Checklists -- a load of tosh
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,795
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From: New South Wales
How often do you fly?
However, all the stuff is there in front of you in most basic light aircraft. You should be able to start it without a checklist, then check after start-up that everything's OK, then taxi off and when it comes to the run-up, well you should be able to do that without the checklist and then if you do a cockpit left to right check for your pre-takeoff vital actions that's pretty much it, isn't it? Your checklist consists of the knobs, switches and instruments by the side of and in front of you, along with that big waggly thing in your hand (the stick, that is) and your seatbelts and door latch.
Sure, if you don't fly frequently or it's a complex type, perhaps a checklist may be useful, but I'll continue to be a devil's advocate here and suggest -- mischievously, of course -- that if you get into a light single and it's so unfamiliar you need to be using the written checklist, you should go for a checkflight first with either an instructor or another experienced pilot and not just trust to a checklist to refamiliarise yourself.
Interesting debate, and I suspect no-one who has taken part in it has changed their positions one jot. Fun, nevertheless.
QDM
Joined: Dec 1998
Posts: 4,282
Likes: 6
From: Escapee from Ultima Thule
Re Carby heat / induction air heat
It doesn't just attempt to supply hot air to the induction system. It also provides an alternative path.
Not all carby heat solvable engine failures are due to carby ice. It could be airframe icing at intake filter or some other mechanical blockage eg a component failure.
It doesn't just attempt to supply hot air to the induction system. It also provides an alternative path.
Not all carby heat solvable engine failures are due to carby ice. It could be airframe icing at intake filter or some other mechanical blockage eg a component failure.
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,681
Likes: 10
From: Just South of the last ice sheet
I wasn't going to enter into this conversation but here goes:
Simple types such as Cubs (Super or otherwise), the earlier Austers etc really don't really shouldn't need one, if indeed one is available for some of the older or homebuilt types.
After Cubbing around for a while I was working in Belfast and had left the yellow bird at home so I needed a checkout on a club Warrior. I felt the need for a checklist then because it was a new type for me and it had far more clocks and switches than my Cub! However, after a few flights I felt confident enough to do without the checklist as handling the relative complexity prompted long forgotten braincells used during my long defunct twin (sorry multi) rating and IMC to spark back into life.
PS Definitely agree with nonradio re: checklists for Cubs really do mean you are a divvy and should probably stick to supermarket trolleys.
PPS nonradio 40 N of London? Somewhere around North Herts, Stevenage area by any chance?
Simple types such as Cubs (Super or otherwise), the earlier Austers etc really don't really shouldn't need one, if indeed one is available for some of the older or homebuilt types.
After Cubbing around for a while I was working in Belfast and had left the yellow bird at home so I needed a checkout on a club Warrior. I felt the need for a checklist then because it was a new type for me and it had far more clocks and switches than my Cub! However, after a few flights I felt confident enough to do without the checklist as handling the relative complexity prompted long forgotten braincells used during my long defunct twin (sorry multi) rating and IMC to spark back into life.
PS Definitely agree with nonradio re: checklists for Cubs really do mean you are a divvy and should probably stick to supermarket trolleys.
PPS nonradio 40 N of London? Somewhere around North Herts, Stevenage area by any chance?
Guest
Posts: n/a
LnS
Good posting.
I agree that in a type you know well, you should be familiar with the procedures as to render a checklist superfluous, as you know the content and sequence very well and automatically run the checks.
In a type you don't know so well, you need to refer to the written version until familiar - i.e. you can recite any section as easily as the mnemonic for downwind checks.
The bigger issue for me a few years ago, when I regularly flew 172, PA28, PA28R, PA32, B121 and SA120 was remembering which a/c I was in and what to do in each.
These days I fly the B121 usually or PA28R, so life is much simpler.
Good posting.
I agree that in a type you know well, you should be familiar with the procedures as to render a checklist superfluous, as you know the content and sequence very well and automatically run the checks.
In a type you don't know so well, you need to refer to the written version until familiar - i.e. you can recite any section as easily as the mnemonic for downwind checks.
The bigger issue for me a few years ago, when I regularly flew 172, PA28, PA28R, PA32, B121 and SA120 was remembering which a/c I was in and what to do in each.
These days I fly the B121 usually or PA28R, so life is much simpler.
