Accident analysis: Time to think

As student pilots, we’re taught to rely on checklists to make sure we don’t forget anything essential—and that we step through procedures in the correct order when order matters (see “Half Baked”). That implies a less obvious safeguard that’s especially valuable in moments of stress: one against taking inappropriate actions at delicate times. If it’s not on the relevant anomaly or emergency checklist, chances are it’s something you shouldn’t do, or at least can defer until the listed items are complete.

There are, of course, situations that don’t leave time to consult a written list, but fewer than you might think. Losing thrust at low altitude certainly comes to mind, as does decaying rotor rpm in a helicopter. Checklists cover in-flight fires. Memorized emergency procedures are just shorter checklists with quicker access—often serving to stabilize the situation and provide time to consult the written reference. (Witness the “ABC” mnemonic for engine stoppage in a piston single: “Airspeed” for maximum glide; spotting the “Best” field within reach; and, time permitting, the “Checklist[s]” for engine restart and/or forced landing.)

Improvising your own emergency procedures isn’t likely to work out as well. On a positioning flight from Arkansas to Virginia, the pilot of a Beechcraft King Air 200 was startled when the inner ply of the double-paned left windshield shattered at FL270. Rather than having his co-pilot look up the appropriate procedure, he immediately dumped cabin pressure. Their masks didn’t deliver oxygen (he’d switched the system off before takeoff) and both men blacked out as he began an emergency descent. The airplane lost almost 18,000 feet in five minutes; the pilots regained consciousness and recovered control at 7,000 feet with inputs forceful enough to wrinkle both wings and damage the elevator and horizontal stabilizers.

True, checklist reliance can be taken too far. In Colorado, a Cessna P210 sustained extensive damage in an emergency landing after oil covered the windshield during the initial climb. The flight was the first after an oil change, and the filler cap hadn’t been secured. The pilot told investigators that he hadn’t looked at it “because it was not required per the...approved preflight inspection checklist.”

Well, OK. But if you knew someone had recently taken it off, wouldn’t you look?

David Jack Kenny is a freelance aviation writer with 1,800 hours in the same airplane.