Page 15 - Volume 14 Number 9

unused, phraseology ... perhaps you remember the struggle the first time you had to remember to use the term “flight level” for altitudes or “torque” for power settings.
I mention all of this to say: mentors are important, attitudes are everything, and how you were introduced or how you may introduce other pilots to a dual-pilot, crewed cockpit will shape interactions with every other pilot (positively or negatively) in cockpits where crew (or cockpit) resource management (CRM) is a key component of a well-executed flight. Sadly, in cockpits where a single pilot is all that is required, CRM is a vastly underrated resource that many fail to use.
In early August, the NTSB released the full docket of information for the King Air 350 crash in Addison, Texas, on June 30, 2019. While it does not include the final findings on the cause of the accident (that will come later), it gives those that like to study such things a lot of detail and insight into the information gleaned regarding the pilot, aircraft, environment and other potentially contributing factors. As a lifelong student of human factors, accident investigation and analysis has always fascinated me, as the vast majority of accidents have some sort of human factor component as a major or contributing factor. While the NTSB will provide us with the official cause of this accident, a couple of human factor items in the informational docket stood out as something we can all take away regarding CRM and checklist usage.
From the very first flight hour, checklist usage is drilled into student pilots by flight instructors. As pilots progress through training, they memorize mnemonics, phrases, flows and emergency checklist items that keep them on track during high workload times, but there is never a phase of flight when a checklist should not be referenced immediately preceding or immediately following a change in flight conditions. My personal preference is using a “flow” during normal operations and following up with a checklist rather than using the checklist as a line-by-line, to-do list as the pilot is reading it. I believe knowing how your aircraft should be configured, how that configuration makes it behave and what cockpit indications should look like during each phase of flight is important to recognizing when something is abnormal or wrong. With that being said, experience should never be used in lieu of proper checklist usage, as even the most proficient pilot can have contributing factors that cause them to misstep from time to time. A checklist is cheap insurance against missing something critical to a particular phase of flight.
During the course of the investigation into the Addison accident, the NTSB took several witness statements that indicated the PIC disregarded checklist usage as a normal course of action. Statements from known acquaintances and other co-pilots included phrases such as, “pilot did not utilize the checklist during the normal operation of N534FF,” “bad about using checklists,” “not strong on using checklists” and that the PIC was
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