What is your checklist usage?

[Vance Harral]

5 hours ago, Yetti said:

Here is a question for the "must use checklist" crowd.   How many times have you missed a step on the check list?

Setting aside my own mistakes (which are many), let me give a CFI perspective on this.

I've watched dozens of students miss dozens of items on checklists.  In every single case, I'm able to identify something about the checklist itself which contributes to the error.  So one possible snarky reply to "How many times have you missed a step on the check list?" is, "Never, with a well-designed checklist".  That's not really a true statement, of course.  But if you're going to pooh-pooh checklists, pointing out the foibles of a poorly-designed one is kind of a strawman argument.

I actually wrote a short treatise on checklist design for a CFI candidate recently, pasted below for your consideration.

First, good checklists are audience-specific: e.g. items that are helpful to a renter student pilot are distracting to an experienced owner, and vice-versa.  One-size-fits-all would be simpler, and I used to think I could teach new student pilots to just grow into the kind of lightweight, streamlined checklist owners prefer.  But experience has taught me differently, and given me an appreciation for the compromises made by people who write factory POH checklists.  So... the checklist I give to a pre-solo student for a Cessna will work well for them, but be totally bloated for a Cessna owner; but that's fine - there isn't going to be a single checklist that works best for everyone.  As an example, my normal procedures checklist for students has an item for "Taxi to Departure Runway".  This is a stupidly obvious action for anyone with even a few flights under their belt, and I didn't have it there initially.  But I've had no less than three different greenhorn students try to start performing pre-takeoff and runup checks while idling on the ramp, because they lack the context and experience to understand/remember that those checks are done from the run-up area.  Adding an item for taxi provides an obvious, helpful separator.

 

Second, while my student checklist is geared toward students, it still avoids detailed, prescriptive actions.  e.g. it says, "Prime as needed", rather than, "Prime 3 strokes in cold weather, 1-2 strokes in warm weather, not at all if engine was recently shut down".  This makes the checklist more compact, which helps avoid skipping things (see below).  But it also forces students to learn the nuances of and purposes behind various actions, rather than performing them mindlessly.  To put it in FAA terms, I am trying to ensure they quickly move from the rote level of learning, through understanding, to application.  The end goal is for them to use checklists as actual *check* lists, rather than *do* lists.  Failing to understand this is a mistake I made when I first started creating custom checklists, and that I see repeated by others - especially mid-time pilots transitioning to new aircraft.  It's tempting to fill your custom checklists full of prescriptive details, but doing so winds up creating more problems than it solves.

 

Finally, the most serious and most common checklist mistake I see students (and experienced pilots) make, is simply skipping an item outright, without realizing they've done so.  Sometimes it's just an inexplicable brain fart (myself included).  But I've observed a couple of specific issues caused by the design of the checklist itself, and my checklists try to avoid those:

 

1) Adjacent items that look almost the same are prone to getting skipped.  Consider a checklist that says:

 

  Lighting - ON

  Headsets - ON

  Avionics - ON

 

... vs. one that says:

 

  Lights   - AS DESIRED

  Headsets -         ON

  Avionics -     ALL ON

 

At first glance it seems like there's no meaningful difference between these, but each line of the lower one is distinctly, visually different.  Whether you're using your finger or your eyeballs or both to track to the next item, you're more likely to skip an item in the first case.  This is analogous to how some old airplanes have switches that all look alike, while newer ones have distinctive shapes for landing gear, flaps, etc.  Some of the wording in my checklists is designed to provide this sort of visual distinction.

 

2) You can teach students to use a finger or thumb as a checklist place holder to avoid skipping items, but only if the checklist mechanically supports doing so.  A few checklist operations require both hands, so there is no perfect solution.  But you can't thumb-track the checklist at all, if it's a big, multi-page and/or multi-column monstrosity.  So within bounds of reason regarding eyesight, smaller is better, and that's why my checklists use a "long and skinny" format.

 

3) The more pages a checklist has, the longer it takes to find the section you care about (especially in an emergency); and the cardinal sin is a checklist that requires you to turn pages in the middle of a single sequence.  For example, a lot of flight school 172s have laminated copies of the POH procedures pages in the map pocket, bound with a ring.  The POH checklists themselves are fine, but the ring-bound "flip book" is unwieldy, and I've lost track of how many times I've seen a student skip items in the BEFORE TAKEOFF list because it spans two pages.  For whatever reason, turning the page causes them to blow past items at the end of the preceding page and/or the beginning of the next page; and they'll often keep making that mistake even after multiple corrections.  So again within bounds of reason regarding eyesight, smaller/fewer pages is better, and this is another reason for my "long and skinny" format.

 

In summary, the whole point of having a checklist is to ensure every item on it gets checked, so anything you can do to minimize the chance of skipping items is valuable.  The ergonomics of the checklist are at least as important - and maybe moreso - than what items you actually put on the list.

 

[Yetti]

@Vance Harral thank you.   

[gsxrpilot]

@Vance Harral it sounds like the student version is more of a "To Do List" and the owner version is a "checklist"? 

[flyboy0681]

I always, without a single exception, pull out my laminated CheckMate checklist when starting up and conducting the run-up. After that I am committed to memory.

[Hank]

24 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

I always, without a single exception, pull out my laminated CheckMate checklist when starting up and conducting the run-up. After that I am committed to memory.

I keep the checklist that I wrote on my kneeboard, and use it religiously from Pre-Start through Run Up. Then flip to the back where the Performance Tables are, unless I (usually) use a preferred power setting.

Other than that, it's memory and flow. Landings are always the same, Takeoff flaps down NLT downwind, gear down abeam intended point of landing, reduce power to descend. Turn base at 45° (check 800 agl) (look for green gear light), turn final (check 500 agl), check glideslope, check speed, adjust yoke / throttle / flaps as needed to land where I want. Short Final, check gear indicator in the floor. Land.

[Vance Harral]

5 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

@Vance Harral it sounds like the student version is more of a "To Do List" and the owner version is a "checklist"? 

Yeah... sorta.

A student-oriented check list does have items that aren't necessary for an experienced pilot.  For example, "TAIL - INSPECT" is adequate for an owner's preflight checklist, but a student checklist typically breaks out the individual surfaces and/or linkages.

That said, the preflight checklists I write just say "INSPECT" for these items, regardless of how they're broken out, so a student is going to have to ask me what exactly they're supposed to look for, until they absorb how the system they're inspecting actually works. Similarly, I write "MIXTURE - SET FOR TAKEOFF" for students (and myself), rather than spelling out how to set the mixture.  To me, that's one important difference between a "Check" list and a "Do" list.  A pilot using a checklist should know how to check/do things based on their systems knowledge.  The checklist is just a safeguard against tactical mental lapses.

Fortunately, this philosophy is synergistic with multiple goals.  Avoiding prescriptive details keeps checklists short and tidy, which in turn reduces the risk of skipping items.  And as a CFI, the way a student works through such a checklist gives me a pretty good idea of their level of understanding of the systems they're checking/operating.

[midlifeflyer]

15 hours ago, Vance Harral said:

Setting aside my own mistakes (which are many), let me give a CFI perspective on this.

I've watched dozens of students miss dozens of items on checklists.  In every single case, I'm able to identify something about the checklist itself which contributes to the error.  So one possible snarky reply to "How many times have you missed a step on the check list?" is, "Never, with a well-designed checklist".  That's not really a true statement, of course.  But if you're going to pooh-pooh checklists, pointing out the foibles of a poorly-designed one is kind of a strawman argument.

I actually wrote a short treatise on checklist design for a CFI candidate recently, pasted below for your consideration.

First, good checklists are audience-specific: e.g. items that are helpful to a renter student pilot are distracting to an experienced owner, and vice-versa.  One-size-fits-all would be simpler, and I used to think I could teach new student pilots to just grow into the kind of lightweight, streamlined checklist owners prefer.  But experience has taught me differently, and given me an appreciation for the compromises made by people who write factory POH checklists.  So... the checklist I give to a pre-solo student for a Cessna will work well for them, but be totally bloated for a Cessna owner; but that's fine - there isn't going to be a single checklist that works best for everyone.  As an example, my normal procedures checklist for students has an item for "Taxi to Departure Runway".  This is a stupidly obvious action for anyone with even a few flights under their belt, and I didn't have it there initially.  But I've had no less than three different greenhorn students try to start performing pre-takeoff and runup checks while idling on the ramp, because they lack the context and experience to understand/remember that those checks are done from the run-up area.  Adding an item for taxi provides an obvious, helpful separator.

 

Second, while my student checklist is geared toward students, it still avoids detailed, prescriptive actions.  e.g. it says, "Prime as needed", rather than, "Prime 3 strokes in cold weather, 1-2 strokes in warm weather, not at all if engine was recently shut down".  This makes the checklist more compact, which helps avoid skipping things (see below).  But it also forces students to learn the nuances of and purposes behind various actions, rather than performing them mindlessly.  To put it in FAA terms, I am trying to ensure they quickly move from the rote level of learning, through understanding, to application.  The end goal is for them to use checklists as actual *check* lists, rather than *do* lists.  Failing to understand this is a mistake I made when I first started creating custom checklists, and that I see repeated by others - especially mid-time pilots transitioning to new aircraft.  It's tempting to fill your custom checklists full of prescriptive details, but doing so winds up creating more problems than it solves.

 

Finally, the most serious and most common checklist mistake I see students (and experienced pilots) make, is simply skipping an item outright, without realizing they've done so.  Sometimes it's just an inexplicable brain fart (myself included).  But I've observed a couple of specific issues caused by the design of the checklist itself, and my checklists try to avoid those:

 

1) Adjacent items that look almost the same are prone to getting skipped.  Consider a checklist that says:

 

  Lighting - ON

  Headsets - ON

  Avionics - ON

 

... vs. one that says:

 

  Lights   - AS DESIRED

  Headsets -         ON

  Avionics -     ALL ON

 

At first glance it seems like there's no meaningful difference between these, but each line of the lower one is distinctly, visually different.  Whether you're using your finger or your eyeballs or both to track to the next item, you're more likely to skip an item in the first case.  This is analogous to how some old airplanes have switches that all look alike, while newer ones have distinctive shapes for landing gear, flaps, etc.  Some of the wording in my checklists is designed to provide this sort of visual distinction.

 

2) You can teach students to use a finger or thumb as a checklist place holder to avoid skipping items, but only if the checklist mechanically supports doing so.  A few checklist operations require both hands, so there is no perfect solution.  But you can't thumb-track the checklist at all, if it's a big, multi-page and/or multi-column monstrosity.  So within bounds of reason regarding eyesight, smaller is better, and that's why my checklists use a "long and skinny" format.

 

3) The more pages a checklist has, the longer it takes to find the section you care about (especially in an emergency); and the cardinal sin is a checklist that requires you to turn pages in the middle of a single sequence.  For example, a lot of flight school 172s have laminated copies of the POH procedures pages in the map pocket, bound with a ring.  The POH checklists themselves are fine, but the ring-bound "flip book" is unwieldy, and I've lost track of how many times I've seen a student skip items in the BEFORE TAKEOFF list because it spans two pages.  For whatever reason, turning the page causes them to blow past items at the end of the preceding page and/or the beginning of the next page; and they'll often keep making that mistake even after multiple corrections.  So again within bounds of reason regarding eyesight, smaller/fewer pages is better, and this is another reason for my "long and skinny" format.

 

In summary, the whole point of having a checklist is to ensure every item on it gets checked, so anything you can do to minimize the chance of skipping items is valuable.  The ergonomics of the checklist are at least as important - and maybe moreso - than what items you actually put on the list.

 

This is great stuff, Vance.

[midlifeflyer]

9 hours ago, Vance Harral said:

A student-oriented check list does have items that aren't necessary for an experienced pilot.  For example, "TAIL - INSPECT" is adequate for an owner's preflight checklist, but a student checklist typically breaks out the individual surfaces and/or linkages.

That is an excellent point to make for our own checklists. The amount of detail can be personalized for our individual needs. The goal is a checklist which makes sense to us and which we use - in flight too - not one which sits forgotten in a side pocket.

For example, a student came for a lesson and showed me an addition to his checklist. To his pre-landing checklist he added an item to remind him to go to full aileron deflection on crosswind landing rollout. (I know a LOT of pilots who could use that!)

OTOH, instead of a list of avionics and lighting tasks after startup, mine simply says  "Avionics and Switches." (It was that one which stopped a friend who tried to use my checklist cold.)

[Ibra]

9 hours ago, Vance Harral said:

Avoiding prescriptive details keeps checklists short and tidy, which in turn reduces the risk of skipping items.  And as a CFI, the way a student works through such a checklist gives me a pretty good idea of their level of understanding of the systems they're checking/operating.

Indeed anytime I am flying with someone with a long prescriptive checklist, I just curiously ask how they can start the engine without paper checklist (just tell me the steps) or do few crucial items from memory under time pressure (if engine suddenly stops in the air and one wants to catch it quickly there are 3 things to look for fuel & air & ignition, 3 not 20, the red pages of checklist may come later)

Anyone should be able to fly safely with memory without exhaustive “to-do list” or “checklist” including few slips, having plenty of time while flying is both a luxury & constraint, a long paper refresher is also good from time to time, but the hardest bit is always prioritising between important items, urgent items, nice to have and reminders on how to do them !

When flying with other pilots, it obvious how many items gets skipped in paper checklists and catched latter by memory of suprise, it's the reality of single pilot flying 

The one place where I believe a detailed paper checklist and mental one needs to match while having sterile cockpit is pre-takeoff, maybe doing both by memory & paper as it helps getting in the pilot shoes and mentally ready for flying, before takeoff one has plenty of time to get ready and the next few seconds of action are not very forgiving to getting some items wrong...

Edited February 8, 2021 by Ibra

[Yetti]

Nope don't need one to start the engine.  I have written it too many times here to forget it.  Besides starting a Mooney engine is magic (JK)

And I use flow for landing.

[N201MKTurbo]

8 minutes ago, Yetti said:

Nope don't need one to start the engine.  I have written it too many times here to forget it.  Besides starting a Mooney engine is magic (JK)

And I use flow for landing.

I have to use the checklist for engine start on multi’s, or else I forget to turn on the mags.

[RobertGary1]

19 hours ago, Hank said:

I keep the checklist that I wrote on my kneeboard, and use it religiously from Pre-Start through Run Up. Then flip to the back where the Performance Tables are, unless I (usually) use a preferred power setting.

Other than that, it's memory and flow. Landings are always the same, Takeoff flaps down NLT downwind, gear down abeam intended point of landing, reduce power to descend. Turn base at 45° (check 800 agl) (look for green gear light), turn final (check 500 agl), check glideslope, check speed, adjust yoke / throttle / flaps as needed to land where I want. Short Final, check gear indicator in the floor. Land.

Only thing to be careful of is when you don't get a downwind, base entry that you don't miss items. I like just good old GUMPs. Works well. Then over the threshold I additionally check the green light which is visible while looking over the glareshield. Thank you Al Mooney for putting the green light up high.

 

-robert

[Yetti]

6 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

Only thing to be careful of is when you don't get a downwind, base entry that you don't miss items. I like just good old GUMPs. Works well. Then over the threshold I additionally check the green light which is visible while looking over the glareshield. Thank you Al Mooney for putting the green light up high.

 

-robert

Green Light    Look at floor.   Look at floor.  Green light.   If you are too fast the gear is probably up.   Green light.  Floor    Floor Green light.   over fence.  Check the floor.  Land the plane.

[Andy95W]

46 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I have to use the checklist for engine start on multi’s, or else I forget to turn on the mags.

BTDT

[ArtVandelay]

I have a written check list I made that includes normal and emergency items for all phases of flight, but I only use it for before takeoff items. Once airborne, I use mneumonic checklists for everything. I've picked up a bunch of useful mnemonics from various sources over the years (attached).
Skip
Mnemonic Checklists.doc

The problem I have with this and other mnemonics is they should only have critical items that could be forgotten, there are certain things you don’t forget or you don’t need and don’t need a mnemonic to remember:
Do the Runup or turn on the strobes?
Time when in position or turning on the landing lights ? Has anyone ever died because they didn’t record the departure time?
Get the weather on approach ?
Pitch up for a go around ...you seriously need a checklist item for that?
Pull mixture to shutdown the engine or turn off the mags (this would mean forgetting the keys or leaving the engine running when you get out)

[RobertGary1]

Just now, ArtVandelay said:

 Has anyone ever died because they didn’t record the departure time?
 

For sure but not in a long time. When we navigated by dead reckoning missing the time could put you well of course. Reference the Lady Be Good. They found the navigator logs were incomplete so they didn't know how much progress they'd made and overflew their base by 400 miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft)

-Robert

[PT20J]

21 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Pitch up for a go around ...you seriously need a checklist item for that?

I created this mnemonic myself back when I was doing a lot of instrument instruction. You would be surprised how many add power and then, I guess because the engine is making lots of noise, forget setting pitch for climb and trimming before doing other items associated with the missed approach.

Skip

 

[Hank]

48 minutes ago, PT20J said:

I created this mnemonic myself back when I was doing a lot of instrument instruction. You would be surprised how many add power and then, I guess because the engine is making lots of noise, forget setting pitch for climb and trimming before doing other items associated with the missed approach.

Skip

 

Just another benefit to my IVSI:  push throttle, verify Positive Rate, Gear Up!

[midlifeflyer]

Here's the problem with not using checklists after takeoff. You end up with a habit pattern that actively prevents using a checklist when you need it. Example:

I was doing transition training for a pilot moving from a 172 to a 182. One of the easiest transitions around because of the many similarities. But, again and again and again, the pilot neglected to adjust cowl flaps. Two things were going on.

His "flow" was actually a memorization of, say, the two main items on the before landing checklist, not a true flow considering everything changeable. So his hand would go right past the cowl flap lever but never stop there.

The other was, despite repeated "you are missing something" prompts from me, he not once went to the checklist for his answer. The checklist was sitting on the glareshield in his line of sight but his habit of not using it had internalized to such a degree that it did not exist for him.

It's not the only time I've seen this. Consider the effect of that no use habit in a stressful emergency situation. 

[PT20J]

Years ago, I got a DC-3 type rating. It was just for fun and I never expected to fly one again. Then I moved from the SF Bay area to the Seattle area and became associated with an aviation museum. I spent most of my time helping the mechanic wrench on old airplanes, but occasionally I got to fly some cool stuff: AT-6, C-45, and right seat in a DC-3. The DC-3 checklist didn't match our airplane and was way too long and poorly organized. I complained about it once too often and the chief pilot tossed it in my lap and said, "Here, you fix it." It is the most interesting of many checklists I have created because the operation is kind of unique. The airplane flies maybe 50 hours a year with half a dozen pilots so nobody gets much time in it. And when it flies it is either hopping rides at airshows where the turn arounds are pretty quick, or it is used for training pilots for SIC ratings or occasional type ratings. And, we all agreed that we wanted one single list that would work for everything.

The result is attached including an expanded document we use for training that explains each item it more detail. Any comments are welcome -- if there is one thing I've learned about checklists, it's that they are never finished.

Skip

N877MG normal checklist v1.4.pdf

Expanded checklist V1.4.docx

 

[RLCarter]

Currently working on my Commercial and my CFI is BIG on checklists, Both the Mooney and the Cessna checklist are the same format which makes it easier to jump from one plane to the other. There are four 1/2 sheets (front & back)1 sheet covers weight & balance and loading info, one covers pre-flight, these 2 get used then put away, next sheet covers engine start, takeoff climb, cruise, landings and shut down (it stays out the entire flight), last sheet covers emergency procedures and is readily available when/if needed. I've always had the (good, bad, your choice) habit of talking out loud and touching (if possible) items while going through a checklist or FLOWS for that matter.

[carusoam]

Verbal mediation....   saying it all out loud....

-a-

[Vance Harral]

1 hour ago, PT20J said:

The result is attached including an expanded document we use for training that explains each item it more detail. Any comments are welcome

The thing that really jumped out at me about this document is, the sections for starting engines and ground run-ups are not check lists.  They are textual, prescriptive descriptions of how to perform the procedure.  That's helpful if you're in ground school trying to learn how to start and run up those magnificent radials in a DC-3.  But I'd think anyone actually trying to use them as a checklist in the airplane would have trouble, and be prone to skip items.

If that's not a problem in practice, feel free to ignore my comment.  Those sections just look really incongruous compared to the rest of the document.

[PT20J]

5 minutes ago, Vance Harral said:

The thing that really jumped out at me about this document is, the sections for starting engines and ground run-ups are not check lists.  They are textual, prescriptive descriptions of how to perform the procedure.  That's helpful if you're in ground school trying to learn how to start and run up those magnificent radials in a DC-3.  But I'd think anyone actually trying to use them as a checklist in the airplane would have trouble, and be prone to skip items.

If that's not a problem in practice, feel free to ignore my comment.  Those sections just look really incongruous compared to the rest of the document.

Good comment.  It’s explained in the expanded document.  Those procedures are actually memory items but we included them for training and reminders. 

[midlifeflyer]

7 hours ago, PT20J said:

Years ago, I got a DC-3 type rating. It was just for fun and I never expected to fly one again. Then I moved from the SF Bay area to the Seattle area and became associated with an aviation museum. I spent most of my time helping the mechanic wrench on old airplanes, but occasionally I got to fly some cool stuff: AT-6, C-45, and right seat in a DC-3. The DC-3 checklist didn't match our airplane and was way too long and poorly organized. I complained about it once too often and the chief pilot tossed it in my lap and said, "Here, you fix it." It is the most interesting of many checklists I have created because the operation is kind of unique. The airplane flies maybe 50 hours a year with half a dozen pilots so nobody gets much time in it. And when it flies it is either hopping rides at airshows where the turn arounds are pretty quick, or it is used for training pilots for SIC ratings or occasional type ratings. And, we all agreed that we wanted one single list that would work for everything.

The result is attached including an expanded document we use for training that explains each item it more detail. Any comments are welcome -- if there is one thing I've learned about checklists, it's that they are never finished.

Skip

N877MG normal checklist v1.4.pdf 345.57 kB · 7 downloads

Expanded checklist V1.4.docx 42.07 kB · 5 downloads

 

If it covers the essentials and is easy for you to use, that's all that matters.