Electronic Checklists

[Aviator]

Good Evening Mooney Pilots

 

I am currently searching for a good electronic checklist for an Ovation 2.  I would prefer to run the checklist on an Ipad but could also use an Android app on my cellphone.

 

I would appreciate any information you can provide relative to your experiences and recommendations.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ovatio

[Steve Dawson]

Try the Audio Co-Pilot app. You can bluetooth it through to your headset also.

I've used it a couple of times but keep going back to the check sheet since its the way I learnt

[Oscar Avalle]

Call me old school... I prefer paper. I tried out two electronic ones on my iphone. Sure check was one, nice but somehow I prefer paper.

[Txbyker]

If you use Foreflight on your iPad why not create one in Excel, format it to 8x5, save as a PDF an put it in your documents section.

[Piloto]

I found paper checklists to be pretty reliable. Unlike an iPad you can fold them and store in your side pocket. 

 

José

[Jamie]

The attached document changed my mind on electronic checklists.

 

 

Flight-Deck_Checklists.pdf

[WardHolbrook]

Good luck on finding an app that works well for you. The best electronic checklist I ever used were the customizable ones integrated into the Collins MFDs on some of the bizjets I've flown. They were very slick and extremely easy to work into your normal routine. Even with those, we still carried paper copies of every checklist on the airplane. I wish the same system was available on all of the aircraft I fly and unless you have at least two electronic devices with your checklists, I recommend that you do the same.

 

All that high end Collins stuff is great, but we're talking Mooneys not Gulfstreams. The next step down the ladder is the system that I'm using on everything I'm flying now - up to and including the Falcon 900s that our company operates - is the tried and true paper checklist put together using either MS Word or Excel then taken to Staples and laminated. If the normal procedures - preflight to shutdown - for a Falcon 900 can be put on the front and back of a 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper you ought to be able to easily put everything you'd need for a Mooney on it.

 

If you want to include a complete checklist for Normal, Abnormal and Emergency procedures and need more room, you can take a page from our military brethren and put together a complete checklist in one of these military style binders. Back in my Learjet days, we used a pair of these binders in the cockpit (one set for each pilot) and they really worked well. http://www.flyboys.com/fb2202.html

[jetdriven]

del

[WardHolbrook]

see how brief this is, do the items with a flow, the checklist is a check list, not a DO list

 

Now I know the -400 is an EICAS airplane, it tells you what is not right.

 

in a Mooney the killer items are fuel selector, flaps, trim.  (And flaps are debatable). Then give it hell. 

 

 

Point is, there a a few items which can kill you. But the checklist catches that, the other stuff they assume you, as the PIC, will do in a flow.

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A proper checklist is used to back up a flow and used together they give you redundancy - you've got two passes at each item. The best light aircraft checklist I ever saw was the one silkscreened onto the sun visor of a Piper Arrow that I used to fly. Short and adequate. Perfect. The worst checklist I ever saw was a extremely detailed multipage affair that the pilot used as a to-do list and required way too much heads down time. 

[Marauder]

I was a product of a 141 school and became heavily indoctrinated on the concept of checklists. It is strange that when I fly with instructors today for BFRs and IPCs that some of them comment on my usage of them. Almost like it was a novel concept to them or "who are you trying to impress". I do as Ward spoke about when i perform normal procedures. I use a flow method that starts on the left side of the panel and I touch or point at everything to determine if it needs to be changed or checked. The checklist is used as a follow-up to verify everything. The hardest part of the flow checklist process is flying single pilot IFR and during certain phases of a flight where you may be interrupted. Then I start moving to a "to do" checklist method. That way if I am interrupted during my panel setup, I know what step on I am on and make sure I complete it before moving on. If I am flying IFR with a familiar face, I integrate them in the process to do an airline style challenge method. The most important thing I find is not to rely solely on memory. In high workload situations, it is very easy to forget something.

[Marauder]

And I should add that my checklist is always evolving. When I add or remove equipment, it gets updated. It is also intended to primarily address the killer items that will either kill my wallet or me!

[midlifeflyer]

The question is, what do you mean by an "electronic checklist"? Do you mean what is in essence a "paper" checklist in a pdf file and available on your tablet (which I use)?

 

Or do you mean one that prompts you for an item, you check it off, and then prompts you for the next one, like the integrated ones in some on-board GPS/MFD displays (which I've tried i the past and really didn't like):

[RocketAviator]

Aviator, I too have for some time looking into and for an electroinc check list.  Back in June or July of this year I posted a similar question with the Topic as

Pirep IPad & possibly Tablet electronic checklist

There was some very good (or at least to me) comments and remarks. I am still very interested but have not found just the right one that fits my mission.

 

I would like to have a combined Electronic check list and electronic flight log.  I am currently assembling a list of specific features and functions, my first desire is to find one that will do what I want if not I will consider creating one.  My problem is time, so I will probably just have to settle for an existing one that somewhat  fits but not perfect if there is such a thing!

Fly safe,

[RocketAviator]

The attached document changed my mind on electronic checklists.

Good doc Jamie!, curious what changed your mind... while I just scanned the document the basis and functions noted within this doc to me seem to suggest the function and the methodical use / pattern is what is important, what did I miss so far?  I like what I did read and will read this document in full to see if I missed something.

Thanks,

Lacee

[jlunseth]

I find the "check off" type electronic checklists to be way too slow to be useful.  A good paper checklist works well.  I made a pdf of mine and use it on Foreflight, so I carry the paper list only as a back up.  But stopping to check off each item is pointless and too time consuming.

[midlifeflyer]

The attached document changed my mind on electronic checklists.

I think it's a good article in terms of the limitations of different types of checklists. But I'm not sure how it leads one to select one medium over the other. Unless you're part of a crew where standardization has value, medium and usability are very personal things. I've been using self-authored checklists since I started flying and every revision I've done has had a single goal — making it easier for me to use.

 

Interestingly enough, since my iPad, my checklist has actually grown. With paper, the part of the usability goal included using as little paper as possible — keeping things to one or two pages seemed to be easier than having to flip around. Now, with my checklists bookmarked pdf files on my iPad, I'm using more pages which allows me separate phases of flight, use larger fonts, include extra information, all without adding bulk or difficulty in finding things.

[Aviator]

Thanks for comments so far. I am currently using a paper checklist obtained from Flight Safety in way back in 2000.

It still works well but I routinely try to improve processes.

Will probably try the pdf file in Foreflight with the paper backup next. Will continue to evaluate other products.

Thanks again.

[RocketAviator]

I think it's a good article in terms of the limitations of different types of checklists. But I'm not sure how it leads one to select one medium over the other. Unless you're part of a crew where standardization has value, medium and usability are very personal things. I've been using self-authored checklists since I started flying and every revision I've done has had a single goal — making it easier for me to use.

 

Interestingly enough, since my iPad, my checklist has actually grown. With paper, the part of the usability goal included using as little paper as possible — keeping things to one or two pages seemed to be easier than having to flip around. Now, with my checklists bookmarked pdf files on my iPad, I'm using more pages which allows me separate phases of flight, use larger fonts, include extra information, all without adding bulk or difficulty in finding things.

Midlifeflyer, what are you using?  Your comments are in line with my thoughts too.

[midlifeflyer]

Midlifeflyer, what are you using?  Your comments are in line with my thoughts too.

 

The checklists were created in Word and ported to a bookmarked pdf. They are "Documents" in ForeFlight. Most of the tasks are re-arranged to fit a flow pattern, making flow-and-check easy for me.

 

I always hesitate posting them because they are personalized. A friend of mine, a good pilot, once tried to use mine and had trouble because everything wasn't where he expected it. So I won't post the checklists here, but I will put in the following graphics. The first is the last version of a checklist (its a Comanche) before I went iPad.

The second is my current M20J checklist showing the bookmarks.

[RocketAviator]

AOPA published an article that you may want to check out. http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2013/March/19/Five-checklist-apps

[Jamie]

Good doc Jamie!, curious what changed your mind... while I just scanned the document the basis and functions noted within this doc to me seem to suggest the function and the methodical use / pattern is what is important, what did I miss so far?  I like what I did read and will read this document in full to see if I missed something.

Thanks,

Lacee

 

For me, it was the insight that an electronic checklist can be used to return to incomplete items and complete them.

 

Example:

 

At my home base, I do the run up right in front of the hangar (yes, with the prop blast directed at the most expensive plane in range because that's just how I roll) and then I'm ready to (mostly) go once I reach the hold short line. But, that checklist has items I don't do at the hangar (flaps, boost pump, etc). So, without an electronic checklist I end up walking down the start up check list to make sure I didn't miss anything and complete the stuff I left off. Once I find an electronic checklist I like, it will be much more obvious which items should be done. There's also the interruption factor (the paper makes both these points). It's obvious where an electronic checklist was interrupted. Not so with a paper list.

[midlifeflyer]

For me, it was the insight that an electronic checklist can be used to return to incomplete items and complete them.

 

Example:

 

At my home base, I do the run up right in front of the hangar (yes, with the prop blast directed at the most expensive plane in range because that's just how I roll) and then I'm ready to (mostly) go once I reach the hold short line. But, that checklist has items I don't do at the hangar (flaps, boost pump, etc). So, without an electronic checklist I end up walking down the start up check list to make sure I didn't miss anything and complete the stuff I left off. Once I find an electronic checklist I like, it will be much more obvious which items should be done. There's also the interruption factor (the paper makes both these points). It's obvious where an electronic checklist was interrupted. Not so with a paper list.

 

Just as an alternate possibility, my solution to that example (which comes up in a number of situations) was to separate the "Engine Run-up" from the "Before Taking Runway" on my checklist. That type of ergonomic rearrangement of tasks is part of the "flow" of creating your own checklist.

 

I don't want to dissuade you from moving to an electronic checklist. Some folks just love them. But it's more a matter of personal preference than which is capable of doing the job correctly.

[jlunseth]

As stated, I use an electronic checklist, but not the "check off" kind which is too slow and for no useful reason.  The way I dealt with the issue of final settings before takeoff, was to divide the checklist into sections.  There is a "preflight" section (which I rarely use because the aircraft itself is the checklist), the "start up" section, an AP section (which takes a lot of time, so is just used for long flights), a "run up" section, a "before takeoff" section, and an "after landing" section.  The before takeoff section contains some duplication of things in other parts, but for a reason.  When doing pattern work, there is no point in running through the run up stuff, for example.  But it is imperative to get the takeoff settings in, like making sure the mixture is full forward and the cowl flaps are open so I don't abuse the engine, and the flaps are where I want them.  So when doing repetitive landings I can just run through the comparatively short "before takeoff" section at the hold short line, to make sure the aircraft is properly configured.  There are a number of other sections also.  "Climb," to make sure the landing light gets turned off and I don't forget the gear (among other things), cruise, descent, and various emergency scenarios.