Transitioning from 7ECA to C172 RG Cutlass

Bartman said:
Bob, your years of experience and comfort in the planes you fly don't transfer to new pilots you instruct. I don't know about you but when I had students, I taught them procedures that I knew would protect them in the event they didn't fly very often or chose to fly on days when they weren't really in the right mindset to go flying. I was trying to protect them after I was no longer with them and using checklists was one aspect of that philosophy.
In the video, the pilot used a checklist procedure from a plane that he had more experience in and then, in the absence of a corrective action for the actual airplane he was flying, he took off with the flaps at 40 degrees and crashed with his three passengers soon after takeoff.
Click to expand...
Sad stuff!!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I see nothing wrong with including flaps in a pre-takeoff checklist. You guys are mis-understanding me. I am quite sure that a ten minute after-start checklist in a 172 is counter-productive, and in fact not safe. I am simply suggesting that stuff you do not need on a checklist ought not to be there.

Do you really think that a Cub pilot should have six checklist items to do between clearance for takeoff and brake release?

The very first item on my pre-takeoff checklist is controls (including flaps). The only item on my after start checklist is oil pressure.

We have folks who do ten minute checklists after start, and before taxi. Two pilots studying a checklist with their heads down in a hangar alley with little kids and dogs running around - not good! We had a Conquest driver who took a quarter hour between engine start and brake release - that is why we are all deaf!
 
I agree with you in a cub or Citabria or even a cutlass. Of course I’m not a PP or low time. Hell i don’t even know what they’re training now. I let my CFI expire yrs ago 😞
 
I take a lot of sh@@ for granted at this point in my life. Just ask my PP hangar mate. I just try not to be that guy. I had to study like hell for my last BFR. Hell they don’t even call them that anymore.
 
All that is required for a BFR/flight review is an hour of ground instruction and an hour of flight instruction. You do not get a grade - it is a “review.”

Instruction is different from examination.

The Flight Review is to catch those folks who do not fly very often. I have been known to refuse to do flight reviews for folks who fly five hours a year. And folks who appear to be getting “too old.”

But my troops fly over a hundred hours per year, often switching between the Stearman and the Cirrus. They don’t need much “review.”
 
I guess I just didn’t want to fail one. Even if it’s just a review. I’ve never failed a check ride, excluding an instrument ride years ago, and I didn’t want to start now. Just saying.
 
huge drift here....

Let me try to answer the actual question for the OP.

Sounds like you will study the POH for the new plane. Great! Cessnas are pretty easy and straight forward across the board. Your instructor should show you the flows.

I, like the OP, flew primarily my own 7ECA for several hundred hours before transitioning into trikes, which just happened to be a 172.

As an experienced instructor, here are my three tidbits about your transition;

1. you will make ALL your landings in what you would call a 3-point landing in a tailwheel, This is the sight picture you want, then hold that picture as your plane decelerates and the nose settles down to the ground. Nose wheels will shimmy just like tailwheels if they hit hard and fast, especially in the older worn out planes. Also, When I transitioned..... I may have dragged my tail thinking there was a tailwheel back there! haha. Keep that in mind! I might be the only monkey to do that, but I doubt it! seeing as the flight school planes had thick UHMW on the bottom of the tails for a reason.

2. The plane you may be flying may have 40* flaps. My recommendation is to not use all 40* until you have some time getting comfortable with the plane. 30 is more than enough, such so that Cessna did away with 40* in newer planes. It's a lot of drag that the plane may or may not be able to fly with if you needed to do a go around or aborted landing. Get your go-around flow down first.

3. Lastly, and this is retract specific..... don't do "touch and goes". Do full stop-and-taxi back, or full stop-and-goes if you have enough runway. I used to be against this for the sake of efficiency, but I've seen several very experienced pilots and very experienced instructors not fast enough, have the plane fall on its nose. The squat switch, or weight on wheels switch is on the nose gear on a 172RG. And on a tough-and-go, the nose gear is light on the ground, and the pilot inadvertently moves the gear into retract instead of the flaps, and the nose gear tucks FAST, and down you go on the cowling.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. These are just a few of the foundations that I teach, once the student has a handle on things, I start to introduce other techniques. But we have to start somewhere.

Hope this helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top