Page 28 - Volume 19 Number 11

Twin Proficiency: by Thomas P. Turner CR heck It OutCheck It Outecently, I flew with a pilot who has been flying was pretty busy. Soon, I was level at 8,000 feet westbound the same type of airplane for about 40 years. He’s and out of the Springfield area. After a while, I noticed now in his late 70s. Besides being sloppy with I had forgotten to lean the fuel mixtures and was stillall his flying techniques, I noticed that he didn’t use a checklist. When I queried him about this, he told me that he’s been flying for so long that he didn’t need the checklist. My response was that, as we all get older, our memory gets worse, not better, and it was too easy to forget something, no matter how long you’ve been flying the same airplane or a similar one.The instructor asked what I could do to help him make the case for checklist use.Check it outA big part of the problem, in my opinion, is that instructors often do a lousy job of teaching checklist use. Think about your own exposure to learning about checklists. Unless you trained in the military or in a professional flight academy, you probably were taught to use a checklist step-by-step in starting the airplane, and when performing the engine run-up and Before Takeoff checks. Then, you stuffed the checklist in the seat pocket or threw the Pilot’s Operating Handbook onto the back seat and went without for the remainder of each flight. Once you passed your checkride and were out flying on your own, you were probably tempted to stop using even the start-up and Before Takeoff checklists. After all, you now knew how to fly.In your opinion, you didn’t need those training aids any more. Unless you later became a professional pilot, flying as part of a multi-pilot crew, you probably retained this attitude toward checklists. Then, you may have found the checklists to be so detailed, long and convoluted that it became easy to miss items (even the critical ones), and you tend to focus so much on the checklist you forget you’re in command of a rapidly-moving piece of machinery in a harsh and unforgiving environment.No wonder, so many times, we forget something vital that can lead to a mishap.EpiphanyI changed my attitude about checklists one day over southwestern Missouri. I had flown from Wichita, Kansas to Springfield, Missouri, about an hour’s flight. For expediency and flexibility I was using VFR Flight Following. After dropping off a passenger, I departed for the return to Wichita. It was late morning and cumulus clouds were beginning to build, so between dealing with traffic and maneuvering between the cloud build-ups I26 • TWIN & TURBINEburning about 22 gallons per hour per side. Now, I’d only flown an hour to Springfield and I expected to fly a little over an hour back to Wichita, so if I’d never found my omission I would not have had a problem. But, if I had been planning this second flight all the way to Denver, for example, or if I had originally left with less than full fuel, or if the weather worsened and I needed fuel to fly to an alternate, I might have run out long before my preflight planning suggested I would. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if there was some sort of reminder I could use to be certain I’d not forgotten things like mixture and switching fuel tanks and retracting cowl flaps? Then I remembered – there are checklists that cover all these things.Do, then checkThe proper use of in-flight checklists is to confirm you haven’t forgotten anything. We don’t call them “do-lists” (items we need to do), we call them “checklists” (things we need to check were actually completed). Manipulate the engine controls, or get the airplane into configuration, or transition into a new phase of flight, then check that you haven’t forgotten anything by referencing a checklist. This accomplishes the goal of having checklists in the first place – not as learn-to- fly training aids (although they are good for that also), but as a safety aid to compensate for human factors.If any cockpit task screams out for backup with a printed checklist, it’s selecting and activating a GPS- guided approach before descending toward the ground in actual instrument conditions. VFR or IFR, GPS navigation significantly improves position awareness and arguably has the potential to increase safety-of- flight across the board. But GPS systems are much more complicated than non-GPS equipment, and each model of GPS and associated displays has its own operating logic and pilot interface.If I’d had the practice and discipline to use a Cruise checklist after level-off, for instance, I would have immediately caught my failure to lean the mixture after departing from Springfield that day. Level off, get everything set, then pull out the list and make sure you’ve not forgotten anything. That’s how to use a checklist.Human factorsWe use checklists because as pilots we must constantly fight:NOVEMBER 2015