Well, but the systematic approach could maybe work out better without the SOPs en extensive checklists used in multi-crew environments when you fly alone by yourself as the single pilot and if IFR even have a higher workload.
Aeroplus, that was my point. It is key to have a system that works for you and minimises the risk of key items being missed. I religiously use my written checklist for one thing only, engine starts - actually due to cost rather than safety. My other checks such as line up and prelanding I do from memory. But in each case there are really only a few items. My view would be different if I had multiple people flying my plane. I always leave it configured the same way for example and try to configure items at the same stage on every flight. Eg I set takeoff flaps before taxi.
By-heart checklists is fine if you fly regularly, say once a week at least. If not, for me it is way too risky to keep those things in mind.
Mooney's manual doesn't come with pre-defined checklists for the "C" Model,but rather with a vocal description, so there are lots of different checklists in circulation. The plane came with 2 totally different ones, one very "pedestrian" version in German and one "doctorate" work of some instructor inspired by A320 or similar size plane procedures. I then had a look around in the Mooney community and found a Letter sized professionally produced checklist on plastic sheet which I ordered. I felt it was pretty good but made obviously for American use, so I started to compose my own, based on that one and added the airplane particulars. I did run it by the pilots as well as a CAA inspector who found it adequate for ops, so that is what we have been using since. I had it printed and sealed so it looks pretty much like the one I purchased in the US. Normal checklist in front, Emergency and Abnormal on the back side plus a few aide memoirs such as operation of the fuel computer and power setting tables for 65% and 75% printed there as well as there was space.
Safety is a very individual thing particularly in small GA. It depends on a lot of personal factors, such as flight currency, experience and responsibility as well as on local factors such as weather, terrain, prevailing conditions. There are in my opinion no "bullet proof" recipes but one has to come up with one's personal and strictly adhered to guidelines on what can be safely done and what should not even be attempted.
I agree with most what has been said here so I won't elaborate on those factors. For me personally, considering my experience and currency, I have put rather conservative planning limits in place to which I ahdere, even though they mean a lot of cancellations. For once, I have stopped planning longer trips in VFR and will leave them to the time when I will have my IR back and the plane certified for IFR. VFR Trips in Europe of more than a few days are simply a high risk adventure I have decided to do without. The exceedingly poor model performance in the last 2 years (particularly this year) tells me that I can not to my satisfaction proove more than maybe 2 days ahead of time if VMC is going to be available for, say, an Alpine crossing VFR, so with having to plan months ahead of time for my days off, I simply stopped even considering such trips.If I have a period of time available, I will check a day or two before where it is possible to fly to and do that. Mostly that means not to cross the alps as they hardly ever stay open for more than a day or two at the time outside the high summer season (and not too often in there as well, 2013 being an exception)
The biggest killer I believe is pressure to get someplace at a fixed time and date. VFR, that never ever works. IFR it is a different story.
So for me, the biggest safety case is to get an IR and to get the plane equipped up to a standard where IFR can be flown safely and regularly. VFR outside purely recreational 200$ burger trips is the single most dangerous enterprise I can think of, having experienced the climate situation around my base in Switzerland for the last 4 years, so I don't do it anymore. Practically, I hope for EASA to getting around finalizing the IR they are on about and will then do that, if that is not possible, I will probably stop flying.
AeroPlus, in the follow up to that article the author himself put all that "throw away your written checklist" stuff into another perspective.
I am convinced personally that the before take-off checklist has to be on paper or on the MFD or (like in older PA-28s) on the panel in some abbreviated form.
Maybe YOU are a mental genius, I am not, and I am sure that under pressure ("are you ready for immediate take-off?") it is VERY simple to forget a critical item. And if you forgt more than one and then experience ANOTHER not foreseeable problem you are ready for disaster.
Since it has NO drawback and only costs A LITTLE TIME I do not see a good reason to throw away the checklist. As I said, in the Cirrus the shorter version takes about 30 seconds and I alwasys have time enough for that.
If you're going to forget a mental checklist under pressure, you'll probably forget a printed one too. I find a mnemonic works well for before takeoff (similar to the CBSITCB what the BGA uses for gliders - and the Auster is of similar complexity to a glider if the truth be known!) for our very straightforward Auster. (There is as it happens a small printed checklist - about 2 inches wide and one inch long on the panel, put there by a previous owner). It doesn't really need mental genius to run through a mnemonic.
I am not against checklists, but against the elaborate checklists we are given when we do our PPL or IR training. There is nothing against having a short checklist at hand that you use. Or, if you feel comfortable with it, run the checklists from memory or do the flow patterns. It depends on personality, frequency of your flights amongst others how you handle the checklist usage.
Another point is that I often sit next to a pilot running the checklist and then I ask them if they know what they are actually doing, e.g. checking magnetos or why certain items are on the checklist and they actually often don't know or don't have a clue and thus are just running the checklist to run the checklist and get that done with.
Another point is that I often sit next to a pilot running the checklist and then I ask them if they know what they are actually doing, e.g. checking magnetos or why certain items are on the checklist and they actually often don't know or don't have a clue and thus are just running the checklist to run the checklist and get that done with.
This is no fault of the checklist, but simply poor instruction (often "second generation" instruction because quite a few instructors themselves were never taught why the switches are required to be in certain positions at certain times...)
I am not allowed to reproduce them here, but our checklists - both at work and at the flying school - fit on a laminated sheet of A5 (approx. 1/2 US letter). It is just one tiny little extra safety net, and if it catches a forgotten altimeter setting once per year (and it certainly does!) it is worth being used.
Yes, my opinion too – it can not speak against the checklist that some pilots have no idea about their planes or how to use checklists.
I also don't think that the WHOLE checklists have to be used all the time. But I am sure that a written document (or on the MFD) creates less failures than doing all checks from memory.
I have flow my previous airplane, a very well equipped Warrior for about 1000 hours and while i did all checks from memory I always double checked on the paper Checklist (and later on an iPhone checklist) that I had not forgotten anything. This strategy paid off because in those 1000 hours I made the following mistakes:
This was all, in 18 years. I think it speaks for disciplined usage of the checklist.
I am not against checklists, but against the elaborate checklists we are given when we do our PPL or IR training.
At least were I learned to fly (US), the checklist wasn't any longer than the one I use now. I have, however, seen some that are ridiculous!
It depends on personality, frequency of your flights amongst others how you handle the checklist usage.
I think AeroPlus has it here. If you fly (as he appears to be doing) almost daily, always in the same - your own - airplane, then you probably don't need one, although I personally think it's still a good idea to use a - short - one.
OTH, if you are like me who flies much less frequently, different types of a/c and vastly different locations, then a checklist is most definitely a 'must have'. This can also be a personalized version. For example, most of my flying has always been from airports with an ATIS. After catching myself a couple of times of not setting the altimeter at a small strip, I added 'set altimeter' in bold. Hasn't happened since....
I was just doing some admin and came across this old thread.
I thought this post is especially interesting. It is some sort of risk scoring table, apparently from Cirrus or some related body, which attempts to put a number on the risk.
Also interesting they say Night IFR is a NO GO.
