cockpit organization and checklist use

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CrimsonFlyer

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CrimsonFlyer
I'm a student pilot ready for my solo cross-country but made a stupid mistake this past weekend: forgetting my landing checklist. We were returning from a long cross-country dual flight, landing at KSQL. My instructor had stated that he would remain silent for the whole flight unless I was about to burst an airspace or do something stupid. It had been almost 3 hours of flying. It was a route new to me, trying to do pilotage while talking to Travis approach, NorCal, then Oakland, trying not to burst the SFO Bravo, keeping an eye out for the heavy jets above, trying to find where the heck KBNR towers were--my home airport is KPAO and I had never approached KSQL from KOAK. And of course the pattern was saturated as usual for a beautiful weekend morning. By the time we were on final, my instructor calmly pointed to the fuel pump still off. Damn!

How do you avoid mistakes like that? I am a strong believer in checklists, especially for high-risk situations. But I still make mistakes like this, at this stage in my training, and to me it's unacceptable. The 1000 AGL checklist is one I occasionally forget as well.

How do you remember to do a checklist when the workload, at least to a student pilot, is high? Is it also a cockpit organization issue? Maybe I just need to have the checklist visible in front of me? Perhaps I shouldn't have my nav log on top of the checklist on my kneeboard? Two kneeboards instead?

To you experienced aviators, this issue might be so trivial. But any tip would be greatly appreciated.
 
Do your flows, double check those with check lists.
 
No biggie. Good practice to use for sure, but when you're single pilot, high workflow, lots of traffic, it can sometimes distract from where your eyes need to be - outside. Find a mnemonic that works for you, like GUMPS etc. I personally only use checklist for startup, taxi, runup etc, after that it's all flows and verbal mnemonics.
 
I recommend a final review of the landing checklist once on final. Once wings level, I double check everything and verify clearance. It takes about 2 seconds and gives you a chance to catch anything you may have missed.
 
Ooh, that's a standard trick.

Very short, extremely eventful flight segment, after a lot of other work. It's a common local "final exam" for a complex endorsement.

Checklists have to become a habit. Every time, no exceptions, no excuses. Then you'll feel naked when you're over the bay and haven't yet run the descent checklist, or in the pattern without the before landing checklist.

You went north during Fleet Week? Usually that flight is considerably easier through Class B, but not with a huge TFR in the way. FWIW, I think I saw an arriving airliner bust it. Aside from the UAL 747, it's not common to see an airliner doing a steep turn.
 
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I chanted "GUMP, GUMP, GUMP, GUMP" starting on the baseleg turn for a few months :)
 
Interesting read. Agree with some points. I like to believe I would have the fuel settings and switches set upon settling into the pattern for landing, not when lined up on final.
Whatever works as long as we have a checklist of some type...

GUMPS

Gregory Penglis’ book The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction is one of the best books written about aviation and its training I have ever read. Penglis has a snarky, curmudgeonly style that is fantastic in its dry humor but quite immense knowledge. Reading, you can tell the man came by his knowledge of aviation the hard way.

Here’s his take on the old GUMPS mnemonic:

One might wonder why we still use such a peculiar acronym as “GUMPS” for a final landing check. This is the most bizarre and ludicrous procedure in all of flight training. There you are in a brand new aircraft (to you), with lots of new things to do, going much faster than you are used to flying, coming in for a landing (which is one of the most critical phases of flight), and you are suddenly expected to use new names for the controls as you go groping around the cockpit, when you should be looking out the window and flying the airplane. Does this make sense to anyone, or am I the only one who finds this practice not only strange, but dangerous?

“G” stands for gas. We never gall it gas—we call it fuel. You check the fuel, drain the fuel, check for water in the fuel, and switch tanks with the fuel selector. But on base leg in a high-performance aircraft, it suddenly becomes “gas.” The G could stand for gear. That would make sense as it is often the first control in a power down flow check. No, I’m sorry, the G could not stand for gear, that would be logical and consistent. Of course, whenever you do a GUMPS check, the first word out of your mouth is guaranteed to be “gear.”

“U” stands for undercarriage. This just fractures me. Do we all suddenly take out British citizenship when we fly our first base leg in a high-performance aircraft? Honestly, undercarriage? That word is three syllables too long for use on base.

Of course, now being British, we would have to call the fuel (excuse me, gas), “petrol.” I suppose we could change the acronym to PUMPS for consistency. The only places the British have good names are when they describe the prop pitch.

“M” is for mixture. I recognize that word.
”P” is for prop. I recognize that one, too.
”S” is for systems.

Having a lengthy systems check right before landing is nuts because we now know that any pilot who doesn’t want to grope when he should by flying does all that stuff way out on the prelanding check during descent. Besides, after the prop is checked, no one has the time or inclination to go through the systems. Most students just say “systems” to humor the instructor and hope that it covers the check.

You already checked the fuel, so toss out this nasty word “gas” that we never use. “Undercarriage”—be serious. What we have left are the essentials of “mixture” and “propeller.” What about the gear? Following the crazy order of GUMPS sends your hand in a star pattern around the controls just like the published prelanding checks. You could very well forget the gear as you try to pronounce “undercarriage.” If you are that distracted, you could very well not hear the gear warning horn (or is that undercarriage warning horn?), no matter how loud it is. The stuff you land on should always be called gear, period.

Well for all you folks who learned the GUMPS check, we can modify it to Gear, Mixture, and Prop—“GMP.” You can still pronounce it “gump” and keep the familiar sound of you check with familiar names for the controls and use them in a familiar order, without unnecessary groping. Even on airplanes that change the classic positions for the controls a GMP check with hit the biggies.

Anyway, I’m sure students will be taught the GUMPS check for some time because, like child abuse, these things just get passed down the aviation family. There will come a time when logic, initiative, simplicity, and making the system better will triumph over rote memorization, trying to make the best of bad procedures, and training without any conscious thought or responsibility, but we can make it happen. I still think the GUMPS check came to us from some English mole instructor trying to sabotage our flight training system.

The problem with dumping a useless check like GUMPS is that it is so imprinted on so many pilots’ minds that there will be tremendous resistance to change. Pilots and instructors go through such incredible efforts to learn these inadequate and inferior procedures that even if something better comes along, instructors still want students to suffer as they did. It’s like some archaic fraternity ritual. All us new and improved GMP types will conflict with the old GUMPS instructors who will insist their way is preferable, simply because after doing all the work to learn it, they are used to it. When will we stop adapting ourselves to the procedures and start adapting the procedures to ourselves? For the rest of your life when on base and final, say “gear, mixture, prop” and end your groping. If you forget that, then go back to the old power-up/power-down flow checks. Either way, you will get all the important stuff.

Definitely food for thought.
 
CrimsonFlyer said:
I'm a student pilot ready for my solo cross-country but made a stupid mistake this past weekend: forgetting my landing checklist. We were returning from a long cross-country dual flight, landing at KSQL. My instructor had stated that he would remain silent for the whole flight unless I was about to burst an airspace or do something stupid. It had been almost 3 hours of flying. It was a route new to me, trying to do pilotage while talking to Travis approach, NorCal, then Oakland, trying not to burst the SFO Bravo, keeping an eye out for the heavy jets above, trying to find where the heck KBNR towers were--my home airport is KPAO and I had never approached KSQL from KOAK. And of course the pattern was saturated as usual for a beautiful weekend morning. By the time we were on final, my instructor calmly pointed to the fuel pump still off. Damn!

How do you avoid mistakes like that? I am a strong believer in checklists, especially for high-risk situations. But I still make mistakes like this, at this stage in my training, and to me it's unacceptable. The 1000 AGL checklist is one I occasionally forget as well.

How do you remember to do a checklist when the workload, at least to a student pilot, is high? Is it also a cockpit organization issue? Maybe I just need to have the checklist visible in front of me? Perhaps I shouldn't have my nav log on top of the checklist on my kneeboard? Two kneeboards instead?

To you experienced aviators, this issue might be so trivial. But any tip would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

It may not have helped to have the checklist on top, or another kneeboard. As a student pilot busy with 'stuff', I have noticed once on the ground that I hadn't actually looked at my checklist which was hanging on the yoke clip. I go through it in my head, but its tough to go from looking outside, flying the plane, then trying to locate a checklist on a printed sheet full of text. Maybe I need take a highlighter to my checklist sheet. I have to give my instructor credit for relentlessly calling it out for me over and over and over, I can still hear it. :)
 
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I always the "S" in gumps stood for 'seatbelts' (check they are on secure)
 
stratobee said:
I personally only use checklist for startup, taxi, runup etc, after that it's all flows and verbal mnemonics.
Click to expand...
I'd recommend reading the ACS before recommending that to a student, though.

Aside from the fact that checklist use, or lack thereof, is something that almost took my dad out of the cockpit several years early.
 
Saintroad said:
You already checked the fuel, so toss out this nasty word “gas” that we never use. “Undercarriage”—be serious. What we have left are the essentials of “mixture” and “propeller.” What about the gear? Following the crazy order of GUMPS sends your hand in a star pattern around the controls just like the published prelanding checks. You could very well forget the gear as you try to pronounce “undercarriage.” If you are that distracted, you could very well not hear the gear warning horn (or is that undercarriage warning horn?), no matter how loud it is. The stuff you land on should always be called gear, period.
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When did we check the fuel? During Pre-Flight? "G" is "Gas on the fullest tank"

I don't find the wording of the two any different. Undercarriage is gear, so I can't imagine how someone could forget to put the gear down when they say "undercarriage":dunno: . The GUMPS check will become more relevant when you begin to fly complex airplanes.
 
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Bitching about GUMPS is picking nits. It's taught that way because it's an easy mnemonic to remember. If that author wants to create an easier to remember mnemonic, he is welcome to it.

To the OP, you should be running your GUMPS check 3 times before you touch the ground. I like to do it on downwind, base, and final. On long straight ins I like to do 10, 5 and short final. That's just me. I have fixed gear and fixed pitch prop so I don't have those concerns like some of the other guys have, so their GUMPS check might be different distances from mine since they have the landing gear (aka speed brakes) to be concerned about and I don't.
 
I thought it was more millenial than this.....

Grab phone, Unbuckle, Make funny sounds on Radio, Prepare for cool Selfies, Smile.
 
Saintroad said:
I thought it was more millenial than this.....

Grab phone, Unbuckle, Make funny sounds on Radio, Prepare for cool Selfies, Smile.
Click to expand...
There's too many idiots on the road doing that, we don't need it in the air.
 
CrimsonFlyer said:
...........................................................................................................How do you avoid mistakes like that? I am a strong believer in checklists, especially for high-risk situations. But I still make mistakes like this, at this stage in my training, and to me it's unacceptable. The 1000 AGL checklist is one I occasionally forget as well.

How do you remember to do a checklist when the workload, at least to a student pilot, is high? Is it also a cockpit organization issue? Maybe I just need to have the checklist visible in front of me? Perhaps I shouldn't have my nav log on top of the checklist on my kneeboard? Two kneeboards instead?

To you experienced aviators, this issue might be so trivial. But any tip would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Keep working at it. Repetition, repetition. There is nothing trivial about it to experienced aviators. Not doing it can get some of them fired.
 
CrimsonFlyer said:
How do you remember to do a checklist when the workload, at least to a student pilot, is high? Is it also a cockpit organization issue? Maybe I just need to have the checklist visible in front of me? Perhaps I shouldn't have my nav log on top of the checklist on my kneeboard?
Click to expand...

Your mileage may vary, but this helps me. Regardless of whether I'm flying to a towered or non-towered airport, my before-landing process includes three Cs:

1. Check weather
ATIS, AWOS, ASOS, listen to radio for runway in use at non-towered airport, etc.

2. Check In
CTAF, Approach, or Tower

3. Checklist
The actual before-landing checklist, GUMPS, whatever you use

Check WX, Check-in, Checklist

cWX, cIN, cLst

This helps me remember to run the checklist in the first place, and perhaps, to do it a bit earlier.

You mention your navlog is on top of your checklist. I sometimes do that too, but on my navlog, I actually write cWX, cIN and cLst at "strategic" locations on the navlog to remind me to do these three things while flying particular segments near the end of the flight.

Navlog.jpg
 
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My checklists are on an old iPhone 6+. (I don't use it as a phone, just as a micro-mini iPad.) It's in a holder that keeps it positioned in the top left corner, right next to my OAP gauge. It's always on, and I always have the currently applicable checklist showing. I use it, and flow checks. Of course, I was taught GUMPS, but I never use it. I do my first pre-landing check at 1,000 ft above TPA, then again entering the pattern. Also, I do a GUMPS-like flow check every time I add in flaps. Takes ten seconds.

Develop a routine and stick to it. It does not have to be what you were taught, it just needs to include what you were taught. And to make your instructor happy, verbalize it.

Repetition is the greatest teacher.

And yes, I have printed checklists and a sectional in the side pocket, so save your breath.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I'd recommend reading the ACS before recommending that to a student, though.

Aside from the fact that checklist use, or lack thereof, is something that almost took my dad out of the cockpit several years early.
Click to expand...

Divorce yourself from the idea that a "checklist" has to be written. A flow is a form of "checklist," as is a mnemonic. A detailed, written checklist is the last thing you need to be using during a complex/busy phase of flight. Startup? Sure. Run-up? Sure. Before landing? No. A developed routine of memorized flows/mnemonics is more effective and safer than pulling out a detailed written pre-landing checklist during critical phases of flight.
 
bradg33 said:
Divorce yourself from the idea that a "checklist" has to be written. A flow is a form of "checklist," as is a mnemonic. A detailed, written checklist is the last thing you need to be using during a complex/busy phase of flight. Startup? Sure. Run-up? Sure. Before landing? No. A developed routine of memorized flows/mnemonics is more effective and safer than pulling out a detailed written pre-landing checklist during critical phases of flight.
Click to expand...
A flow is always backed up with a checklist
 
CrimsonFlyer said:
I'm a student pilot ready for my solo cross-country but made a stupid mistake this past weekend: forgetting my landing checklist. We were returning from a long cross-country dual flight, landing at KSQL. My instructor had stated that he would remain silent for the whole flight unless I was about to burst an airspace or do something stupid. It had been almost 3 hours of flying. It was a route new to me, trying to do pilotage while talking to Travis approach, NorCal, then Oakland, trying not to burst the SFO Bravo, keeping an eye out for the heavy jets above, trying to find where the heck KBNR towers were--my home airport is KPAO and I had never approached KSQL from KOAK. And of course the pattern was saturated as usual for a beautiful weekend morning. By the time we were on final, my instructor calmly pointed to the fuel pump still off. Damn!

How do you avoid mistakes like that? I am a strong believer in checklists, especially for high-risk situations. But I still make mistakes like this, at this stage in my training, and to me it's unacceptable. The 1000 AGL checklist is one I occasionally forget as well.

How do you remember to do a checklist when the workload, at least to a student pilot, is high? Is it also a cockpit organization issue? Maybe I just need to have the checklist visible in front of me? Perhaps I shouldn't have my nav log on top of the checklist on my kneeboard? Two kneeboards instead?

To you experienced aviators, this issue might be so trivial. But any tip would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

This is something that I struggled with for quite a while. A couple of things working against me were that if we were just flying over to the practice area to do maneuvers the owner of the school said to just leave the fuel pump on. His planes, his money to replace the pump earlier, but that's what we do. Add to that the fact that there is no gear to worry about (Fixed Gear), we don't lean it out unless above 5,000 D.A. and only when it's really hot does that apply at the practice area so mixture is almost always full rich there, it is a fixed prop so that doesn't need to be adjusted, and we never take the seat belts off and really the GUMPS is done from the time we left the ground. I tried a lot of things, even writing "GUMPS" on my left hand so I would see it constantly, still would forget to do the checklist...

The thing that finally helped is I made made my own checklist off the one the school has. It is all the same steps, but instead of a whole bunch of different checklists in columns on a page, it is 3x5 tabbed cards with one checklist on each card and some rings to hold the together. The tabs are labeled and color coded also, green pre-flight, blue in-flight, red emergency procedures, black specs, speeds, etc. It sits in one of the side pockets on my knee-board. When I am on the downwind about mid field or similar distance if a straight in or entering on base I take it out and look at it and say the steps out loud. I am done before I am abeam the numbers. I don't want to do anything on final except fly the plane so I want the checklist out of hte way before that. I had to attach the physical action of pulling out the checklist at a specific point from the airport to remember. Since I started doing that I have only forgotten it once (fortunately it was just working the pattern and so didn't affect the landing as everything was already set).
 
MauleSkinner said:
I'd recommend reading the ACS before recommending that to a student, though.

Aside from the fact that checklist use, or lack thereof, is something that almost took my dad out of the cockpit several years early.
Click to expand...
This x10000.
 
Saintroad said:
Interesting read. Agree with some points. I like to believe I would have the fuel settings and switches set upon settling into the pattern for landing, not when lined up on final.
Whatever works as long as we have a checklist of some type...

GUMPS

Gregory Penglis’ book The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction is one of the best books written about aviation and its training I have ever read. Penglis has a snarky, curmudgeonly style that is fantastic in its dry humor but quite immense knowledge. Reading, you can tell the man came by his knowledge of aviation the hard way.

Here’s his take on the old GUMPS mnemonic:

One might wonder why we still use such a peculiar acronym as “GUMPS” for a final landing check. This is the most bizarre and ludicrous procedure in all of flight training. There you are in a brand new aircraft (to you), with lots of new things to do, going much faster than you are used to flying, coming in for a landing (which is one of the most critical phases of flight), and you are suddenly expected to use new names for the controls as you go groping around the cockpit, when you should be looking out the window and flying the airplane. Does this make sense to anyone, or am I the only one who finds this practice not only strange, but dangerous?

“G” stands for gas. We never gall it gas—we call it fuel. You check the fuel, drain the fuel, check for water in the fuel, and switch tanks with the fuel selector. But on base leg in a high-performance aircraft, it suddenly becomes “gas.” The G could stand for gear. That would make sense as it is often the first control in a power down flow check. No, I’m sorry, the G could not stand for gear, that would be logical and consistent. Of course, whenever you do a GUMPS check, the first word out of your mouth is guaranteed to be “gear.”

“U” stands for undercarriage. This just fractures me. Do we all suddenly take out British citizenship when we fly our first base leg in a high-performance aircraft? Honestly, undercarriage? That word is three syllables too long for use on base.

Of course, now being British, we would have to call the fuel (excuse me, gas), “petrol.” I suppose we could change the acronym to PUMPS for consistency. The only places the British have good names are when they describe the prop pitch.

“M” is for mixture. I recognize that word.
”P” is for prop. I recognize that one, too.
”S” is for systems.

Having a lengthy systems check right before landing is nuts because we now know that any pilot who doesn’t want to grope when he should by flying does all that stuff way out on the prelanding check during descent. Besides, after the prop is checked, no one has the time or inclination to go through the systems. Most students just say “systems” to humor the instructor and hope that it covers the check.

You already checked the fuel, so toss out this nasty word “gas” that we never use. “Undercarriage”—be serious. What we have left are the essentials of “mixture” and “propeller.” What about the gear? Following the crazy order of GUMPS sends your hand in a star pattern around the controls just like the published prelanding checks. You could very well forget the gear as you try to pronounce “undercarriage.” If you are that distracted, you could very well not hear the gear warning horn (or is that undercarriage warning horn?), no matter how loud it is. The stuff you land on should always be called gear, period.

Well for all you folks who learned the GUMPS check, we can modify it to Gear, Mixture, and Prop—“GMP.” You can still pronounce it “gump” and keep the familiar sound of you check with familiar names for the controls and use them in a familiar order, without unnecessary groping. Even on airplanes that change the classic positions for the controls a GMP check with hit the biggies.

Anyway, I’m sure students will be taught the GUMPS check for some time because, like child abuse, these things just get passed down the aviation family. There will come a time when logic, initiative, simplicity, and making the system better will triumph over rote memorization, trying to make the best of bad procedures, and training without any conscious thought or responsibility, but we can make it happen. I still think the GUMPS check came to us from some English mole instructor trying to sabotage our flight training system.

The problem with dumping a useless check like GUMPS is that it is so imprinted on so many pilots’ minds that there will be tremendous resistance to change. Pilots and instructors go through such incredible efforts to learn these inadequate and inferior procedures that even if something better comes along, instructors still want students to suffer as they did. It’s like some archaic fraternity ritual. All us new and improved GMP types will conflict with the old GUMPS instructors who will insist their way is preferable, simply because after doing all the work to learn it, they are used to it. When will we stop adapting ourselves to the procedures and start adapting the procedures to ourselves? For the rest of your life when on base and final, say “gear, mixture, prop” and end your groping. If you forget that, then go back to the old power-up/power-down flow checks. Either way, you will get all the important stuff.

Definitely food for thought.
Click to expand...
I've never used GUMPS for that reason. Gear, mixture, prop, fuel, flaps has a ring to it and is easy to remember. I also throw clearance in at the end as a reminder.
 
Saintroad said:
Interesting read. Agree with some points. I like to believe I would have the fuel settings and switches set upon settling into the pattern for landing, not when lined up on final.
Whatever works as long as we have a checklist of some type...

GUMPS
Click to expand...

I've always used GUMPPS

Gas
Undercarriage
Mixture - Fixed for ircphoenix :p
Props
Pumps
Seatbelts

It worked for me. YMMV
 
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Saintroad said:
Interesting read. Agree with some points. I like to believe I would have the fuel settings and switches set upon settling into the pattern for landing, not when lined up on final.
Whatever works as long as we have a checklist of some type...

GUMPS

Gregory Penglis’ book The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction is one of the best books written about aviation and its training I have ever read. Penglis has a snarky, curmudgeonly style that is fantastic in its dry humor but quite immense knowledge. Reading, you can tell the man came by his knowledge of aviation the hard way.

Here’s his take on the old GUMPS mnemonic:
Click to expand...

And then he proceeds to miss the point. If "GUMPS" is what gets someone to remember to run a flow or just freaking pick up their checklist off of the floor, fine.

If yelling "I like boobies!" gets someone to remember to run their checklist when entering the airport area, fine by me. I won't care if they name their checklist "boobies" and that works for them. As long as they pick up the freaking thing and do it.

The author seems to have forgotten that it's not about the acronym. It's about placing a memory jogger in the exact same spot in the brain to do something every single freaking time until it becomes a habit.

The CFI pointing at the fuel pump being off after an otherwise perfect flight and the mildly disapproving look and their voice saying, "Did you forget something?", will also live in that same location in the student's head for the rest of their life.

For the ladies, nickname your arrival checklist the "hot firemen await below" checklist, for all I care.

ANYTHING that gets you to do it until it's habit, works for me.

I preferred just reminding myself that any time things seemed too tranquil and boring, there was probably a checklist to run. And even if it gets busy, every time you leave or enter the airport's general vicinity, there's checklists to run. And any time you start an instrument approach there's checklists to run.

But hey. If someone goes out next week and yells "boobies!" and smiles and runs their approach checklist, because I posted this. Great.*

* Your mileage may vary as to whether or not whoever can hear you at the time may or may not like your memory method. If you prefer to think "boobies!" or "hot firemen!" in your head and smile and reach for the checklist, that's cool. And CFIs may want to avoid these for reasons of sexual harassment lawsuits, but they're just examples. And I recommend not announcing them over the CTAF or to the Tower, but it's your airplane, PIC. Pick any silly word you like. Something you will remember.

Now go out and remember to run that boobies/firemen checklist! ;) Reading books whining about the use of the word "undercarriage" won't help you remember.

Green
Underpants
Make
People
Sick

Dang. That's not right! Where the hell is the checklist. Ahh, there it is, right there on the floor where I dropped it after the cruise checklist was complete!
 
ircphoenix said:
I would just like to point out that BOOBIES! will be part of my checklist from this point forward.
Click to expand...

See? It works! Haha.

The technique of associating totally inane silly things with a list of things you're trying to remember is well documented as a technique that works.

I first saw it decades ago in "The Memory Book" by Lorayne & Lucas as a way to memorize lists of unrelated stuff. I think I can still remember some of the items in their example list some thirty years later.

Visualization works really well for a population that a majority are visual learners. Many of our aviation acronyms don't do that well, though. It has to be an outlandish crazy non-normal visual to stick it in your head.

TOMATO(E) FLAMES is about the closest we get and who can spell tomato and who'd set them on fire, anyway?

The visualization thing is why "chair flying" works so well for many. Visualize yourself reaching for that checklist after the flow or however you do it. Seeing oneself, even if imaginary in your head, doing it "right" is a big deal.

Wrote memorization of stuff is a lot harder than visualizing something silly that jogs your memory. It's just a weird way our brains all work.
 
You will get used to it.
You could try to make yourself think hard when turning final and seeing the runway right there: am I ready to land? As in: have I run the GUMPS checklist?
 
denverpilot said:
And then he proceeds to miss the point. If "GUMPS" is what gets someone to remember to run a flow or just freaking pick up their checklist off of the floor, fine.

If yelling "I like boobies!" gets someone to remember to run their checklist when entering the airport area, fine by me. I won't care if they name their checklist "boobies" and that works for them. As long as they pick up the freaking thing and do it.

The author seems to have forgotten that it's not about the acronym. It's about placing a memory jogger in the exact same spot in the brain to do something every single freaking time until it becomes a habit.

The CFI pointing at the fuel pump being off after an otherwise perfect flight and the mildly disapproving look and their voice saying, "Did you forget something?", will also live in that same location in the student's head for the rest of their life.

For the ladies, nickname your arrival checklist the "hot firemen await below" checklist, for all I care.

ANYTHING that gets you to do it until it's habit, works for me.

I preferred just reminding myself that any time things seemed too tranquil and boring, there was probably a checklist to run. And even if it gets busy, every time you leave or enter the airport's general vicinity, there's checklists to run. And any time you start an instrument approach there's checklists to run.

But hey. If someone goes out next week and yells "boobies!" and smiles and runs their approach checklist, because I posted this. Great.*

* Your mileage may vary as to whether or not whoever can hear you at the time may or may not like your memory method. If you prefer to think "boobies!" or "hot firemen!" in your head and smile and reach for the checklist, that's cool. And CFIs may want to avoid these for reasons of sexual harassment lawsuits, but they're just examples. And I recommend not announcing them over the CTAF or to the Tower, but it's your airplane, PIC. Pick any silly word you like. Something you will remember.

Now go out and remember to run that boobies/firemen checklist! ;) Reading books whining about the use of the word "undercarriage" won't help you remember.

Green
Underpants
Make
People
Sick

Dang. That's not right! Where the hell is the checklist. Ahh, there it is, right there on the floor where I dropped it after the cruise checklist was complete!
Click to expand...
It seems like you have missed the point. The use of GUMPS isn't meant to be a trigger to remind you to pick up your landing checklist, it is the landing checklist. Personally, I think it's a bad one but that's why it's used. I think it is bad mostly because of the reasons quoted.
 
Cooter said:
It seems like you have missed the point. The use of GUMPS isn't meant to be a trigger to remind you to pick up your landing checklist, it is the landing checklist. Personally, I think it's a bad one but that's why it's used. I think it is bad mostly because of the reasons quoted.
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No I didn't. You can use the GUMPS checklist just fine in current form and it still works, but be smart enough to extend the reminder into "Hey instead of GUMPS I could just look at this laminated card lying here in my lap..."

Limiting it to the actual mnemonic just shows a lack of imagination on the part of the author. Probably because he had a deadline and writing that made him some lunch money. Haha.

Anyone here NOT have an instructor bet them a Coke they couldn't do something? I can still hear my primary instructor betting me a Coke he can hit the paint mark and I can't.

Whatever works to motivate the student. He knew I'd hate to lose and have to buy him a Coke. Won't work with some. Works with others.

Someday when it's a bad day and I've made enough dumb decisions and I find myself having to land on something really short, I'll hear "Don't screw up. You'll owe me a Coke..."

Won't matter if I have enough cash in my pocket to buy 100 Cokes. I won't want to lose the bet. ;)

And I'll always remember trying to start the Seminole with a checklist lying in my lap and the mags off, too.

I'll also remember the perfect flight where the instructor said quietly, "It was looking real good right up until now. But you just failed your checkride if I was the examiner..."

Eyeballs flew around the cockpit. What the heck did I do wrong or forget? Ahhhhh... ****! The gear handle isn't down. That's just completely inexcusable. Crap. No excuses for that one. I would have failed. He's right. Doesn't matter that the Tower switched runways, there's five other airplanes out here maneuvering, we were fast arriving, blah blah blah... gear down, dumb***. It's not optional.

Emotional content helps people remember things.


In fact, making mistakes in the training environment is way better than not. If you make no mistakes, you won't get those reminders of how bad certain mental slip ups are.

Heck, just think of Forest Gump and how you're not going to be as dumb as that guy, if that works for ya. GUMP!!! You idiot!!! Where's your checklist?!

Whatever works. Make it emotional and vivid. It'll "stick" better.

For the author all he has to do is remember how much he hates GUMP. That should be emotional enough for him... probably not for most everyone else. But he can call it out and get angry while he reaches for the checklist and then rant about it all the way down final, if he likes. ;)
 
I want to disagree with you, but the length of your posts has inclined me to silence. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
...
TOMATO(E) FLAMES...
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Food for thought CFI padawan...
I liken that acronym to a waiter/waitress at a restaurant who takes your order without writing it down. There is no upside to the memorization and the person is likely to get it wrong.
 
denverpilot said:
Emotional content helps people remember things.
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I'm working through a Philosophy course right now, and that's one of the emphasis items. Memory is best when both parts of the brain are engaged. The rational part(frontal lobe I think) process the data but the more primitive instinctual part of the brain helps to prioritize the data(through emotion). I haven't quite tied that to flying just yet though.
 
For me, GUMPS is somewhat different but more effective:
  • Gear down (downwind)
  • Undercarriage down (turning base)
  • Make sure the gear is down. (Base leg)
  • Put the gear down! (Turning final)
  • ****!! Is the gear down?? (Short final)
Actually, I put the prop forward before pattern entry, often as I am slowing to flap speed. Flaps down by midfield downwind. Abeam intended point of landing, gear down. (Thud! under the seat) Base leg, check for green "Gear Safe" light. On final, recheck green light and check mechanical floor indicator (big green stripe painted on the gear mechanism, it can't read wrong). If I'm flaring and feel fast, quick glance at the green light and reach for the gear knob.

It's simple, really. One stupid gear up landing, my plane is totaled and my personal flying is over. So I'm careful.

The actual Landing Checklist is printed on the panel and back lit at night by the thoughtful manufacturer, right there beside the radios. It's also on my kneeboard, strapped to my leg.
 
Wow, thank you all for your responses to my original post. As always, lots of passionate discussion on POA. :)

I do believe in flows, but always, always verify with a checklist. I make my own checklist so I can add things like "turn on Stratus" or "write down takeoff time." I have it both on paper on my kneeboard and as a PDF formatted for the iPad screen. The PA-28 landing checklist is really simple--just fuel pump on, mixture rich, landing light on.

My problem is to remember to execute the checklist at all. Out of 100 landings, I would remember 99 times. However, that single time when I approach an unfamiliar airport, getting passed from ATC to ATC, trying to avoid Bravo and TFR, being assigned number 5 to land, doing 360s, being asked to follow traffic that I can't see, dealing with crosswinds (not exactly what happened last time, but just an example)--that single time out of 100 is when I would forget to run a checklist. And that's unacceptable to me. 1 out of 100 is too high of an error rate. After all, NTSB database is full of accidents caused by very occasional mistakes.

How do you eliminate that 1/100 error rate so that you use the checklist every single time, as a single pilot? You all have given some great advices. (I do like eetrojan's idea of writing reminders on the navlog itself. Will try that next time.) Thanks all.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I'd recommend reading the ACS before recommending that to a student, though.

Aside from the fact that checklist use, or lack thereof, is something that almost took my dad out of the cockpit several years early.
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Checklist use was something we borrowed from professional crews because of their great safety record. Great idea when you're a 2 man crew, always on IFR and one guy can be heads down at all times. When you're alone, VFR, it's a different game. I'm not saying don't use checklist, but I am saying don't use heads down checklist in a heavy traffic environment. I think the FAA would agree with me if you had midair caused by this.
 
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