I'm re-doing my preflight checklist to include the things I use a lot today that weren't features when my checklist was laminated a long time ago. Arm Spot, Set starting gallons in the fuel computer, start clock, current approach plates in foreflight queue? are the ones I'm adding so far.

I quit at the right time. I always kept the fuel on both, leaned to max rpm, and checked the mags. I didn't even have to write it down. Flying at least three days a week makes a difference.

We expect to be in Denver the week of 20 Jul.

Beer, check
Ice, check
Positive attitude, check
Sense of humor, check [emoji12]

Check.

Contact-- I'm wheels up for CA in the morning, won't catch you this time. Got a Grandmother circling the drain with pancreatic cancer.

Va ya con Dios.

I have one thing on my checklist and it is a question. Is this going to be your last flight? Then I check everything I can for a third time.

Skalywag wrote:Beer, check
Ice, check
Positive attitude, check
Sense of humor, check [emoji12]

Don't forget the pack of smokes! LOL

Back when I was flying, I added the SPOT to my checklist too.

Probably get bashed, but I'm actually taking stuff out. Less is more for me. I don't do this for a living, I'm a complete amateur. I figure the less "moving parts" or variables I have the better off I am. IMO....super cubs, Scouts, and 170's are simple for a reason.

Bill

Fuel caps
Oil cap
Towbar
GoPro

In Army aircraft we had the long checklist for startup. For takeoff it was just 6600 RPM, rotor in the green, fuel so many pounds, no caution, no warning, bleed air off. For First Up status, in either gunship or medevac, we started up and didn't beep the linear actuator down for shutdown. That way the pilot could start in about a minute while the AC got the coordinates and mission from ops. AC would point a direction and then get helmet on and strapped in on the way to the target.

Zzz wrote:Fuel caps
Oil cap
Towbar
GoPro

"Towbar".....glad you're thinking of this one. I've seen several Cessnas taxiing merrily along with the towbar leading the way. I'm always amazed that they didn't bounce right up into the prop arc. I always cringe when I see anyone leave a towbar on a parked airplane. If you *ALWAYS* remove it when not in use, and I do mean ALWAYS!, you'll never taxi out / take off with it attached. If you don't wanna stow it, just use it for a chock. Piper has the right idea with their tow bars that hook into a pair of eyes on the nose fork-- they pivot down and disengage when not being held in the towing position.

The trouble with a long checklist (or any checklist), is that people get in the habit of running down it and saying check - sometimes without actually checking. I was in the back seat on a buddy's instrument training flight, and listened to him do his centerline check ("three green, props to go") when on final after a long slow partial panel straight-in (VOR) approach. Unfortunately he'd never did his before landing checklist to begin with! The instructor caught it & gave me a wink, then when on really short final asked my friend if he was planning on putting the gear down. Oopsie!

For the same reason, I'm against reciting "gear down" or "landing on water- wheels up" or "landing on land wheels down" in a fixed gear airplane. That doesn't keep you in practice for an amphib, it trains you to say something that doesn't have any meaning & doesn't require to do anything one way or the other. Remember, you will perform as you've trained to perform.

Flew all the way across Missouri on Shell Ozark Pipeline with the tow bar still attached to the nose wheel of my 172.

Sweet

My pre-landing checklist always includes a good push on each brake. Had one fail on me a few years ago, and though it was not that bad, it was not all that good either.

I had to add "Exhaust plug removed".

I forgot to remove it a couple times before starting the engine. With the plug in the engine either won't start and I keep priming it and flood it or it barely runs for a couple seconds and pops and bangs and scares the crap out of me.

Controls - Free and Correct
Instruments - Set and reading correctly
Gas - Do I have enough and is it on Both
Gauges - Engine gauges in the green
Radios - Frequencies needed and Transponder code
Run Up - Uh, run up

But, I'm a day time VFR pilot in a very simple Cessna 170.
I might have to expand that once I buy a twin.

hotrod180 wrote:

Zzz wrote:Fuel caps
Oil cap
Towbar
GoPro

The trouble with a long checklist (or any checklist), is that people get in the habit of running down it and saying check - sometimes without actually checking.

You got that right Hotrod. I got lazy recently, (and busy) and when the first oil change came due on my new (er) crane, I dropped it off at the local Cat dealer. 56 qts in that Mack engine I was working right across the street earlier in the day, and I've been making some bucks off CAT doing crane work on their new much bigger facility, plus feeding them a steady stream of aerial pics of the new build. Plus the head of the service shop way back when used to be one of my hang glider drivers, and I've always gotten good service before, usually hydraulic work.

Long story short, I noticed a couple days later I was dripping oil while on a job site, since the front end was already way up in the air due to the slope I was on, I had good access to the bottom of the engine. The drip was coming from the oil plug:it was on finger snug Keep in mind I had driven it over 200 miles that way, plus worked it on site for several hours. To add insult to injury, my work order clearly spelled out:changed oil and all filters, TORQUED DRAIN PLUG. Bull shit! They also missed several zert fittings (GREASED CHASSIS), missed two filters (CHANGE ALL FILTERS) and put scratches in the hood when they didn't drop the front stabilizer when they opened the hood. Frigging Jiffy Lube could have done better. But that pencil whipping re: the drain plug really shows how even with a check list (SCRATCH HOOD, CHECK) bad things can still happen.

No offense guys, but not using a detailed checklist because you "might" skip over the list is a pretty poor excuse and just plain lazy.

I have this argument with a lot of "old tymers" I fly with who poo poo my checklists. "I just use a flow" they say. Unfortunately the data is in and there is no argument to be made. Using a detailed checklist properly is better than an abbreviated one, or none at all.

Data is in: apparently I'm a poor excuse for just plain lazy [emoji12]

This is what I use.

Of course I do my flows and follow up with the checklist.

After all it's a check list not a do list