Flowcheck/Checklist

OkieAviator

OkieAviator

Pattern Altitude
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OkieAviator
Throughout my training process I've gone through a number of homemade, other people made and purchased checklists. The exhaustive multi-page checklists were great to learn with but as I developed a flow for things I really didn't need something to hold my hand through the process. Likewise the purchased checklists looked polished, were compact and had the major items but they seemed to lack a flow and I was bouncing all over the panel to do things.

Post PPL and in my own plane I started focusing more on the Flowchecks and then backing it up with purchased Checklist. Being that it's a 180 conversion with a STOL kit the Vspeeds aren't accurate and again the Flow isn't the same. Decided to do another revision to my custom checklist and incorporate more of the 'Flow' than it being a 'Do list'.

The items are laid out in the order in which I check them. Typically I start at the fuel switch and work my way up and over. My basic flows are CIGARES for Runup... Lights/Camera/Action before taking a runway... then on climb and En Route it's PPT- which I through Mixure and Instruments/Lights at the end. Landing it's CGUMPS and on emergency engine out my CFI taught me the Lcheck when is start at the fuel guage go up and to the left... checking all the usuals like mixture, power, carb heat.. over to master... then reverse Lcheck in the opposite order. I didn't make any of these up so you can search the internet, there's lots of information out there about flows.

Finally this all fits and can be trimmed onto about a 6x9 sheet. I generally self print and mark them up with any changes and when I feel I have something semi solid then I'll go pay the $4-5 at a print shop and have it put on thick paper and lamented.
 

Attachments

Excellent!

Another application. Output as a PDF, then import into the Documents section of your EFB (such as ForeFlight).
 
There are two ways to complete a checklist. One is to, "read and do," while the other is to, "do and verify."

I prefer the flow as do you. Could I utilize the checklist more? Sure. But, in the sing,e pilot aircraft, I find it to be more of a pain than anything useful. The checklist comes out when I'm not sure of something, or if I'm in an unfamiliar aircraft.

I have a few that I live by:
The "Killer Items," "GUMPS, and "Idiot checks."
 
I'm a flow guy myself. Checklist looks great! I'm a big fan of the GUMPS check.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Excellent!

Another application. Output as a PDF, then import into the Documents section of your EFB (such as ForeFlight).
Click to expand...

I tried to utilize it on a tablet but I find having the laminated piece of paper is less time consuming and quicker. Plus I can give it to my passenger and make him/her follow along.
 
I go with the flow. Keep a laminated copy on the dash. I'm older so I use larger font on my checklist.
 
Flows & checklists go hand in hand. Do the flow, back it up with the checklist
 
One of the planes I fly is an "N" model. I might just steal your checklist if you don't mind. The one that was provided didn't even bother to put the emergency procedures on it.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
There are two ways to complete a checklist. One is to, "read and do," while the other is to, "do and verify."
Click to expand...

I disagree, it's a checklist not a "do list"
 
woodchucker said:
One of the planes I fly is an "N" model. I might just steal your checklist if you don't mind. The one that was provided didn't even bother to put the emergency procedures on it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, that's why I wanted to throw it up here. Make sure the Vspeeds are accurate for your plane and that the emergency procedures make sense.
 
I too had sevral different check lists in the beginning. Then Wayne Bower from the forum flew in one day to help me polish up my flying for the check ride. He had sent me a spreadsheet format that I edited and printed.

He sat in the plane with me and showed me the flow of this list. Even though I have been using it for three years now, I still run through and verify against the list to make sure I didnt miss anything. Good habit to develop IMHO.
 
Nice checklist and I'm glad it works for you. It seems to me that checklists are quite personal to some degree.
The more often I fly a plane in a given situation the more I use a flow. If I've been out of the plane for a while, I like to use a checklist to make sure by brain doesn't skip a gear. I used to think that wasn't possible but as I get older I accept that it can.
I'm going to redo my interior this winter on a plane that I own. It is my intention to put many of the emergency and other basic data in plain sight on the interior. I don't' care what others think. I'm old enough that I simply don't care about resale value. If I want to put 65KIAS is best glide, I'll stencil it where it is readily viewable and then I'll take it off the checklist. Same with other info that is important to me.
Of course, this is not acceptable to most people, but my point is there are many individual ways to get and keep important information readily at hand.
Most of us do not use checklists/flows as well as we should unless we are flying two pilot charter or bigger, more sophisticated airplanes where it is part of the routine. I'd say that failure to teach proper use of checklists is a major deficiency in most aviation instruction programs until you get to the bigger airplanes, and by then we all have bad habits.
 
Early on, I transposed the Checklist sections from my C-172L POH to an 8 x 11" sheet which I laminated. The text is much larger than the POH original. One CFI scolded me for using my hard copy, saying that "only the POH is valid in the cockpit." Yet, years earlier when I took the SODA flight, the FAA examiner made no comment about my large and easy to read reproduction. Well, he did make one comment.
"You pass, but I'll make one comment: Use your checklist. Someone else could have busted you three times; but even though your checklist is in the pocket by my right knee you didn't miss a trick. In the future, use that check list." My routine changed from that time.

Other CFIs, please comment on the validity of my reproduced POH text.

HR
 
Lawreston said:
Early on, I transposed the Checklist sections from my C-172L POH to an 8 x 11" sheet which I laminated. The text is much larger than the POH original. One CFI scolded me for using my hard copy, saying that "only the POH is valid in the cockpit." Yet, years earlier when I took the SODA flight, the FAA examiner made no comment about my large and easy to read reproduction. Well, he did make one comment.
"You pass, but I'll make one comment: Use your checklist. Someone else could have busted you three times; but even though your checklist is in the pocket by my right knee you didn't miss a trick. In the future, use that check list." My routine changed from that time.

Other CFIs, please comment on the validity of my reproduced POH text.

HR
Click to expand...
With the exception of some commercial and other highly regulated operations, there is nothing magical about the POH checklist and we are free to copy, edit or roll out own from scratch. The key is not to miss anything important and writing our own can actually help prevent that better than the often unreadable and unusable one in the POH.

Contrary to your scolding CFI, I have encouraged all of my students to create their own. And I have created my own since my days as a student pilot.
 
I find it a useful technique for a checkout in a new aircraft, to help learn the procedures.

Now, if I just could talk CAP into that (those aren't windmills; they are giants). Those 182 Nav III checklists from Cessna suck hard.
 
My check ride was sort of the opposite of Mr. Reich's. I never missed a single checklist step on my check ride and my DPE was less than impressed. At one point he even made a comment that I shouldn't need a checklist.

He was a Cessna 140 enthusiast and was totally enamored with my plane. I don't know if that had anything to do with his comments or not. He was a one in a million anyway. There were LOTS of comments about him among those in the area that took check rides with him.
 
I ended up as a kind of hybrid. I do a flow process on the preflight because it's how I was trained (stemming from that old diagram in the Cessna checklist book).

When I get in and get ready to start up/run up/go I revert to a checklist. I have all my checklists in an iPad app called Checklist Wrangler and I have customized them for my airplane and my airport.

Then when I am airborne I use CCGUMPS for normal climb, cruise and descent. If an approach is involved, I brief it using a flow pattern around the plate.
 
Thanks, Mark. Your confirmation is what I had been assuming in deference to the CFI's "instruction."

HR
 
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