Start-Up and Run-Up checklists -- we all know them and use them. However, many students -- and even licensed pilots -- often get confused about what and how they're actually checking during the run-up. Below is a list of the most misunderstood items on the ground checklists -- with explanations on how to do those checks properly, what to look for, and how to remedy problems that may arise. |
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Whenever you travel on an airline, your flight always begins with a safety briefing by the flight attendants. Needless to say, in a little Cessna, Piper or a similar GA airplane, a passenger briefing is even more critical due to the cabin's small size and the passenger's proximity to flight controls -- not to mention required by law (CAR 602.89). Unfortunately, you probably do not have a flight attendant in your four-seater, so you'll have to provide the briefing yourself. Today's blog post is contributed by T.Kachira, a flight instructor with Toronto's Island Air Flight School and Charters. Photo by skuenti Imagine a scenario: You're on a routine cross-country flight. Then something happens that requires to change plans. That could happen for any number of reasons: weather unexpectedly closing in on you; the headwind is far stronger than you realize and you can't make it to the original destination; your passenger suddenly falls ill and you need to land and seek some help for him ASAP. Time for a diversion! No doubt you've covered (or about to cover) the procedure for executing a diversion in the course of your flight training. But have you internalized its purpose? Sometimes new students concentrate so much on the procedure taught, they find themselves getting lost in minor details, to the detriment of the overall purpose of the exercise. It is always useful to hear a perspective of an experience instructor/pilot on an exercise, and I recently had the privilege to sit on a PPL flight test debrief with a very experienced and enthusiastic examiner, who, among other things, shared his insights into this exercise with us. Today's blog post, one perspective about what it means to be a "good" pilot, is shared courtesy of Sporty's Pilot Shop, and is re-blogged with permission from Sporty's Learn to Fly. Thanks to John Zimmerman and Mark Wiesenhahn from Sporty's. We all want to be safe pilots–that’s emphasized from day one of flight training, and for good reason. But after we’ve completed our first solo and gained some confidence, it’s time to raise the standard beyond just safe flying. Some day soon, you’ll be carrying passengers and sharing the excitement of aviation. Those passengers assume you will be safe–they wouldn’t have boarded the airplane if they didn’t believe that. What they will judge you on is how smooth you are.
Photo by Michael Hays
Oh my, emergency procedures! Most pilots are quick to pay lip service to knowing those procedures cold. Everyone can rattle off the blatantly obvious reason: an emergency can strike at any time, and if it does, you have no time to flip through the POH, so thou shalt be able to recite said procedures from memory faster than you can recall your date of birth or the name of your high school sweetheart. And yet, an alarming number of students and licensed pilots have at best a vague recollection of most emergency checklists. Let's look into why this happens and how we can fix it! |