Page 7 - April21T
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   Pilot-created checklists have the potential to be shorter, more relevant and better organized than the POH versions.
on a total of eight pages, cut them to size, and place them in the sleeves. These include emergency procedures (two pages), normal procedures (four pages), start conditions (one page), and a weight and balance chart (one page). The font is Helvetica Neue (clean typeface, no serifs) with a 14 point size for headings and 12 point for the lists.
Regulatory Guidance
Flying under Part 91, there is no requirement to use any specific checklist or to use one at all. FAR 91.501 – 91.503 details the requirements for checklist use by operators of heavy or multi-engine turbine aircraft. While not required for us, they are worth reading as an example of when to use checklists and what they should contain.
Safety Alert For Operators (SAFO) 17006 is also impor- tant. The FAA urges pilots who are using pilot-written or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) checklists to “meticulously compare” these with the POH check- lists and aircraft placards. While not binding, this is just good advice.
Shortening and Organizing
This took several detailed trips through the POH check- lists and a fair amount of hangar flying. I started by in- cluding everything in the POH, then moved items around to where they made more sense, and eliminated others completely. Wherever possible, I grouped items into flows, so I could carry out a series of tasks before looking at the checklist again. These flows form the backbone of the checklist. I also focused specifically on keeping safety- critical items, things I tend to forget, and anything that could improve safety over the POH checklist. Here are a few examples.
For the Baron, the POH places preflight cockpit checks in two places, one before the walk-around and one after. There are several more preflight tasks sprinkled in other checklists, such as the runup checks. I consolidated these tasks to complete almost all of them before the walk- around via the flow I mentioned earlier. Another goal here was to do as much as possible before starting the
engines. Minimizing head-down time with props turning on a ramp, in my view, improves safety for those outside the plane. It also saves gas.
Other changes can improve flight safety. I moved the “Controls – free and correct” step from the engine runup to the beginning of the preflight cockpit checks. Any un- usual sounds, like a cable or control surface binding, are best heard when the engines are not running, so it makes more sense to perform these checks with the engines off.
  McFarlane
 April 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 5























































































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