Page 29 - Volume 19 Number 11

Complacency. Doing the same thing over and over again makes it easy to forget something once and think it’s been done. Having logged hours of flying, and years of flying the same type of aircraft, lulls us into thinking there’s no way we’d miss some vital task. The accident record says otherwise.Distraction. Traffic, weather, passengers or unusual situations steal our attention away from the routine flying tasks. Stress – from family, scheduling pressures, and other non-flying concerns – diverts our concentration from the cockpit.Fatigue. Face it, few of us get as much sleep as we really should. Often, our flying is done after a long day’s work, or bunched between other activities and responsibilities on weekends. Ironically, the more flying time we have, the older we have become, and age makes us more susceptible to fatigue. Flying itself is a fatiguing activity, from the noise, turbulence, workload and the duration of flight; mild hypoxia from flying even at low altitudes can make us tired long before other symptoms appear.Fixation. A form of distraction, fixation is when a specific object or activity demands so much attention we forget everything else.Forgetfulness. Like the instructor at the beginning of this article said, the older we get the more forgetful we seem to be.We can’t avoid complacency, distraction, fatigue, fixation or forgetfulness. That’s why we have to have a backup...in the form of printed checklists, and the skill to use them.Here’s my challenge to you:Learn to use the Before Start, Start, Before Takeoff, Climb, Cruise, Descent, Approach, Landing and Shutdown checklists. If your airplane doesn’t have a printed list that covers what you need (for instance, GPS approach selection and activation), then write one customized to your needs. MakeDavid Clark Company Half Page4/C AdDouble M Aviation Sixth Page4/C AdNOVEMBER 2015TWIN & TURBINE • 27