mh wrote:
during the skill test or during a biannual training flight? On the ground or in the Air.
On the ground, during approval check flight to rent an aircraft from a 3rd party (not biennial review) whilst setting the switches / gauges as part of the pretaxi checks; The instructor wanted either a) a checklist to be followed or b) an acronym. This was whilst I was flying an Archer 3 and later in the flight I also made the mistake of completing my after landing checks without referring to the checklist but using a flow from bottom to top…..
during the skill test or during a biannual training flight? On the ground or in the Air.
Dave_Phillips wrote:
I don’t use any. I follow ‘flow’.
I tried that once, got a bollocking when doing a check flight because I wasn’t following a ‘clearly defined checklist’. An acronym was accepted as an alternative for a paper checklist but a flow wasn’t…. go figure…..
I don’t use any. I follow ‘flow’.
BUMPFFAILDH – this is what I learned as downwind checks on an Arrow:
Brakes (off)
Undercarriage (Down)
Mixture (rich)
Prop (forward)
Fuel – fullest tank, pump on
Flaps – first stage
Alternate air – off
Indications – Ts & Ps green
Landing light – on
Doors – closed
Harness – secured (seatbelts)
Hasell I also extend with:
Height – sufficient to recover
Airframe – clean
Security – loose objects secured
Engine – Ts & Ps good
Location – free of
A – airspace
B – built up areas
C – control zones
C – Clouds
D – Danger Zones
Lookout – two clearing turns.
When flying the Arrow I would also use Reds, Blues and Greens turning onto final and when on final, call “Final, 3 green” whilst checking the lights. Some airfields which knew I was flying a retractable would call ‘check gear’ if you called Final and didn’t follow up with 3 green…..
Well, then, there’s also one for diagnostics of complex avionics, WTFIIDN (What The * Is It Doing Now)
T-LAR
T That
L Looks
A about
R right
Ahh, the joys of operating a simple machine, VFR. Probably just as well for my brain doesn’t seem to work with acronym mnemonics (or acronyms in general) so I would forever be trying to remember what the ‘F’ or the ‘A’ stood for. Nor did it make any sense to me when learning to fly that there was, for example, a check for ‘undercarriage down and locked’ in a fixed gear trainer and the nonsense of that sort of thing rather put me off persevering with such ‘aids’, but each to their own.
My aircraft has a single fuel tank with a float and wire indicator out front, no variable prop, no carb heat, no mixture, no gyros, no electrics, no flaps, single ignition and a parking handbrake. So if it’s making a noise up front and the oil pressure is normal then it’s probably OK. It does however have a retractable gear and that’s the one thing I do have to verify before landing. And yes, I am one of those who ‘have’.
mnemonics suit the way the human brain works…
Not mine and not the brain of many others, but if it works for you, everything is fine.
For me, if I have a sensible flow check in the aircraft I fly, I can remember everything much faster and more accurate than acronyms and the flow is fit for the plane I fly (e.g. no gear, prop, mixture checks in the Sperling or no carb heat in the Lake…)
Long paper lists are for the ground and to recall a flow if necessary, short abbreviated lists as a plackard work very well for me.
I must not be a real pilot….I use and remember plenty of mnemonics….
BUMMFFPPCHH downwind
GUMP final
FISH crash
FCMIT engine problem
CRAP short final
FREDA enroute
CAPHAD calling radar
CARPACER calling info
Lights, Camera, Action when entering rwy
Etc…
After nearly 25 years they are burned into my memory…many items are redundant, depending on the airplane…but I’d rather say Undercarriage unnecessarily than forget it one day….or Carb heat..
Checklist for startup and run up only…..but that’s just me…I don’t get the almost religious anti-mnemonic sentiment here…mnemonics suit the way the human brain works…
