Quoting the Practical Test Standards, "The situation may be such that the use of the checklist, while accomplishing elements of an Objective, would be either unsafe or impractical, especially in a single-pilot operation. In this case, a review of the checklist after the elements have been accomplished, would be appropriate."
Especially in the comparatively simple airplanes in which most students train, there is simply no reason a pilot should not be able to complete the system checks and configurations required by memory, and then use a checklist to verify the completion of the task. If a pilot cannot do that, the appropriate training might consist of sitting in a parked airplane and using it as a "cockpit procedures trainer" until the pilot achieves that proficiency.
If the first (primary) experience the student has with configuring an airplane for a specific phase of flight involves the "do list," that habit will be established. That established habit will then interfere with developing a new habit of using a flow.
While I realize that many students want to forego the ground exercise and "get going" to fly as much as possible, I at least warn them that developing the habit of pulling out that piece of plastic before doing anything is not going to make them safer pilots (looking inside the airplane instead of outside), and is going to cause a problem when moving to a professional flying environment.
Harry Leicher
Whittier, California
So, do you need a degree?
With pleasure I read Capt. Karen Kahn's article "Do I Need A Degree?" in the June issue of AOPA Flight Training magazine. I fall under this category, as I do not hold a four-year-degree other than a "degree in life." I do not recommend this route for most people looking to pursue an airline career, although I have reached my goals without a degree.
I began flying in 1987 out of Oxford, Connecticut, also joining AOPA that same year. I attended Flight- Safety in Vero Beach, Florida, to finish most of my ratings. At age 20 I was offered a job flying a Piper Navajo. I achieved my ATP prior to reaching the age of 23--I passed the written, oral, and practical tests and was given a "letter of issuance" that, on my twenty-third birthday, I was to present the letter to the nearest FSDO and would be issued an ATP. I had already been hired by a regional.
At that time, "competitive" for a commuter/regional airline was about 3,000 hours total time with at least 1,000 multiengine and some turbine (far from what hiring minimums seem to be today). Those were the "minimums"; most candidates had more plus a degree. Fortunately for me I had made many great friends and mentors who had enough faith in me to recommend me for a commuter job. That Navajo job stuck my foot in the door for a regional airline position with Business Express Airlines (Delta Connection, later to be assumed by American Eagle) flying Beech 1900s and Saab 340s.
After spending five years with Business Express I made many friends and earned the respect of my fellow aviators to recommend me to be hired on with DHL Airways.
I spent a year and a half in the flight engineer seat (check airmen/air transport instructor) of a Douglas DC-8-73F, finally getting a window seat of the Boeing 727 for five years and then onto the DC-8 as a pilot for the past four years. I have flown to Belgium, Ireland, England, Italy, Spain, Sweden, South and Central America, Cuba, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and many more on a regular basis.
As far as my education in life goes...I have accumulated more than 13,000 hours flying airplanes, multiengine CFI, and PIC type ratings in the Boeing 737, A320, and BE-1900.
I have had the opportunity to meet people of all walks of life; let's just say that defining some of them by giving them a piece of paper to frame that says they are "educated" baffles me. Maybe something like "the person makes the degree" and not the "degree makes the person" might be in order.
Glen Carpenter
Thomaston, Connecticut
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