Thoughts on Checklists
I recently showed a student pilot how to pre-flight the Cherokee. We talked about all the things to look for—bug nests on the pitot-static ports, loose screws, brake fluid on the ground, bird’s nests in the tail cone and engine compartment, etc. Then we did the pre-takeoff checks using a pre-printed checklist, taxied around the apron for a while to get the feel for braking and turning, and shut down.
The next day he sent me an email asking whether we should make up a checklist with the particulars for this aircraft (i.e when powering down / rev’ing up to 1800-2000rpms and leaning out the mixture – to kill the engine).
My response follows:
tl;dr Yes. That is something everyone should do.
I bought the flip checklist and the laminated one in the back of the plane because I rented it to people who didn’t fly it often. That gave them something to use instead of just guessing. I never use them and made up my own.
One guy I fly with prints off a single page checklist for each flight and literally checks the boxes on it for each item.
Couple Bunch of reasons.
It used to be that you would not turn on your transponder until you took off. Now they want you to have it turned to alt while on the ground.
I have found bird’s nests in the tail and on the engine. I also found wasp’s nests in the engine and at the top of the vertical stabilizer. So my personal checklist on pre-flight is to look carefully for both of those things.
I like to have clean windows, especially when the sun is low on the horizon. So that’s part of my pre-flight.
When the engines were made, lead fouling wasn’t an issue so the checklist in the manual didn’t emphasize leaning. After three or four aborted lessons (and several hundred dollars in A&P fees) I added lean aggressively to the checklist for any engine originally designed to run on 80/87 fuel. I haven’t had fouling problems on higher octane engines, but I lean them aggressively, so I may have avoided issues.
I recently added a step on my checklist to check the GPS signal to my iPad before starting up.
I didn’t have it on the checklist, so I just added: run up to 1800-2000 RPM before shutdown. I also do a mag check then since the best time to check if you have fouled plugs is when you land so that you have time to fix it before the next flight.
It is easy to forget to adjust the trim. It is not a big deal on the Cherokee, but is more of an issue on the 210, so I put it in bold.
Sometimes at a fuel stop I have forgotten to check the fuel for water before getting back in the plane. So that’s in my checklist for inside.
It used to be that you would turn the landing light off in cruise—they only lasted about 40 hours. The LED ones last forever and draw no power, so they stay on all the time.
You often need to tap the fuel pressure gauge to get it going.
I have forgotten to raise the gear on the 210 and wondered why I was climbing so sluggishly so that step is in red on review items before calling the tower for takeoff clearance.
I hate GUMPS so I use C-FARTS before starting back to the airport. I use B-RAAGS entering the pattern and RAAGS at each reporting point.
B-RAAGS
Boost Pump On
Report – Usually you are asked to report entering the pattern, abeam the tower, or four mile final. At uncontrolled fields you report entering, at the numbers, turning base, turning final, short final, and off the active.
Airspeed – make it match the appropriate number for each leg.
Altitude – pattern altitude, dropping 500’ per minute while turning to final, following the VASI on final or visually at fields without lights.
Gear- get in the habit of saying it in case you fly a plane with retractable gear-or as we call the gear lever—the noise suppressor.
I also do the Radios, Mixture, Master, Mags mantra when shutting down.
By the way, I do my pre-flight flow differently than many people. You should do one that makes sense for you.
I start by removing the chains and cleaning the windshield. Then going inside the plane to open the pilot side window, dropping the flaps, and grabbing the fuel cup.
Then I check the fuel. Next I do the engine compartment.
Then I reach in the window to turn on the master to check the lights and stall warning light. From there I do the braille system. I start at the prop, top of the cowl, wing, pitot/static, gear, ailerons and flaps, fuselage—including antennas, tail, fuselage again, wing, cowl, and back to the prop.
I printed my checklist on 3×5 cards and put them in a photo album. I also have colored cards with emergency checklist items, one with weather minimums, V speeds, and other things that I want to know. Some of that info is handwritten and some is on the checklist document. Here are the current pdf and editable versions of the Cherokee checklist. I use Bean for simple editing, so you may have to adjust the format a bit if you use something else.