There aren’t many good reasons to wreck an aircraft, but some are worse than others. It’s hard to justify taking off without either enough fuel to complete the flight or a clear idea of where to stop for more. And though warnings about the perils of VFR into IMC begin in presolo training, every year a couple of dozen pilots pay with their lives for the mistake of blasting off into the murk.
Even more perplexing, if that’s possible, are the two or three accidents a month caused by discrepancies that should have been spotted in any minimally competent preflight inspection. Fuel and oil are frequently involved. In January 2014, for example, a Cessna 310 was damaged in a forced landing after its pilot neglected to verify that the FBO had topped its tanks as requested. (His rueful comment afterwards was that “he should not have assumed the fueling had occurred.”) This happened three weeks after oil covered the windshield of a Cessna P210 immediately after takeoff; the pilot overshot the runway attempting an emergency landing and hit hard. The flight was the first after an oil change, and the filler cap hadn’t been secured. The pilot explained that it wasn’t on the preflight checklist.
Two points come to mind. First, the checklist is a starting point—not a limit. While you need a good reason to skip anything it includes, there’s nothing wrong with adding items of your own. And that’s especially true any time an aircraft has just come out of maintenance.
It’s not just vital fluids. Overlooked cowl plugs, pitot covers, and fuel vent caps have each caused their share of mayhem. A disconnected aileron pushrod caused the fatal crash of a Remos at Sebring, Florida; a Piper Super Cub pitched up and stalled on an unauthorized test flight because the gentleman restoring it had connected the elevator cables backwards—the third time he’d made a similar mistake.
So really look the aircraft over and take the time to do it right. A hurried preflight is scarcely better than none at all. Case in point: The Piper Cherokee Six that crashed, killing all three on board, because water had contaminated its fuel. Its pilot hadn’t taken the time to sump the tanks. He was running late—for an FAA safety seminar.
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There aren’t many good reasons to wreck an aircraft, but some are worse than others. It’s hard to justify taking off without either enough fuel to complete the flight or a clear idea of where to stop for more. And though warnings about the perils of VFR into IMC begin in presolo training, every year a couple of dozen pilots pay with their lives for the mistake of blasting off into the murk.
Even more perplexing, if that’s possible, are the two or three accidents a month caused by discrepancies that should have been spotted in any minimally competent preflight inspection. Fuel and oil are frequently involved. In January 2014, for example, a Cessna 310 was damaged in a forced landing after its pilot neglected to verify that the FBO had topped its tanks as requested. (His rueful comment afterwards was that “he should not have assumed the fueling had occurred.”) This happened three weeks after oil covered the windshield of a Cessna P210 immediately after takeoff; the pilot overshot the runway attempting an emergency landing and hit hard. The flight was the first after an oil change, and the filler cap hadn’t been secured. The pilot explained that it wasn’t on the preflight checklist.
Two points come to mind. First, the checklist is a starting point—not a limit. While you need a good reason to skip anything it includes, there’s nothing wrong with adding items of your own. And that’s especially true any time an aircraft has just come out of maintenance.
It’s not just vital fluids. Overlooked cowl plugs, pitot covers, and fuel vent caps have each caused their share of mayhem. A disconnected aileron pushrod caused the fatal crash of a Remos at Sebring, Florida; a Piper Super Cub pitched up and stalled on an unauthorized test flight because the gentleman restoring it had connected the elevator cables backwards—the third time he’d made a similar mistake.
So really look the aircraft over and take the time to do it right. A hurried preflight is scarcely better than none at all. Case in point: The Piper Cherokee Six that crashed, killing all three on board, because water had contaminated its fuel. Its pilot hadn’t taken the time to sump the tanks. He was running late—for an FAA safety seminar.
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