Citabria Why does the preflight include checking the wing root fairings?

[kubark42]

It's so oddly specific, and I wonder what makes this jump out. When I see this on the checklist, I feel it's got to be important enough to warrant being there. Otherwise, it's just decreasing the signal to noise ratio, increasing the probability of something truly important being jumped over.

Is there a historical problem with the fairings coming loose?

 

[Bob Turner]

My checklist says:

Fluids - Check
Paperwork - Check
Airframe -Check

This checklist must be in the student's hand during walk-around to pass a DPE checkride. A 20 page checklist is not only not required; it also may be counter productive. Opinion.

 

[aftCG]

Because they're a cheesy design and the screws back out. Ignore if you want to.

 

[Bob Turner]

I keep a supply of sheet metal screws.

It has been a while since I read a factory checklist - the Decathlon “engine start” checklist includes such critical items as mixture, master, mags, and believe it or not, start button!

If you need a checklist to remind you of those sorts of things, please carefully consider your own safety and that of those around you when operating anything more complicated than a bicycle.

Opinion.

 

[aftCG]

I think we had a good laugh about checklists before. I joked that my checklist was "carb heat" and was corrected that it wasn't always necessary.

With the T-6 I learned to do the entire thing from before engine start to engine failure with a flow. Darn paper checklists blow out of an open cockpit plane right about time you rotate, so it seemed like a good idea. With the T-6 pretty much every activity starts by my left hip and flows forward and to the right. What I do with each control (prop, mixture, fuel selector) might change but the flow does not.

So I turned around and adopted flow instead of paper checklist to the Citabria. The only exception was that after run up (not during) I would pull the laminated checklist out of the door pocket so I could say "yep, yep, yep, did that, yep" and put it away. No harm in doing so and it sets a good example for passengers.

 

[Bartman]

the wing root might be on the list because if you are doing acro, that is where fuel leaks would first appear.

I use a paper checklist to protect me from myself on my worst day when I opt to go flying anyway.

 

[Bob Turner]

I have them either decalled or pasted somewhere. I teach my students to use them. Doesn't make any difference whether they do a flow, then check, or just "do" except for emergency checklists, which are by memory first (flow). Then, for the examiner, the student puts his/her finger on the checklist and says "engine failure checklist complete."

Keep them simple and folks use them. Make them seven pages long and they are ignored.

 

[Big Ed]

The start and runup checklists on the back cover of the Univair aftermarket Decathlon POH are about the right length and detail. The POH is also the right size to wedge between the side of the glare shield and the windshield, handy in case you need it for reference in flight.

For some reason I ALWAYS forget to flip the mags on after priming when I start the engine without the checklist. But I'll confess, I do not use a checklist for preflight inspection.



My first career was in the Army, 20 years in Infantry and Special Forces. Training often involves sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, lack of food, and shitty weather. Halucination due to lack of sleep was not uncommon during some of the more arduous courses like Ranger school. In those conditions, rigid adherence to checklists is about the only thing that keeps people functional and safe. Even the most simple task, like telling someone where you are going, had a checklist to be followed.

 

[Bob Turner]

But if you actually used that checklist you would never forget the mags.

My thesis is that if you forget the mags you are perfectly safe. But if you can figure out how to get an engine started without reading about mags, mixture, prime, and start button, you will not really hurt anything, and may be a bit safer because you are looking out the window instead of reading.

Once you are started, consider what you really need to do to avoid a catastrophe - oil pressure, for instance, or fuel status, or did you remove the control locks, or set the trim, or get seatbelts on? I use CIGAR TIPS, which seems to cover all that very well, and is easy to read off a mounted placard. Landing, GUMPS seems to do it - how many folks with a long landing checklist actually pull it out and read it? Not my Cirrus friends - they have extremely lengthy checklists, but just check the prop and mixture at the outer marker.

Our 737 checklists were way shorter than the above Decathlon checklist, yet included all the stuff that could get you in trouble.