth
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Thoughts?
A few months ago I took another pilot flying. On the pre-flight, he noticed something unusual in the undercarriage arm that I'd missed. Turned out to be a stray chock that had got caught there when the aircraft was taken out of the hangar - invisible from almost every angle unless you get down on the floor, I still can't understand how he spotted it but I'm pleased he did. New item added to my check-list: "Check behind undercarriage arm for foreign objects."
I hate flying aircraft where I have to share a check-list with other pilots. Where I have my own check-list, I can write on it and add to it. I've lost count of the number of times I've got to the holding point, or even taken off, before remembering to switch off my mobile phone. But it never happens in aircraft where I have my own copy of the checklist, because I always write "Mobile phone off" somewhere near the top of the pre-start checks.
I believe that check-lists should be constantly evolving things.
FFF
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Savannah GA & Portsmouth UK
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The only checklist that is authorised for any type is the one in the POH.
The ANO requires you to ensure that the flight can be made safely. This is a nice bit of catch-all legislation designed so the can get you any way they want. Would you care to specify where it says you have to use the checklist in the POH?
If you'd had equipment added and modified your check list to incorporate it would you be in the wrong?
Mike
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: South Norfolk, England
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Check lists are fine if you prefer to use them ... I'm not knocking those who do. Anybody who thinks they are compulsary though is a robot and should not be flying. You don't fly by numbers ( I hope ) so why be dictated to by them? Why can't you trust your experience and judgement to check the aircraft and your actions. If you find that hard by all means use a checklist ... but believe me, they are not required by law and are not inffallable ( like my spelling).We are only talking simple aircraft here after all ... keep it simple use your noggin and don't pretend to be an airline pilot. They might need checklists ... but then there's one to call it, one to do it, much more to check ... and 300 passengers in the back!
IM
IM
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Mike,
You asked......."Authorised by whom precisely?"
I seem to remember that the Flight Manual forms part of an aircraft's Certificate of Airworthiness. The Flight Manual contains the manufacturer's Normal and Emergency Procedures for operating the aircraft. Of course, we are legally obliged to operate the aircraft in accordance with its CofA and hence its Flight Manual. Therefore, strictly speaking, we're obliged to use the checklist in the Flight Manual (not the Pilots Operating Handbook, since it's the Flight Manual. not the POH, that's kept up to date - manufacturer's and/or CAA amendments, etc.).
So, there's the answer that the authorities might give you.
Now, I'm not saying that there's no place for third-party checklists, far from it. In fact that's exactly what I've always used and they've been perfectly adequate in my personal view. But you did ask the question.
You asked......."Authorised by whom precisely?"
I seem to remember that the Flight Manual forms part of an aircraft's Certificate of Airworthiness. The Flight Manual contains the manufacturer's Normal and Emergency Procedures for operating the aircraft. Of course, we are legally obliged to operate the aircraft in accordance with its CofA and hence its Flight Manual. Therefore, strictly speaking, we're obliged to use the checklist in the Flight Manual (not the Pilots Operating Handbook, since it's the Flight Manual. not the POH, that's kept up to date - manufacturer's and/or CAA amendments, etc.).
So, there's the answer that the authorities might give you.
Now, I'm not saying that there's no place for third-party checklists, far from it. In fact that's exactly what I've always used and they've been perfectly adequate in my personal view. But you did ask the question.
