It is my strong belief that few pilots (rightly so!) use the same checklist for all of their flight operations in a particular aircraft. Even if they always open the same manufacturer’s current checklist, I believe the way it is used causes it to become a rather different set of procedures. Here are a couple of quick examples: Is the checklist used for the exterior preflight? Is it read thoroughly for the starting engines procedure? I think I will receive almost 100% agreement that scrupulous attention to every checklist challenge and response line is very rarely, if ever, made during these procedures. Is this a bad thing? In my opinion, an emphatic “No!” is the answer.
I hope that you’ve all heard of the difference between a CHECKlist and a DOlist. When an airplane is brand-new to the pilot, he/she must be directed what to DO and exactly how to DO it. This is, of course, expected since the whole process is totally new. With practice and experience comes the knowledge that allows the instructions governing what to do during a particular checklist step to get relegated to the “back seat” of the braincells and the procedure can be thoroughly and safely accomplished without following the step-by-step list of DOs. However, we must accept the fact that we as humans can make mistakes and that CHECKing our actions is a very good thing to do to catch these errors before they catch us and cause a problem. At this stage, the checklist truly aligns with its name: A necessary and important aid in CHECKing that nothing of importance has been overlooked.
Imagine that you are Pilot-in-Command (PIC) on the last flight before your King Air undergoes a Phase inspection. For many of you, this will likely be an annual combination of Phase 1 and 2 or a combined Phase 3 and 4, plus attending to calendar items … such as landing gear or propeller overhauls. What an incredibly important flight this is! Now is the time – no matter how familiar you have become with your CHECKlists – to act as if you are totally new to this machine and use the entire POH’s Normal Procedures section as a DOlist. Time-consuming? Tedious? You bet! But oh, so important! You want to know the status of every system in your King Air so that you can provide the shop personnel with an accurate list of what needs special attention. “But, Tom, the shop will check things themselves and probably do a better job than I can. Why duplicate their efforts?”
In a few cases, you have stated a correct observation and a lot of efforts will indeed be duplicated. But some won’t. How about cabin leak-rate tests? How about the engines meeting cruise power requirements at altitude?
“But wait a minute. Those things aren’t on the POH’s Normal Procedures lists. I don’t know what to do nor how to do it!” I am sure this is a true statement for many of my readers. In some cases, you’ll just have to go with the shop’s findings even if they are not as complete as we’d like. But move the step up to a higher level as you gain experience in your particular new-to-you flying machine. Get a more-experienced pilot or an experienced King Air mechanic to go with you on some flights to demonstrate how and what to check. Take notes. Video the procedure on your smartphone. Review the King Air Academy’s videos on You Tube. Follow some threads on the Beechtalk forum. Read The King Air Book and The King Air Book Volume II. There is a lot of helpful information out there waiting for those who search for it. Before the airplane leaves your hands and enters the shop, you want to ensure that everything within your capability has been examined by you and that a list of discrepancies has been made. Realize that you are the PIC, not the shop foreman or owner.
The same procedure is necessary (maybe even more so!) when you pick up the airplane after the maintenance procedure has been completed. Few shops conduct a test flight with their own people after the maintenance is completed. Now is not the time to “Kick the tires, light the fires and go!” Disregard what the humorous T-shirt says: “What could go wrong? It just came out of the shop?” Sadly, but truly, a LOT of things on your squawk-list can still be wrong and some new ones often crop up as well. I will even go so far as to make this suggestion: Give yourself an extra day before returning the airplane to normal service. Give the shop enough time to deal with the problems uncovered after the test flight that you conduct before you fly back to your home base.
Similarly, how about when the airplane is in the shop not for scheduled maintenance but for other work? Maybe some new avionics have been installed or the airplane has had an interior upgrade or exterior paint job. Often the shop you chose for the avionics or cosmetic work may be hundreds of miles away from your home base. How expensive it can become when multiple roundtrips must be made to resolve the problems that were not observed during the acceptance procedure! Again, budget enough time to check it out very thoroughly. One example: A paint shop failed to remove the paper with which it had covered the oil coolers to keep the new paint off the cooler’s fins. The pilots missed that mistake during their exterior preflight inspection. Oil temperature quickly rose enough after takeoff to send them scurrying back to the departure airport.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: The most dangerous flight most of us civilian pilots will make is the first one after maintenance. Now’s the time to run the DOlists very carefully and completely.
But what about when the airplane has been operating regularly with no discrepancies showing up? How important is it to run the complete set of checklists during the first flight of every day? I am quite certain that some angry feathers will be raised by my answer, but here goes: I don’t think that running the complete set of checklist steps is important at all.
There are two reasons why I take this unusual position: first, King Air systems are quite reliable and robust. How often does the overspeed governor fail to test properly? How often does autofeather not function perfectly during its test? How often does a propeller not manually feather correctly? In my experience, the answer to all these questions is, “Almost never.”
The second reason for my suggesting that every day running of the entire checklist is rather unimportant is this: ANY system can fail at ANY time. Just because autofeather functioned properly in the test completed five minutes ago, will it work if we experience an engine failure on THIS departure? How about flaps? If they cycled properly down and up in the run-up area, will they always extend/retract properly on the next landing/go around? That loose ground wire can totally disconnect whenever it “decides” to do so. That solenoid-operated oil dump on the overspeed governor, necessary for autofeather, can fail to function at any time.
So as for me, the complete, thorough running of all system checks is not normally a first-flight-of-the-day procedure that I will be doing. But, realizing that systems can fail – even though the failures are quite rare – we should not relegate the “full” DOlists to maintenance procedures only. How’s this for the procedure? Namely, do ALL the checks no less than once every 25, or so, flight hours. In that much flight time, there will probably be one or more deadhead legs without passengers. That’s the time to do all the system checks. Taxi to the run-up area and take the time required to do it all.
Yes, this means that a somewhat important system – such as autofeather – may be compromised for some time without being discovered. However, as I contended before, the chance of this is very rare.
Also realize that an educated, experienced, sharp pilot will pick up on many discrepancies during routine operation. “Hmmm, the left autofeather annunciator did not illuminate as I added power. I will easily abort this takeoff now at a mere 60 knots or so.” Or, “Well look there – the differential pressure is holding at about 3.6 psid as I pass 15,000 feet and the cabin is climbing much faster than normal. We have a pressurization problem.” Or, “Dang! The flaps stayed at approach after I put the handle all the way down.”
Not realizing that a system is compromised is very unlikely to pose a serious threat to flight safety. Running out of fuel, misreading an instrument approach procedure and thereby descending too soon, penetrating a violent thunderstorm, experienced Power Lever Migration (PLM) because you failed to tighten the friction knobs sufficiently … these mistakes are much more critical than an overspeed governor not testing correctly!
The Short Checklist
Surprisingly, I am going to advocate that another checklist is greatly important for day-to-day operation: A very short, homemade one that covers the most important items that must be accomplished on every flight. I call this the “short checklist.” If it is not quite short, I guarantee that it will not really be used. Looked at? Sure. But truly acting to correct missed items? Not if it is used too casually or quickly.
On the opposite page is the one I use in LJ-1190, the 1988 C90A that I have flown and managed for many years. It fits on one 3.5-inch x 11-inch piece of paper (front and back) cut from the original 8.5 x 11 sheet after being printed on both sides and then laminated. The cockpit has two copies – one for each pilot. We always fly this airplane with a crew of two, so the PF (Pilot Flying) usually keeps his copy in the side pocket and the PNF (Pilot Not Flying) has his copy in a clip on the shaft of his control wheel. The “Before Starting” checklist and the “engine start procedure” itself are usually done by the left-seat pilot alone. Then the call for the “After Starting” checklist is made by the PF.
We do not insist on a challenge-response procedure when executing the checklist. The PNF can almost always see all the cockpit switches (although it may take some gymnastics to see the ones on the pilot’s left subpanel) so if he/she can verify that a step has been completed then he/she is not required to make a verbal challenge and receive a verbal response. But we insist that each checklist section be verbally called for by the PF and then the PNF must state “After Start checklist complete,” when it is. (Of course, using the name of the actual checklist section that was just completed.)
The “After Takeoff” section is often not called for until well away from the departure airport. However, it is almost always completed by 5,000 feet or so above the airport.
I am sure this normal checklist of mine will raise some questions. You will notice that some rather critical information is stated. For example, the minimum idle speed for a four-blade propeller is a very critical limit to observe. Also, you may be surprised to see that the pressurization is set for landing as the last step of the “Cruise” list, not early in the “Descent” procedure.
I have a suggestion: Any step that seems strange/unusual to you will be explained/justified by me in a future article. All you must do is email me at twcaz@msn.com with your question(s).
Let me direct you to this article’s title: A Suggested Checklist “Cycle.” What I am trying to emphasize is that when new to the airplane and when going into or coming out of the maintenance shop, the complete, laborious, time-consuming checklist must be utilized and usually in a DOlist manner. Also, it makes sense to run complete run-up checks on deadhead legs, at least once every 25 hours or so. However, if a short, well-constructed checklist is not used for routine flights, then I fear that the chance of missing an important step is likely to be overlooked.
I will close with something I have observed hundreds of times during my King Air recurrent training flights. I will often do something “sneaky” before takeoff such as moving the pressurization switch to “Dump” or failing one engine’s oil pressure and/or temperature gauge. As we climbed after takeoff, with the failed item very often not observed, I would suggest the pilot redo his/her After Takeoff checklist, slowly and carefully. Sadly, the item was very commonly missed again even after this methodical procedure had been completed by the trainee. I have seen pilots run their fingers right down the vertical stack of engine instruments and still not notice that one side’s oil temperature and pressure gauge had two needles sitting at zero. Folks, as I have written before, Looking is not Seeing! Use Judicious Suspicion, slow down, and really See what you Look at. Amen? Amen!