Helicopter Check Ride Part 7 Checklist Usage
Aug 12, 2017Helicopter Check Ride Part 7 Checklist Usage
Chapter 7: Checklist Usage
The following is a transcript of a conversation between a student and me. After discussing a few things, including wire strikes, I decided to ask what this student knew about Checklist Usage.
Kenny: I can tell you some horror stories. So I attacked wire strikes. Tell me about checklist usage and what you know, what you do, what you've seen, and what's important about it.
Student: First of all, it's very important to use a checklist for everything, especially for going through and doing your pre-inspection. You could miss something without using your checklist.
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Kenny Keller has authored 7 books that have been a huge help to the aviation community. Check them out here by clicking these words: Amazon #1 best seller Kenny Keller
Helicopter Check Ride Part 7 Checklist Usage
Sometimes it gets redundant when you continue to use a checklist from front to back, so after a while you might want to switch it up, start it in the middle, go to one side and then go back and start on the other side or start in reverse. Just change it up a little bit to keep it going and keep everything fresh and different, you know?
Use the checklist for start-up and the shutdown. It is important to because you might skip a step in that, you might cause damage to the helicopter, or damage to the engine of some sort. So always use your checklists, they are there. Use them.
Kenny: Okay, be honest; how many times have you skipped the checklist? Honest. On a pre-flight, number one?
Student: Oh, probably...I don't think I ever have. That's the first thing I do, just go in and grab it.
Kenny: All right, good boy.
Student: I mean it, because we're right next to each other.
Kenny: How many times have you done a start-up without a checklist?
Student: Never, I always grab it, just to have it. I mean I know it, especially the shutdown, but you always have it in your hand.
Kenny: Okay, how many pilots have you flown with in helicopters, specifically, that you know don't use it at all, or skip it part of the time? What's your experience with other pilots that you've seen, or airplanes, too? What's your experience?
Student: Well, in our situation, at our airport, the field dock is further away and they don't have any field tanks or anything to bring the fuel to the helicopter from the hangars. But after the lesson we usually go over it, shut it down, get fuel and then, at that point, we start it back up and just taxi back around to the hangar.
That's when it gets really lax. We just start it up, you know, you don't do any of your checks or anything and you just taxi back. In that situation just getting it back.
Kenny: Right. You think that's appropriate?
Student: Probably not. I mean, anything could happen.
Kenny: Yeah.
Student: I mean, even though you are five to ten feet off the ground and you are just taxiing, still something could happen.
Kenny: Okay.
Student: And I think that's kind of like “get-home-itis.” Just get it back, no big deal. You know you're not going to be up high, you're just taxiing it.
Kenny: My take on this is; I am amazed at the amount of people that don't use them or skip them. Have I ever skipped a checklist? Yes, I have. Have I ever skipped it on a pre-flight? Yep. Have I ever skipped it on a start-up? Yep. Do I do it in general? No. You know, I've had those times when I'd gotten lax and then gotten bit by it because I didn't do it properly, and I tried skipping, and I've done it in a simple aircraft, and I've done it in a more complex aircraft.
You know, I was very “by-the-book” for a long time and then you get a thousand hours in a certain aircraft and, yeah, it's redundant, and I can tell you that when you decide to do it without a checklist, it can be one simple switch as a, you know, boost pump. Even though the lights are on, you do not see the lights on. You did a pre-takeoff check and you somehow did not catch that that boost pump was not on.
Every time I tried to do it, I would forget something. I have never had anything bad happen but I will forget something almost every single time. I've been through the cycle of being really good, and then I've played the game of getting a little lax, and then I've learned my lessons over doing stupid stuff, and now I'm back to, “Use the checklist every single time!”
In the real world, in the training world, I see people do it all the time. I'll give you an example in the EMS world. You know, professional pilots, they told us, “Guys, when you go back to your base, when you are out doing your pre-flight, there will be a time when someone from our company will be in the parking lot, or they will be in the office when you are doing a pre-flight inside the hangar.
At some point, you will be observed while you pre-flight the aircraft. And when you do not have your checklist in your hand, you will be told to go home.”
A Company Check Airman stated to me, “We don't care if you're climbing up on the top to get up to check the rotor head, that checklist needs to be in your hand. When you fall down to the ground, you better be holding that checklist.”
Helicopter Check Ride Part 7 Checklist Usage
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