Airplanes are meant to fly. If the wings don’t make that obvious, the unnecessarily arduous and inefficient process of getting from the hangar to the runway should say it all. There are dozens of steps that must happen from the time you finish the preflight to the moment your wheels cross onto the runway. Anything you can do to make that process a bit faster, a bit more efficient, and a bit safer is welcome.
CheckMate’s popular Cessna 172 checklist lists 56 items that must be completed between the preflight and the takeoff. And that doesn’t include radio calls. Assuming that only a super brain would ever remember such a list, the challenge becomes attacking all those tasks without burning an hour’s worth of fuel in the process. You have two choices—use the checklist as a task list, or use it to monitor your progress. Which direction you choose depends primarily on where you are in training.
Early on, your goal should be only to make sure you are thorough, and that you are understanding the complex reasons everything happens in that time between ground and sky. Complete comprehension of why things happen can be beneficial to memorization, but it’s impossible to learn everything in the beginning. Some things must wait, and come with context. That leaves you with only faith that when the checklist says to do something, you do it.
There are exceptions, of course. The starting sequence is a good example. The newer fuel-injected Cessna 172s have a five-step engine priming procedure that must happen just before you turn the key. Completing this process while using the checklist as a task list would result in overpriming the engine. And it’s fairly simple to remember to turn on the fuel pump, advance the mixture, check fuel flow, pull the mixture to idle, and then turn off the pump.
There are two big problems with the task method of using a checklist. First, it’s slow. Very slow. It can take up to a half-hour between buckling the seatbelt and taking off. In the beginning, this is fine. But you’re paying for that airplane time, so ultimately you’ll want to speed things up. More important, it’s a bit narrow-minded for experienced pilots to operate this way.
Because it’s impossible to train for everything that can happen in an airplane, we instead focus on a set of skills that we hope will cover all the potential issues. Operating in a way that focuses on completing specific tasks dictated by a checklist reveals a lack of broad knowledge, and a lack of confidence. It also means the pilot might be ill-equipped to handle a new problem.
A broad-picture approach is the better way. Here the checklist is just that—a list used to confirm tasks that have already been completed. As you get more comfortable with the prestart process, for example, you can go from following the list to completing a flow. Starting at the lower pedestal of the 172, working up, to the right for flaps, and then left across the circuit breakers, lights, and electrical takes about a minute and easily completes the 17 items on the Start checklist. Once you are comfortable with the tactic, it’s time to focus on the specifics.
10 tips o accelerate your departure
1. Get the weather in advance. Professional pilots get their weather and clearance before starting the engine. Why can’t you? With either a portable radio or by simply turning on the electrical system, queue up the weather in advance to save time on the engine. Especially when you first begin your training, understanding the automated weather broadcast can be confusing. Take away the pressure to do it quickly by doing it in advance, writing it down, and then take the time to make sure you fully understand the conditions, airport information, and—if there is a control tower—what the controllers will expect of you.
2. Be seated in sequence. Every airplane has its seating quirks. In a Cessna, it’s usually best to position the seat, then fasten the seatbelt, and only then close the door. The door on a Piper usually can be closed first, then the seatbelt fastened. Many Light Sport aircraft don’t have moveable seats, but are tight enough that the seatbelt should be positioned before the door is closed. Whatever the situation, it can be frustrating to have to unbuckle, open a door, change a seat position, and so on. The worst offense, of which we are all guilty, is trying to start the engine with the key in your pocket. Avoid this by simply placing it on the glareshield as soon as you unlock the pilot-side door.
3. Brief before. As you fly new passengers, plan to conduct the briefing before loading up. It’s easier to point out items when people have the freedom of movement. The exception is seatbelt operation, which can wait until they get in, and which needs to happen before you start the engine.
4. Clean your house. Get your charts, notepad, pencil, GPS, headset, radio—and whatever other kit you carry on board—in place and ready to go before you even buckle up. The best way to set up charts is in the order you'll use them. Have a taxi diagram if one is available, then move on to the first leg of the sectional chart, and so on.
5. Memorize the easy stuff. The priming procedure isn’t the only item on the 172 checklist you should memorize. Do the same with the portion of the Before Takeoff list that happens while the engine is at a high rpm. Often this includes items such as a magneto check, carburetor heat, annunciator lights, and engine gauges. It’s generally considered bad form to sit there with the engine running hard for an extended period on the ground. It’s loud, and it can be hard on the airplane. Once you memorize these few items, you’ll find that the rest of the list starts to come together with flow patterns.
6. Do things once. Work with your instructor to refine your checklist so less-critical items are called out only once. There’s no need to set the heading indicator right after starting the engine, when it’s only going to precess and require a reset prior to takeoff. Just wait and make that second time the first time. Many airplanes have unique items like this. There’s nothing that says you can’t make the checklist work the way you want it to.
7. Use memory aids. As you get more into using flows, certain memory aids can really help. A personal favorite is CIGAR for Control check, Instruments set, Gas quantity and proper tank, Attitude or trim, and Runup. It covers all the critical items, it’s easy to remember, and fast to do. After you use CIGAR, pull out the checklist to verify you checked each item.
8. Know your bird’s history. Was the airplane just flown? Has it been sitting in an ice-cold hangar all night? What happened immediately prior to your flight will dictate what you do right before and during the engine starting process. Fuel-injected airplanes don’t do warm or hot starts particularly well. If things are really cold, you may need to preheat. The guidance on how to work your way through most of these issues can be found in the manual, so get acquainted with it early and review it often. It will save your battery as well as your pride.
9. Lean back. Not every checklist includes one important item that will save you time and make the airplane’s owner very happy—leaning the mixture for taxi. The engines in many small trainers run rich at lower power settings. If you don’t lean the mixture for taxi, the spark plugs become covered in carbon deposits. That results in a bad magneto check and, eventually, maintenance on the surprisingly expensive little sparkers.
10. Learn at home. Buy a poster of your airplane’s cockpit, or take a good photo and enlarge it, then hang it on your office wall. Next, sit and play pilot. It sounds embarrassing, and to a certain extent it is a bit funny, but the effort will be worth the family’s snickers. Chair flying does a decent job of mentally preparing pilots for maneuvers, but it does a stellar job of preparing them for all the jobs that happen between the preflight and the takeoff. Run through the sequences again and again, and you’ll have no trouble doing it for real in the airplane.
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