Cessna 150 checkist
 

Hi everyone. I need to buy a Cessna 150/152 checklist. The issue is that I don't know which one to get, as there's Pooleys, AFE and Transair. Any recommendations or just go for any of these three?
Thanks
Dom

Cessna 150 checkist
 

Use the one out of the POH, or whatever you're flight school/instructor suggests.
It's a very simple aircraft (no fuel pumps, different fuel tanks to select between etc) to operate... but you'd be surprised with these multiple page flip book affairs you see around the UK.
We use a two-sided laminated A5 sheet, and it covers everything (external, normal/emergency) you need.

The one my school provided is one of those ring bound ones. Only ever use a few pages though!

As you say, relatively simple aircraft.

If you are learning to fly, check with your instructor - the odds are that they have a preferred version in the school.

if you're a relatively recently qualified pilot, go for whatever is most similar to what you have used before - that will do a good job of keeping you in existing good habits.

G

If you are renting the plane from a school, stick to the one in the school.
If it is just a C150 from a private person, ask for the one in the POH as someone has already suggested.

Anyways, if you want to buy your own checklist, you might want to check out ebay or marvgolden.com - they've got a few there.
I have bought some of them myself and they are pretty good.

1. Put in key
2. Turn it
3. Hit the throttle
4. Configure for take off on the roll.
5. Clean up after take off
6. Configure for landing
7. Clean up after landing
8. Park and switch off.

:ok:

Exascot
I sincerely hope that no trainee will use this sort of thing as a check list.

...

2a) **@! engine won't start. :hmm:

I have the AFE checklist, but as others have said I only use the first few pages.
There is other useful information in it such as crosswind chart and emergency procedures.
This is what I got from the school so for a student like myself it does everything quite comprehensively and in a logical order.

The trouble with the long winded checklists is that instructors use it as a learning aid rather than a list of things to check they've been done.

Things like hatches and harness secure, should be a check, not a prompt to put on a seat belt.

Things like starting the engine should be able to be done from memory, particularly the first three after start items, RPM 1200, starter warning light out, oil pressure rising to green arc or shut the engine down, and yet countless students let the engine sit at 1600 RPM, take ages faffing turning a page on the list and ignoring these important checks.

If given a list that simply said "power checks - compete" as a pre take off check, I honestly wonder if a lot of PPL holders would be able to complete the checks without a list telling them what to do next.

Simple aeroplanes don't need check lists any more than cars and motorbikes do. Most of those multi-page things for the likes of C150s and PA28s are folk who like to play at airline pilots (1970s airline pilots at that!).

I support what RTN11 has posted. The flight manual contains a checklist, that is your "official" reference for flying the aircraft. Perhaps the aircraft operator has a few additional checks to be made, which are relevant to the local operation, or additional equipment in the aircraft. That might be a local operating procedure.

Also be aware that the aircraft could have applicable Flight Manual Supplements, for additional equipment, and those FMS' could also contain checklists which you must follow. An example of this would be a Cessna modified to have amphibious floats, will have additional checklist items which are not in the basic FM, and are vital for flight safety.

However, resist long multi page home made "checklists" which differ, or attempt to expand on what the manufacturer has written about operating the plane. Ultimately, when you are flying the aircraft, you are solely responsible to assure that it is operated in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended practices. If you are using a "checklist" other than that provided by the aircraft manufacturer, how can you be sure you are doing that?

As said, a checklist is a mind bumper to help you confirm that you have done, what should have been done. The "Emergency Procedures" and "Normal Procedures" sections of the flight manual tell you how the plane is to be operated. Those sections will contain checklists, as a part of the procedures, and those are the authoritative checklists.

When the manufacturer of the aircraft prepares a checklist in the flight manual, it gets approved by the authority (FAA, for example). Its not a template for someone else to build upon for a thicker checklist - it is the checklist for the aircraft in that configuration. Unless another company (perhaps who holds an STC for that aircraft) gets an FMS checklist approved for that aircraft, the flight manual holds your only approved checklist.

This:

Is a very good point. :D

Following a checklist mindlessly is like following a GPS. If you don't realise what you are doing you will not be able to do it without the paper at any time. If you blindly follow a GPS, you will neither know where you've been, what you flew next to, nor recognise it next time you fly there or thereabouts...

It's a checklist, not an actionlist.

BTW - this is a drift from the OP, but it strikes me as a useful drift and worth pointing out :)

B.

The need for and value of a checklist can be very type, configuration, and operationally dependent. There is no one size fits all. If the person who owns the plane tells you to use a checklist, you should use the checklist, though it should be an approved one.

In my two planes (one of which is a 150), I do not use checklists, I use a flow check, paired with a self reminder of what I'm about to do. I think of it as "Configuration Assurance": Have I configured the plane for the next thing that I know I'm going to do with it, or should be ready for?

You won't find a Cessna flight manual checklist for a 185 reminding you to assure the wheels are retracted for landing, but there are times when doing this is vitally important. Other times, you would want to check that they are extended for landing. So the use of a checklist for the "simple" C 185 becomes operationally vital.

Another aspect of checklist use is crew co ordination. This is a complete non issue in a C 150, but the discipline can be a good beginning point. An airline will use approved checklists to create a regime which assure that crews are always working together toward the same end.

I have chosen to not fly for airlines, but I appreciate those who do, as sometimes, I need to get somewhere faster than 100MPH, and farther than 500 miles! It's nice to be able to catch a flight on something faster, being flown by someone who wants to do that for a living!

Here's another (slightly longer, reasoned) view on it Pelican's perch: Throw away that checklist!

Student pilots: do what your instructor tells you, or you'll fail your skill test !

People who are neither professional pilots or instructors: possibly remember that some other people are?


I find (as an instructor) that PPLs, particularly those who have relatively few - say under 400 hours, who have come to regard checklists (either written or memorised) as optional, usually make many mistakes and are sloppy about most other aspects of their flyng as well.

Memorising checklists for simpler aeroplanes is fine (or open cockpit aeroplanes where anything on paper not tied down is just going to vanish over the side), and using a mnemonic and/or the cockpit as an aide-memoire to make sure you don't miss anything on a memorised checklist, is also fine.

Ignoring the requirement for a checklist (whether that's written, a flow-drill, or a mnemonic) is just asking for trouble.

Also think about how you will use it. Single pilot, there are only really two options - "read-do", or "do-confirm".


I'd treat (and I have a lot of hours, including quite a lot on type) a C150 thus:-

Startup - written, read-do
System checks - flow, read-do
Take-off - written, read-do
In flight - routine all from memorised mnemonics, as read-do
- emergencies using flow-drills if I have time, do-confirm if I don't
After landing / shutdown: do-confirm.

(The third option with checklists: challenge and response is only really available in multi-crew aeroplanes, and that DOES NOT include a student and their instructor).

G

The Pelican has it! Wise words.

Pelican is using a do-confirm method from a mnemonic. He just doesn't like calling that a checklist, but it is.

G

He advocates using the aeroplane as an aid memoire. That's not a checklist.

A C150 checklist is a multi-page document a stude, after starting up at after fueling, shuffles through religiously mentally ticking-off boxes without thinking about what needs to be done while the engine roars away at post-start high RMP and the aeroplane blocks the access to the fuel pumps for the waiting queue.

I do checks from memory in the Jodel DR1050, which I've been flying since 1990, but I can see the usefulness of checklists for rented aircraft. I just looked at my old C152 list, and compared it with my even older 1965 C150 list, which is much more user friendly in finding emergency procedures, as these pages are pink, and overlapping, so page subject can be seen without leafing through.
However the most sensible checklists I've used for simple Cessnas have been single laminated sheets in the US. EG for radio failure, a list of suggestions - headsetjacks, try other side and other ptt, etc. And the US lists are in the aircraft, while the UK pilot has to buy the school/organisation list.
PS I can see the checklist as a habit-training item for those going on to more complex aircraft. (Such as modern home-built glass-cockpit microlights :E)