Page 22 - feb25

FROM THE TRAINING CENTER
Pro Pilot vs. Owner Pilot
by Zach Cleaver
At King Air Academy, we see a wide range of pilots for training: pilots who just passed their multiengine checkride to pilots with thousands of hours in King Airs. Let’s look at what separates the owner-pilot from the professional pilot.
Checklist use
The first differentiator to jump out is checklist use. This truly separates professional pilots from the rest. Pro pilots do not waiver from their use of checklists – ever. It is tempting to relax on checklist use especially when you have flown the plane for thousands of hours, or it’s the third leg of the day. However, if we become complacent,
the checklist protects us from making mistakes. How should we approach checklist use? There are three main ways: read and do, flows and memory items.
Read and do: This one is very straightforward: line by line, read each item and do each item. As you learn the plane and checklist, it gets faster and faster to move through each item.
Flows: Airline pilots are taught flows from the start of their training. Working in a crew environment truly shows this method’s advantage. Each pilot performs their flow, and the checklist is then used to verify that those items have been completed. After you gain experience in your aircraft you will develop flows for different phases of flight backed up by a checklist. For example, performing the cockpit preflight setup as a read-and-do checklist takes quite some time, 20 minutes or more when first learning
20 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2025