The day's lesson focused on landings, because that's operationally what I need to work on. Truth be told I'm writing this two weeks after the lesson due to having to travel for work and then family vacation, so I don't recall the specifics of each landing. I'm feeling better about things each time I go up, I'm getting a better feel for controlling the airplane on approach, and am working on engraining the sight picture of what the runway should look like on approach and making the call to go around when things aren't where they should be.
That's not what I want to dwell on this time, though. Today, I want to talk about checklists and the tasks we do in the plane that have nothing to do with moving the controls, because that was the weakest part of my performance today. As a student, you might not necessarily think about those as being important--especially during the more "mundane" parts of the flight, but the whole idea of flying is to make sure you stay ahead of the airplane. When it comes to physically maneuvering the plane, it means making sure you anticipate what the plane is going to do when you make this or that control input. When it comes to mentally flying the airplane, it means making sure you're thinking ahead to where you're going to be next.
There are two ways we can keep track of the more mental aspects of flying--checklists and flows. Both are designed to keep us on task in terms of not forgetting details. Checklists are good for those times in flying where you have time to refer to a printed list of steps to take. Flows are important for those times when you don't have that ability. For example, your preflight inspection is a checklist-friendly task. While many of us (myself included) have developed that into more of a flow which we then reinforce by checking it against the checklist to make sure we got everything, we do go down and check the boxes of tasks. The run-up (for me at least) is very much a by-the-checklist list of tasks which I do in order every time. Step 1, step 2, step 3... and so on.
Once you're done with run-up and you start moving towards taking off, the checklist gets put away. It's a distraction at that point because there's 8,000 other tasks you need to be doing in order to get the plane in the air. You're communicating with ATC or other pilots if you're at a non-towered airport. You're watching around you for other planes taxiing, traffic or wildlife which may get in your way, and following the taxiway signs to get you where you need to be. That's when having a flow is key; a mental way of working through steps necessary to get the plane in the air. "Lights, camera, action." Make sure you have whatever lights you need turned on (beacon, strobe, landing lights, nav lights, etc.), make sure your transponder is set, and get ready to go. That's a flow thing. You run that checklist mentally as you're taxiing and lining up on the runway. You confirm your runway before you advance your throttle to take off. You're not reading things at that point, you're just doing. Your verbal call-outs are your mental checking of the boxes on the mental list.
Once you hit the throttle and start down the runway, you're mentally going through the flow of checking your gauges (airspeed in particular) to make sure they're working. "Gauges alive" is a common verbal confirmation to yourself that your airspeed indicator is working. (If it's not, abort the take-off.) You're checking the other gauges to make sure they're in the green. You're watching your airspeed needle. You don't have to read a checklist to say "rotate at 55 knots," you know mentally that's when you rotate. Another verbal confirmation at 55 knots just reinforces to you that it's time to pull back on the yoke and get airborne. And while the checklist tells you your V speeds for climb out, you don't read the checklist, you just mentally know what your airspeed needs to be and you get there. Again, verbal call-outs help that mental reinforcement. Piloting an airplane is one time where it's not only okay to talk to yourself, but it's a "best practice." As a pilot it's just good reinforcement. As a student with an instructor sitting next to you, it's reassurance to them that you know what you're doing. And they kind of like to have that reassurance.
Once you're established in your climb-out, you can pull out the checklist, though truthfully it's not very long. If you're climbing in a typical GA training aircraft, your throttle will be full open and your airspeed will be somewhere around Vy, plus or minus a few knots. For the comfort of your CFI, a verbal confirmation of this is well in order. Once you reach cruising altitude, you can run a similar check as you pull power back to cruise power. Again--it's a checklist, but not terribly long. But since at this point you have time to pull out the checklist, it's a good idea just to do the visual reinforcement in addition to the verbal one.
Once you run this checklist, you're not done. Yeah, you're cruising, but where are you headed? What do you need to do in order to be prepared once you get there? Now I have to admit that as a deadline-oriented journalist, this kind of planning ahead is a bit foreign to me. If I'm not going to be at the practice area or other airport for 10 minutes, my mind has a bit of trouble wrapping itself around the notion of getting the radios set up now. It makes sense to do so. Once you're clear of the airspace of the departure airport, you don't need to talk to them anymore. You need to talk to those who are where you are going. It behooves you to set yourself up to listen to them instead as soon as practical. So once you've run your cruise checklist, get yourself set up for where you're going.
"WRBC." Weather, Radios, Briefing, Checklists." Get the weather. It's that simple. Tune into the ATIS/AWOS for the airport you're flying to. Know what you're getting into sooner rather than later. This lets you plan your arrival better as well. If you know the weather, you can make an educated guess as to which runway you'll be landing on. Knowing that lets you plan your arrival route to enter the pattern appropriately.
"Radios," means once you have your weather, tune your radio to the tower or CTAF frequency for where you're flying. Again--why wouldn't you want to hear other traffic where you're going as soon as possible? It really does just make sense.
"Briefing." Whether you have a passenger, CFI who wants to make sure you know what you're doing, or just by yourself, talk about what your plan is. What are you expecting in terms of runways? What's the wind doing? How do you anticipate entering the pattern? You may be wrong--if it's a controlled airport, ATC may have you do something completely different, but you have at least given some thought to how you're going to proceed, and have let your passengers know what you're planning on doing. If it's an airport with multiple runways, your briefing will be your way of telling yourself and your passengers whether or not you're comfortable taking one runway versus another if ATC at that airport gives you the option.
"Checklist." Yep--run that cruise checklist again. Check your fuel, gauges, etc. And now that you know you're in good shape, you know where you are, and you have an idea of how you're going to proceed, you can contact ATC at the airport to get better instructions from them.
With ATC instructions on where you're going to land, or following traffic patterns at an untoward airport, you can now begin your descent, which--yep--another checklist. You have time, so use the checklist here.
Once you're in the pattern to land, you're back to flows. There's too much going on to worry about checklists. Call-outs here are important as you get to each milestone. "Below 110, flaps 10." "Below 85, flaps 20." Again--good reminders for you, good reassurance for your CFI. Airspeed call-outs are also a good idea. It's mental reinforcement of the steps you need to take to get the plane safely on the ground.
Once on the ground and off the runway, you can pull out the checklist again run those items. Yeah, the checklists are short and can easily be memorized, but reinforcing with the checklist is always a good idea.
As the saying goes, "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate." As pilots, even if we're the only ones in the plane, that last aspect is crucial. Whether we have people in the plane with us or not, we have to make a habit of explaining what we're going to be doing. If we can explain it, we can better execute it. And if you have a CFI (or DPE) in the right seat, they're going to need to know that you know what you're doing.
