Technique: New Habits

Actually, make that: “light GA airplanes with one pilot and no air conditioning.” Or a good heater. Or where you’re paying by the tenth from a limited budget. Or any of the other myriad reasons a briefing just short of the runway can get rushed, truncated, or simply skipped altogether.

Brief before flight

Instead of briefing the takeoff while holding short of the runway, you’ll do it on the ramp. This assumes your iPad has internet connectivity on the ramp. If not, brief in the FBO using its Wi-Fi.

Finish your preflight and then pull out your iPad before hopping in the airplane. If this an airport where you don’t already know the critical data by heart, check the airport information. Note the frequencies. You won’t enter them right now, so don’t dwell on them. Check the airport diagram to note the field elevation, pattern altitude, and runway length(s). Again, don’t dwell on these details; this review is just to put the numbers in your head.

If the airport has an ATIS, get it now (before starting the aircraft). If not, note the winds and runway in use and check the METAR on your iPad, and the winds you’ll be launching into, just for a general feel of what’s probably up there.

Now call up a top-down image of the airport. I prefer the satellite view, but an airport diagram works, as well. Using this image, walk through what will happen in chronological order. What’s your probable route to the runway? If it’s an IFR flight, remind yourself that you’ll do an instrument taxi check on the way. Look at the available places for runup if this airport is new to you.

Now walk through the takeoff using this top-down image as a reference. You’ll turn onto Runway—say the runway number aloud here—and see full power and green engine gauges. If there’s a problem before rotation, you’ll abort and stop on the runway. How much runway is that? You have a diagram right in front of you. If you’re using a satellite image, you can use on-screen tools to measure.

Pick a point using the runway diagram and say that if you’re not airborne by that point, you’ll idle power and stop on the remaining runway. (For short fields, this decision point might be well before rotation, but that’s a topic for another day.) Find a landmark or runway marker in the real world to denote that point.

If you have a problem below 700 feet agl, you’ll point the nose down and head generally straight ahead. Now reference your top-down image to see if a slight turn could offer a better forced landing site. Preload that in your mind, too. With a problem above 700 feet agl (or higher if you prefer) you will turn—and pick a direction based on the wind and airport diagram or top-down image.

What’s your probable route to the runway? If it’s an IFR flight, remind yourself you’ll do an instrument taxi check on the way.Above 700 feet agl with no problem (or higher as you see fit or local procedures dictate), you’ll turn on course. That course is probably on the iPad as well, so note your on-course heading. I’m amazed how many pilots turn on course using a GPS without having any idea beforehand what that course is, how many degrees of turn it would be, or even in which direction. You don’t want to be that pilot.

You can add other parts to this briefing, such as any airspace you need to avoid in a VFR departure from the area, or how you will get back to Earth under IFR if departing into instrument conditions. I usually mark up my airport diagram for taxiway or runway closures printed in a notam when I do my initial briefing, but you might remind yourself of these tidbits if they’re relevant.

Ideally this should be done with current databases. That said, the top-down picture or airport diagram rarely changes.

Relaxed is repeatable

Having a diagram for your pretakeoff brief and doing it on the ramp make the briefing both more objective and relaxed. If this is an instructional flight, excellent questions can arise and get answered in this same relaxed atmosphere. If it’s sweltering or freezing on the ramp, this briefing can be done in the FBO. With practice, the entire thing takes about 90 seconds if you’re just running through it for yourself. Like most self-briefings, though, it’s best if you say the items out loud.

Having a diagram for your pretakeoff brief and doing it on the ramp make the briefing both more objective and relaxed.You should repeat the high points in your head just before takeoff. However, even if you don’t, I’d argue a thorough and thoughtful pretakeoff briefing done 20 minutes before flight is better than a haphazard and rushed one right before applying full power.

Most important, this kind of briefing is easier to establish as a habit. Then, one day when you get to the hold-short line and realize you forgot the pretakeoff briefing, you won’t feel right continuing without it—and you’ll have the skills to move through it quickly and completely before you depart.

Aviation writer Jeff Van West’s favorite airplanes don’t have electrical systems, but he admits to feeling aeronautically naked without an iPad.