Rich Martindell: Aviation and Safety Consultant

Rich Martindell

rich@wild-blue-yonder.com
619-253-7649

University of Southern California trained aircraft accident investigator and safety program manager.

Experienced in risk analysis, management and mitigation and establishing compliance programs for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trained disaster planner recognized by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Pilot in Command

Aviation is the only discipline I know that provides a rule for when and how to break its own rules…and gives the pilot in command the authority to do it.

FAR 91.3

(b) In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.

Over the years I’ve discussed this exception to the rule with many pilots. They say their reluctance to declare an emergency comes from the next paragraph, which states you need to be prepared to explain your decisions:

(c) Each pilot in command who deviates from a rule under paragraph (b) of this section shall, upon the request of the Administrator, send a written report of that deviation to the Administrator.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve declared an emergency, but I can tell you that I have never been asked to send a written report. That’s not to say they couldn’t ask for one but, apparently they don’t like paperwork anymore than I do.

Another reason pilots say they are reluctant to declare an emergency is the idea of all the commotion at the airport upon landing—what with all the fire trucks and emergency response vehicles. I can tell you that the fire and rescue crews are eager to have something to do. They spend a great amount of time training to do their jobs and then sit around the station waiting for an opportunity to use that training, even if it is to respond to an uneventful landing. On the other hand, wouldn’t you really rather have them there waiting for you in case they are needed?

I was the test engineer on a flight in a modified Beech D-18, and we thought we had a fire on the right engine. The pilot shut down the engine, we declared an emergency, and the tower scrambled the fire trucks and rescue crews. Turned out to be a false alarm—there was no fire. But, nobody was upset, everyone went home happy, and no report was requested.

Sometimes it seems that pilots really don’t comprehend the magnitude of their authority once they declare an emergency. At that point, you tell ATC what you need and what you’re going to do, and it’s their job to help you get it done. Any runway you want is yours…including Camp Pendleton or Miramar. The military understands the meaning of an aircraft in distress, and they will sort out the administrative details of landing on a military base after you are safely on the ground.

In February of 2007, an American Airlines flight inbound to Dallas-Ft. Worth declared an emergency for low fuel and told the tower they wanted to land opposite direction of the current traffic. The tower refused and sequenced the flight with the other landing traffic rather than disrupt the traffic flow. Fortunately, this emergency was uneventful, but if it had become the anticipated emergency, it would have interrupted much more than the flow of landing traffic! Two things went wrong here: (1) the tower controllers did not respond properly, and (2) the pilot in command did not take control of the situation and exercise his authority to do what he felt needed to be done. The tower controllers were disciplined and retrained, and I imagine the pilot got some advice as well.

As a young wingman flying F-4s, I had to declare an emergency for some battle damage. The tower personnel were trying to help but got pretty excited and were tying up the radio frequency. Finally, my flight leader simply told tower to maintain radio silence until I was on the ground. Everything went well after that. Another time, I was a flight instructor in the back seat of an F-4, we were doing an emergency fuel diversion because our destination, and the designated alternate went below minimums. I had to declare an emergency because we did not have prior permission to enter French airspace. En-route to the emergency divert base in Germany, I was told the airfield and tower were closed because all the pilots and tower controllers were in a meeting. I told the en-route controller I really didn’t care if I got a clearance to land, I was going to use the runway regardless.

As pilots we are conditioned: ATC controls us, and we follow their directions. It’s just as hard for them as it is for us to reverse roles; but as pilot in command, that’s exactly what we must do. We must know when (and have the confidence) to make that call.

Safety Management System and General Aviation

A Safety Management System (SMS)—the risk assessment and dispatch process for each flight—represents a critical aspect of commercial or corporate flight operations. A series of factors must be considered through an independent evaluation system that lets pilots and supervisors know if a particular flight is riskier than others. One of the great values of these systems is that they use objective parameters to determine the risk, which in turn depersonalizes the decision to fly or stay on the ground. I’m not suggesting you conduct your personal flight op­erations like an airline. On the other hand, I’m not above stealing a good idea from people who fly professionally. An organized risk-evaluation system that uses objective rather than subjective information is useful for anyone considering a flight.

There are several free risk-evaluation applications currently available through the (Apple) App Store, but they seem to be oriented to corporate or commercial operations as they request information about the captain and first officer and ask if you are carrying passengers or repositioning, and the like. However, AOPA has a nice Flight Risk Evaluator program as an interactive course in the Air Safety Institute (ASI) section of their website that tar­gets VFR and IFR general aviation, personal flights (Part 91). You’ll find the evaluator is user friendly. All these flight-risk-assessment tools essentially use quantitative information about the Pilot, the Aircraft, the enViron­ment, and the External pressures—the mission particulars—to help make you aware of any unusual risks for that flight. It’s the FAA’s PAVE checklist in digital format.

 

Evlauate the Risks before every Flight

To get to the AOPA Flight Risk Evaluator, go to the AOPA home page, put your cursor over the “Training and Safety” tab and click on the ”Air Safety Institute” tab to get a new page. On the new page click on “Interactive Courses” on the left sidebar and that will take you to the course menu page. Finally, you want to select the “Use this Application” link under the Flight Risk Evaluator course. Once you’re into the application you can bookmark the URL so you don’t have to go through this drill every time you want to use the tool. I asked, and found that AOPA is looking to develop this tool as an application on iTunes.

There are actually two ways to use the AOPA tool: a “Quick Check” and a “Detailed Evaluation.” I experimented with both. After I had done my normal flight planning, it took me less than ten minutes to use the detailed evalu­ation tool to assess my flight’s risks. The Quick Check provided a hard copy checklist of the detailed evaluation that saved me from re-entering all the data for a complete analysis. I spent less time on the computer program, but I still evaluated the flight with the checklist generated by the “Quick Check” version, and I strongly recommend you do the same.

In either case you get objective information about the risks associated with a particular flight and some suggested areas for consideration, if there is an elevated risk element. Many pilots are data driven and are more comfortable making a decision based on the detailed, objective facts rather than the general, subjective story you get if you mentally run through the PAVE checklist before a flight. Having something formal also makes it easier to tell a passenger or someone who expects to see you at your destination why you have to cancel a flight.

This kind of analysis is particularly useful for personal flying if you are planning a route to an airport you’ve never seen before rather than those you see on a recurring basis. Once you use the tool a few times it will become second nature, and you will be more alert to any increased risks on every flight.

 

Desert Thunder VII

Thermal, CA October 2011: The Red Star Pilots’ Association conducted Desert Thunder VII at Jackie Cochran Airport (KTRM) in October. Desert Thunder is an annual training program for pilots who want to learn to fly tactical formation, fly low level navigation routes and attack mock targets. All participating pilots must be previously trained in flying formation and hold a Formation and Safety Team (FAST) qualification card. Many Red Star pilots are current and former military pilots but pilots with no military background are also members. This year’s blue force participants included over 20 aircraft consisting of Nanchang CJ-6s, YAK 50s, YAK 52s and T-34s. The scenarios flown included “low level” navigation in a hostile air environment, interdiction targets and close air support.

Fellow River Rat Darrell “Condor” Gary, Rachelle Gary and Duke “Maddawg” Molter organized the event and took care of the logistics necessary to make it happen including food and lodging as well as working with Tradition Aviation, the FBO that hosted the pilots and planes at Thermal. Condor also coordinated with Doug Matthews of Ramona to provide red air threats in the form of Doug’s P-51 Mustang and F4U Corsair as well as the CAF’s F4F Wildcat. Doug flew the P-51 while Pete Hunt flew the Corsair and Carter Teeters flew the Wildcat. Mike “Beav” Carter,  a former USAF F-16 Viper Pilot, lead the air-to-air training activities while Mo Allee, a former Marine F-18 Hornet pilot and ground Forward Air Controller (FAC) in Afghanistan organized the air-to-ground training.

Morning ROE Briefing

After a mass briefing on rules of engagement (ROE) Friday morning pilots formed flights of 2 or 3 airplanes and flew a “low level” route with a hard deck of 2000’ AGL to practice visual look out in tactical formation. Beav Carter flew his CJ-6 as red air for the warm up exercises on Friday and attacked the formations as they flew the assigned route to see if they could detect and react to the threat. There was no dog fighting, just an initial move of no more than 180 degrees of turn to defeat the threat if the flight saw the attack. Flights were scored on their ability to detect the threat and if the initial maneuver defeated the attack.

CJ-6 Preflight

Friday afternoon all flights flew a close air support (CAS) mission to an assigned holding point where they contacted the FAC for a target assignment . Mo Allee provided a heading and distance from the holding point to the target, described the target and then assigned a time-on-target (TOT) for bomb impact. The flight leader had to determine the time from the holding point to the target to arrive at the proper time. Mo scored the flights on their ability to get to the target on time as well as how far from the target their flour bomb hit.

Red Air P-51

Late Friday afternoon Doug Matthews arrived with the “real” red air for the graduation sorties to be flown on Saturday.  Pilots celebrated their successful day in traditional fashion that evening.

Red Air Coursair

Saturday started out with another mass briefing on ROE, mission assignments, weather and safety considerations. For the Saturday scenario each flight received a low level route to fly with a TOT at an airfield for a runway cut. During the low level, again flown above 2000’ AGL, the flights were vulnerable to attack by a CJ-6, the P-51, the Corsair and the Wildcat, each of which had an assigned point on the prescribed low level. In order to insure the “opportunity” to be attacked each flight had to announce as they passed each turn point on a common frequency. The red air pilots monitored the common frequency to ensure all participants could communicate if necessary for safety of flight. Seeing P-51s and Corsairs at air shows flying or on static display is great but, you cannot imagine how amazing it is to see one roll in on you for an attack. As before, flights were scored on their ability to detect and react to the air threat but, they were also scored on their ability to meet the TOT at the airfield that was given to them before they took off. No “bombs” were dropped on the airfield but, after that “attack”, each flight went to an assigned holding point and contacted the FAC for a CAS target assignment. Again, flights were given a target description, a heading, a distance and a TOT. It was not the same target everybody saw on Friday.

The organizing committee announced winners of the various competitions at the awards ceremony Saturday evening.

Ranger flight won the air-to-air competition. Skip Slyfield flew his YAK-50 as Viper 1. Mike Lynch flew Viper 2 in his CJ-6 with Rich Martindell as his Weapons Systems Operator (WSO) in the back seat.

Scorpion flight, two CJ-6s, won the air-to-ground competition. Rhino and Dawg flew Scorpion 1 while Gomez and Wxoff were on the wing in Scorpion 2.

In addition the “Bone” award went to the pilot who did the dumbest thing during the flying activities. What happened in Thermal, stays in Thermal but, unless you’re flying an F-15 it is hard to taxi with the chalks still in front of the wheels.

Sunday morning, prior to departure,  the “Night Crawler” award went to the person who distinguished himself based on undisclosed criteria during or after the awards ceremony.

The motto of Red Star and Desert Thunder is “Serious Fun”.

More information on the Red Star Pilots’ Association is available at www.flyredstar.org

T-34 to Georgia

In addition to flying the Plus One Flyers Malibu for some time, I’ve been fortunate to be able to fly a friend’s T-34 out of Gillespie on formation flights with the San Diego Salute Team for fly-bys at parades, holidays events and even funerals for the past 2 years. But, recently the owner decided to sell N34TX. The new owner lives in Georgia and asked if I would be interested in flying “Tex”, as the old owner called her, from Gillespie to Blakely in the southwest corner of Georgia. With someone else buying the gas this was an offer I couldn’t pass up and so began a bunch of risk management and flight planning.

Even though the airplane is IFR approved and I’m IFR current in other aircraft I hadn’t been doing any instrument flying in Tex so right away I knew this flight was going to be day, VFR all the way. Only problem was, as you remember, we were having weekly weather fronts move through from the Pacific all the way to the Atlantic during the month of March when I wanted to make the trip. So Iknew I needed to allow extra time for contingencies and be prepared to stop and wait if the weather dictated. I also knew it would be a lot easier to do this with another pilot to help with navigation, flying and logistics so I recruited my son, Chris, who flies with the Armed Forces Aero Club, to come along. I’m used to flying an airplane with a G1000 that has XM weather and I had just taken Tex to Redding, California for a wing spar inspection and modification without the benefit of XM when we needed to know what the weather ahead was doing. So for this trip I had an excuse to get a new Garmin Aera with XM and I’m glad I did. This gave us my son’s Garmin 296 and my Garmin 96C for triple GPS redundancy and XM/NEXRAD.

Redundant GPS and XM Weather

Next came the flight planning. Tex has been modified with tip tanks on the wings, not standard issue for Air Force T-34A aircraft. That gave me 25 gallons in each wing tank and 15 gallons in each tip tank for a total of 80 gallons. Burn rate is 13 gallons per hour which works out to 3.5 hours on the main tanks including fuel burn in the climb to cruise altitude plus 2 hours on the tip tanks. I’ve got a 2 hour rear end so I figured no leg longer than three hours to have plenty of reserve at each stop. With those parameters the longest leg I planned was right at 3 hours. At 140 knots I was looking at 400 mile legs. Plotting that out over the 1900 mile course that worked out to six hops of about 2.5 hours each. Some a little more and some a little less. With the short spring days and fighting the time zones, I conservatively planned two flights a day for a 3 day trip and hoped I might be able to do better. The original plan was San Diego to Tucson; Tucson to El Paso; RON, El Paso to San Angelo, TX; San Angelo to Beaumont, TX; RON, Beaumont to Mobile, AL; Mobile to Dothan AL for a top off, and then a quick 30 mile hop to Blakely, GA. There is no fuel at Blakely and I didn’t want to give the new owner a plane with no gas in it. Once we got to Blakely the new owner would drive us back to Dothan to catch a flight to Atlanta and then back to San Diego. The plan was to leave early on Friday morning and get into Blakely in time to catch the 5:30 flight out of Dothan Sunday afternoon. That would put us back into San Diego at midnight Sunday if everything went well.

Waiting for Daylight

Friday morning we were at Gillespie and had the pre-flight complete before sunrise. As soon as it was light enough to be comfortable, we were on our way to Tucson and the weather all the way to El Paso was forecast to be good with the exception of AIRMETS for turbulence all day and blowing dust in El Paso in the afternoon. We had a great tail wind and the 3 hour flight to Tucson only took 2.5 hours. A quick re-fuel and we were on our way to El Paso. Along about the New Mexico border we found the turbulence that had been forecast and slowed to below maneuvering airspeed. Along the way we could see dust storms across the border to the south in Mexico. The trip to El Paso only took 2 hours and when we got there the winds were down the runway but at 20 knots gusting to 35. We were ready for lunch and shared a crew van with two Air Force pilots flying a T-1 Jayhawk, the military version of a Beech/Hawker 400. They were headed west for Sacramento. The winds were still blowing strongly out of the west after lunch and we would have plenty of time to get to San Angelo before dark so off we went. At 140 knots true we had been looking at ground speeds between 170 and 180 all day. As usual, I was using flight following and we listened to the airliners at altitude complaining to Albuquerque Center about the turbulence at altitude but it wasn’t bad for us where we were at 7,500. Two hours later, well before sunset, we were in San Angelo. When I checked the weather I saw that El Paso had gone IFR for blowing dust after we left. We were ahead of the plan and it was time for a Texas BBQ dinner.

Gas and Go at Marana outside Tucson

Saturday morning we were looking at another dawn launch. The winds were still blowing but the turbulence was gone however, Beaumont was reporting 1500 overcast and was forecast to stay that way. It was clear and a million in San Angelo so we decided to see how far east we could get before we found any weather. About an hour later as we approached Austin we got our answer. At 7,500 we could see the solid undercast up ahead and Austin Bergstrom off to our right was in the clear. The XM confirmed that Beaumont was still IFR so we decided to land at Austin. Half an hour later they were IFR with a 1200 foot overcast. So we enjoyed the Atlantic FBO facilities and kept checking weather. An hour and a half later the clouds went scattered at Austin and we had a VFR forecast for Baton Rouge so off we went. Instead of a solid under cast the clouds were broken to scattered and by the time we got to Baton Rouge 2 hours later the weather was scattered at 4000. Now we had hopes of getting to Georgia before dark on Saturday so we borrowed the FBO’s crew van, headed to Subway, got in-flight lunches and we were on our way to Dothan, Alabama. It was 4 pm when we landed in Dothan which meant it was already 5 pm in Blakely 30 miles away. We pulled into the first FBO for a quick gas and go. The receptionist said the line crew was busy but would be back shortly. Chris had the alertness to ask what she meant by “shortly” and when she said half an hour we said we’d taxi on down to the other FBO to get gas which is when she told us the other FBO was out of gas so there we were. But, southern hospitality is real and she called the line guys on the radio who stopped what they were doing and came back to top us off. Half an hour later we were on our way to Blakely which only took 30 minutes and we were on the ground well before sunset. Things had gone way better than planned even with the weather stop in Austin. It took a total of 12.5 flight hours to cover the 1900 miles for an average ground speed of 152 knots and we never had to use any of the fuel in the tip tanks.

T-34 Co-Pilot

Tex’s new owner took us out to dinner Saturday night and we had breakfast with the Mayor of Blakely Sunday morning at Micky D’s. Chris and I were able to catch a 2:00 pm flight out of Dothan and with the connection in Atlanta we got back to San Diego by 6 pm instead of midnight. A really super 3 day weekend.

2006 MCAS Yuma Air Show

A January air show in Minneapolis sounds as crazy as a July air show in Yuma. But, the flight line in Yuma in February is heaven. Like the PGA, the winter air show circuit covers the sunbelt in the Southwest U.S. Not only do the Marines at MCAS Yuma get to thank their hometown hosts for all the hospitality in Yuma they also get to show their stuff to the large influx of winter visitors in the area that double the population of this desert oasis from October to April every year. This was the 44^th Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma Airshow and it’s a tradition that is worth seeing. It is a real home town air show with a big hardware flight line where over 80 military and civilian aircraft were on static display.

Col.Ben Hancock, the current station commander atYuma, is no stranger to the air show business after a two year tour on the Blue Angles in the right wing position. He emphasized the need for his Marines to let the surrounding community visit the base and see what the Marine aviators are doing there with the F-5Es of the VMFT-401 Marine adversary squadron and the four squadrons of AV-8B, Harriers (VMA-211, VMA-214, VMA-311 and VMA-513).  The people inYuma appreciated the opportunity with an estimated 31,000 spending the day at the air station.

Arguably, a deficiency of winter air shows is the lack of the Blue Angles or the Thunderbirds who are busy doing their off season work ups to break in new team members. However, John “Country” Mills, this year’s air show coordinator, did a good job of lining up the “usual suspects” for both civilian and military flight demos. John Collver flew his T-6 “War Dog”. Pitts demos included Jacquie Warda, Sonny Weller, and John Melby. Tim Weber flew his German built Extra 30 and Rob Harrison flew his Czch built Zlin 50. Greg Medford put on a solo demo in a Nanchang CJ-6A in concert with other pilots flying a 4-ship formation of CJ-6As. Chuck Hall brought his P-51D, “Six Shooter”, from Ramona to fly an Air Force Heritage flight formation with the Capt Dax Cornelius, the F-16 demo pilot from Hill AFB, UT who flew an F-16 demonstration prior to the heritage flight. The Air Force also sent the A-10 demo team from Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ with Capt Brian Willits as the pilot.

The Marines showed off their stuff with the always popular AV-8B Harrier vertical takeoff and landing show.

There’s an Army presence inSouthwest Arizona at the Yuma Proving Grounds so the Golden Knight Parachute team opened the day by delivering the ceremonial U.S. Flag to Maj. Gen Michael Lehnert, Commanding General for Marine Corps Installations, West Coast, who presided over the activities and welcomed Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. There was a good display of Army hardware as well.Yumais where the Golden Knights do their annual winter training before the full blown air show season kicks off. The Yuma Air Show is their first public performance of the season.

A unique performance team every year at the Yuma Airshow has nothing to do with aviation but is just as impressive. The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps also callsYumatheir winter home where they get ready for a busy summer schedule inWashington,DC. They perform the weekly Tuesday evening Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima memorial and the traditional Friday evening Tattoo at the Marine Barracks.

2009 Moscow Air Show

F-15 Pilot with MiG-29

When the San Diego Air & Space Museum put together a trip to Moscow for the 2009 MAKS Air Show I thought the price looked a little steep until I studied the itinerary and determined it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. For an Air Force pilot that stared across the Iron Curtain for a good part of my career I couldn’t miss seeing the displays at the air show and the former Soviet arsenal that we would have access to thanks to the museum’s contacts. In addition to the air show there would be stops at the Russian Air Force Museum at Monino Air Base, the Museum of the Soviet Forces, the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (World War II), the cosmonaut training center at Star City and the Russian Academy of Civil Aviation in St. Petersburg. Each stop would have a designated host to explain the exhibits and we would have an interpreter to translate what the host said.

For those who know as little Russian as I do, MAKS is the acronym you get from the first letters of the Russian words for International Air and Space Salon. I don’t know why they don’t call it the Moscow Air Show. Just filling out the application for the Russian visit visa told me it was going to be fun and that the four former military pilots in our group of nine would have a “shadow” for the entire trip. The two most interesting questions on the visa application were, “Have you ever participated in an armed conflict,” and “Have you ever been trained in the use of nuclear weapons.” With 323 combat missions in North and South Vietnam and 2½ years of sitting nuke alert in Germany I was a winner!

The first day at the air show saw half a million people show up at the same time so getting through the ticket and security lines even with advanced tickets took an hour and a half. The weather was doggy both Saturday and Sunday and the only opportunity to fly high shows occurred on Saturday afternoon but, they were impressive. Although the USAFE A-10, F-15 and F-16 demo teams had been preparing to attend, President Obama abruptly cancelled any U.S. military participation just two weeks prior to the show. The Russians did not disappoint however, showing off the MiG-29 Fulcrum, the Su-27 Flanker and the Su-34 Fullback. While the Russian Knights suffered a mid-air collision the week prior during practice for the air show, killing the leader and cancelling their participation, the Russian Falcons and Swifts flew formation demonstrations in the MiG-29 and Su-27. Also present were the Italian Frecce Tricolori in their 10 Aermacchi MB-339s and the Patrouille de France in their nine Alpha Jets. The other seven people in our group didn’t want to fight the crowds on Sunday but, my son, who is also a pilot, and I wanted to return presenting a dilemma for our guide. Miraculously, she was able to find a friend who wanted to attend the air show and would be happy to keep us company while our guide showed the rest of our group an art gallery in Moscow. Sunday was low shows all day but it was very amazing watching the Italians fly a 10-ship tight formation show under a 2,000 foot overcast. We spent a lot of Sunday looking at the static displays and the exhibit halls which were every bit as impressive as anything you will see at Oshkosh or the NBAA convention.  This was definitely an “I love Russia” air show and display but it was 100% enjoyable. It was very interesting to note that they are now all “Russian” and the word “Soviet” has dropped from the vocabulary even though much of the old mentality persists.

The trip to the Russian Air Force Museum at Monino was every bit as spectacular as all the web posts make it out to be.  A vast array of 185 different aircraft, from pre-World War I up to currently operational aircraft, is on display. It is the equivalent of our museum at Wright-Patterson but it is operated on a shoe-string
budget and it’s very disappointing to see all these aircraft in open storage exposed to the environment that Moscow has to offer in the winter.

Gary Power's U-2

The visit to Star City gave us the opportunity to see the world’s largest centrifuge and experience their International Space Station mockup and trainer. Our cosmonaut host, Colonel Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin, had been on two space flights and is preparing for his third.

A nice surprise was the visit to the museum at the Russian Academy of Civil Aviation in St. Petersburg. This is a state run school for people who want to be mechanics, airline pilots or air traffic controllers. The courses offered are similar to Embry-Riddle University in Florida or Prescott but it is a more certain pipeline to employment in the Russian civil aeronautics system. The museum is a small six room facility in the academy and the museum’s director was delighted to host us. She treated us like royalty and invited each of us back to make a presentation at their annual aviation symposium in May.

Checklist Discipline

Why do pilots stop using checklists?

Safety experts use words like familiarity or complacency. It might be because many general aviation pilots have never been told about the difference between a do-list and a checklist. They are actually the same document; it’s just a matter of how you use it.

When we first learn to fly or we check out in a new airplane, we tend to use the checklist as a do-list. Think about the preflight or the before-takeoff checks you performed when you first started flying. You looked at the first item on the checklist and you did it. Then you looked at the second item and did it, and so on, until you got through your checklist. That makes thechecklist a do-list.  But, as you got proficient, you developed habit patterns for each task and you became comfortable to the point that you may have thought you didn’t need the checklist anymore. Professional pilots call this habit pattern a flow pattern; but the difference is that after they do the flow pattern, they then review the checklist and make sure they didn’t miss any items on the checklist for that task.

Looking at the pre-flight checklist for example, you should do your normal interior cockpit checks and then review the checklist. Next, do the exterior inspection using the habit pattern you have developed, and when you are done, back yourself up with another review of the checklist. With my military background, I actually do two exterior inspections. The first time around the airplane, I do everything the crew chief used to do before I got to the airplane: take off the tie downs, check and drain the fuel sumps, check the oil and clean the canopy if necessary. Then I do the pilot’s preflight: check the brakes and tires, look at the control surfaces, check the pitot tube and static port, and generally check the physical condition of the exterior in a sequential walk around of the airplane. Now it’s time to review the checklist and make sure I didn’t miss anything the operating handbook says I need to look at.

Review the Checklist after the Pre-Flight

Once in the airplane, I use a flow pattern from left to right across and down the center console to make sure all the switches are in the right place, the circuit breakers are in, and the fuel system is properly configured. Now it’s time to review the Before Engine Start Checklist. Some manufacturers are better than others about organizing their checklists in a good flow pattern.  If your checklist is not well organized for a flow pattern, that’s all the more reason to develop a logical flow pattern and then follow up with the checklist.

With the engine started, it’s time to set things up before requesting taxi to runway. My before-taxi flow pattern is actually more detailed than the manufacturer’s checklist: I get the ATIS, set the altimeters, program my fuel management system, get my clearance (if  IFR), load the flight plan (IFR or VFR), set up the departure instructions with the heading bug and altitude alerter, and set the transponder.

With a G1000 aircraft, you can simply take a tour around the bezel of the PFD and then do the same thing around the MFD. Your PFD tour should prompt you to check you commfrequencies, verify the baro and course settings (you can check the baro setting on the standby altimeter too), your flight plan, any annunciations, your transponder setting, CDI nav source, your PFD display settings and the inset map. On the MFD you can check the nav frequencies and heading bug selection for your departure leg, do your auto pilot checks, verify the altitude alert setting for your first level off (or clearance) altitude, check your engine details including resetting your fuel counter to the current fuel on board, and set your map view to include a sanity check of the route you have programmed in the FMS, and then scale down to be able to monitor your taxi route. Now use the checklist to verify your flow pattern covered all the required items.

Two things to check as you taxi are the brakes and the flight instruments. Other than that, you should be head out of the cockpit paying attention to your taxi route to avoid wrong turns, a surface deviation, or an inadvertent runway incursion.

In the run up area, it’s time for another flow pattern before you back yourself up with the before takeoff checklist. I also use the CHORRD before takeoff checklist for myself in addition to the aircraft checklist to make sure I’m ready. I review the Conditions, Hazards associated with the conditions, Operational considerations because of the conditions, Runway available/required,Return immediately after takeoff, and the Departure procedure VFR or IFR.

Once you’re in the air, do the same sequence of flow pattern and checklist for the takeoff and climb checks, your level-off and cruise checks, descent checks, before landing checks, after landing checks, and shutdown checks. You’ll quickly find that the checklist is a friend and not a burden because it’s no longer a do-list and you might surprise yourself with a V-8 moment every now and then.