Fly The Wing
 
 
 
 
 

Since the early '80's most airplane POH's (Pilot Operating Handbooks) have presented the first few items in many Emergency checklists in bold-faced type. This is to indicate these are 'memory' items; things you should dedicate to memory and not have to (initially) refer to the checklist to perform.


Simple examples of these memory items are the first couple of
steps you generally always take in every single-engine piston airplane in the unlikely event of an engine fire in flight:


  1. Mixture........ IDLE CUT-OFF

  2. Fuel shut-off valve........ OFF

  3. Fuel pump.......................OFF


In the rare event of an engine fire in flight, if you don't remove
fuel from the equation, you're merely adding fuel to the fire (literally).


Another situation that has never happened to me, but has been drilled into me for decades, is that in the case of a cockpit electrical fire (smell of burning insulation, smoke emanating from the panel), in almost every airplane, you perform these initial steps from memory:


  1. Master switch...................... OFF

  2. Vents, cabin air, heat.......... OFF

  3. Fire extinguisher..... ACTIVATE


Many students initially indicate they would turn off Avionics Power (Master), but you can't be sure it's an Avionics issue; it may be a short on the landing light switch, or the two wires running to the light on your compass; who knows... turn off all electrical.


MEMORY TEST

Here are a few more situations for which you should consult your airplane's POH prior to flight, then dedicate the first few bold-faced items to memory. I'll list the memory items for a Cessna 172S, many of which pertain to most other single-engine airplanes.


  1. ENGINE FAILURE DURING  TAKEOFF ROLL

  2. Throttle.......... IDLE

  3. Brakes......... APPLY



  6. ENGINE FAILURE IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKEOFF

  7. Airspeed.......... 70 (Best Glide)



  10. ENGINE FAILURE DURING FLIGHT

  11. Airspeed......................................  68

  12. Fuel shutoff valve...................... ON

  13. Fuel selector valve................. BOTH

  14. Auxiliary fuel pump switch....... ON

  15. Mixture...................................... RICH


MISSION-RELATED ITEMS

There are some checklists you may never use, until one day you
need them. For example, if you always fly VFR, never getting into a cloud, it's unlikely you'll ever get into ice and would ever need to know the emergency procedures for Icing. But if you begin working on your Instrument rating, you will now want to consider committing the bold-faced 'Inadvertent Icing Encounter' checklist items to memory.


If you never fly over large bodies of water (larger than El Capitan or San Vicente reservoirs), you may not even know there’s a checklist for Ditching. But if you're planning a weekend outing to to Catalina, it may be time rehearse the bold-faced steps under Ditching in the Emergency section of your POH, as well as researching rules regarding over-water operations; FARs 91.509 and 91.519(a)(5).


DEFINE 'EMERGENCY'

A common question I like to ask on airplane check-outs and flight reviews is whether the pilot would consider any of these situations an 'Emergency':


  1. •A flat main tire

  2. •Carburetor icing

  3. •A drone hits and cracks the windshield

  4. •Cabin door pops open in flight

  5. •High oil temperature


The answer I’d like to hear from pilots is that all of those items are emergencies. They are all located in the Emergency chapter of either the Piper PA-28 or Cessna C172 POH. Are you going to crash or have to land in a field because of any of these issues? Probably not, but I would argue that as the manufacturer deemed them to be items placed in the Emergency Procedures (rather than Normal Procedures) chapter of the POH, you too, should consider them to be Emergencies, particularly if you are not able to resolve the issue prior to landing.


DON'T FORGET THE CHECKLIST

While you want to dedicate those bold-faced emergency items to memory, in a real or simulated emergency, you still want to refer to the printed checklist at some point, even if you believe you've rectified the situation. There may be additional items on the printed checklist you could check or set, or perhaps, you didn't actually memorize all the bold-faced items in their entirety or correctly.


© Garry Wing 2016

 

4/29/16

The Bold-faced Items
 
 
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