Run-up on taxi?

I don't start, do a run up, shut down, then restart and skip the runup for the convenience of my pax, which is what my original post was addressing. They'd just have to live with the "inconvenience".

I don't really get what you're trying to ask. Before every takeoff? If it's a stop and go or taxi back, no. If I go from one airport to another, shut down, get out and have lunch, then I do another runup prior to takeoff.

A runup takes me 30 seconds. It's not an issue to even do a runup... and I prefer to know the ignition system is working correctly on the ground, so I don't find it working incorrectly in the air. Mags don't care as you said... They can and do randomly fail.
 
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Luvrv8 said:
I don't do the run up while taxing because I am busy texting.
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Haha reminds me the time I was holding short of runway 26R at ATL. Controller cleared us to cross, added power and I didn't hear my FO read back the crossing clearance. Looked over at him, and yep, he was texting! :eek:

I read back the clearance as he says "was that for us?". Needless to say we had a talk when we got to the gate.
 
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Coloradokevin said:
I once had an instructor who liked to complete run-ups on taxi. .
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Pretty bad thing to do on his part. A CFI, in my opinion, should always show the recommended or correct procedure during training. Once you have your certificate then you can do shortcuts, if you want.
 
I don't do it but I've flown with people who do. Taxiing and runup each require enough attention that I don't want to mix the them. The runup doesn't take very long and I am less likely to miss something when I give it my complete attention. I do a runup/mag check before each flight, warm or not. Again, we're talking a few minutes and the fuel burn is probably a few ounces.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Why? Because mags can and do fail suddenly.

I've had a mag completely fail 10 minutes after it passed at run-up. Had I opted to depart without doing another run up, I would have departed on one mag.
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:yes: I've had a mag fail on the second flight of the day.
 
I've only done a few rolling run ups. One just to prove I could safely, one at osh, and one at a busy airport where there wasn't time. Each has been with another person in the right watching out, though. I don't think I'd do it solo.
 
When I was a young, dumb, and invincible I used to do the run-up on taxi.

Now I'm just dumb, but I figure an extra couple of minutes (if that) isn't worth tempting Murphy's Law.
 
I've seen it done (as a passenger), and thought it seemed sloppy. There was a period when I ran-up during taxi (just about everything else can be done before start-up, anyway), but I became uncomfortable with it. With most pre-take-off checks done before taxi, I'm more comfortable running-up a warm engine and reviewing the cockpit along with a takeoff briefing...Rushing doesn't save much of anything, and if you think safety is expensive, try an accident.
 
Bobanna;2023266 [B said:
Rushing doesn't save much of anything, and[B] if you think safety is expensive, try an accident[/B]. [/B]
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:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Well said!
 
Fearless Tower said:
Do you do a feather check on each leg of a multi-leg flight?

When I am doing an abbreviated runup, I'm typically doing just a quick mag check. 15 seconds is plenty of time.
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Most of my flights (90%+) are return trips to a single destination and back, with anywhere from a few hours to a few days between the outbound and return flights. I can carry a lot of fuel so rarely have to make intermediate stops. On a long cross country (such as the 1200 nm to OSH) the stops tend to be long and leisurely (anybody trying to set any speed records shouldn't be flying an Aztec :D ).

So yes, I got in the habit of doing a full run-up check before every take off. Usually takes no more than 90 seconds but I never do it when moving.
 
GRG55 said:
Most of my flights (90%+) are return trips to a single destination and back, with anywhere from a few hours to a few days between the outbound and return flights. I can carry a lot of fuel so rarely have to make intermediate stops. On a long cross country (such as the 1200 nm to OSH) the stops tend to be long and leisurely (anybody trying to set any speed records shouldn't be flying an Aztec :D ).



So yes, I got in the habit of doing a full run-up check before every take off. Usually takes no more than 90 seconds but I never do it when moving.
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Makes sense. I don't disagree with you. I have probably only done maybe 5 or so moving runups in 900 hrs of flying.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Makes sense. I don't disagree with you. I have probably only done maybe 5 or so moving runups in 900 hrs of flying.
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Got a question. The most experienced twin engine pilot instructor I ever had taught that is unprofessional to turn on the wing tip strobes or the transponder until across the runway hold line just prior to take off, so I have a left to right scan and switch position check/activation pattern I do on the roll to the take off position (my transponder is at the bottom of the stack just to the right of the switch panel).

Is that strobe/transponder procedure of not turning them on until on the runway common practice with other folks here?
 
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GRG55 said:
Got a question. The most experienced twin engine pilot instructor I ever had taught that is unprofessional to turn on the wing tip strobes or the transponder until across the runway hold line just prior to take off, so I have a left to right scan and switch position check/activation pattern I do on the roll to the take off position (my transponder is at the bottom of the stack just to the right of the switch panel).

Is that strobe/transponder procedure of not turning them on until on the runway common practice with other folks here?
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The FAA recently changed their guidance and now wants you to turn on the transponder on the ground. It used to be a requirement only on airports with ground-radar, now it is universal.

I go by the 'lights, camera, action' mnemonic when cleared for takeoff. Check that transponder is on 'alt', turn on the strobes, turn on the landing light, and 'action' is the part where you turn onto the runway.

You are not supposed to run the strobes on the ramp as to not harm the night vision of everyone else you encounter. Now the problem is in a plane where the strobe is the only anti collision light. Some FAR says that you are to operate your ACL at night on the ground. So you have the option of being nice to others vs. being nice to the FAA.
 
GRG55 said:
Got a question. The most experienced twin engine pilot instructor I ever had taught that is unprofessional to turn on the wing tip strobes or the transponder until across the runway hold line just prior to take off, so I have a left to right scan and switch position check/activation pattern I do on the roll to the take off position (my transponder is at the bottom of the stack just to the right of the switch panel).

Is that strobe/transponder procedure of not turning them on until on the runway common practice with other folks here?
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Transponder stays on ALT all the time. Strobe goes on whenever I cross a runway or when I get cleared for takeoff.
 
GRG55 said:
Got a question. The most experienced twin engine pilot instructor I ever had taught that is unprofessional to turn on the wing tip strobes or the transponder until across the runway hold line just prior to take off, so I have a left to right scan and switch position check/activation pattern I do on the roll to the take off position (my transponder is at the bottom of the stack just to the right of the switch panel).

Is that strobe/transponder procedure of not turning them on until on the runway common practice with other folks here?
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After I posted this I discovered another recent thread I had not yet got to, containing a "spirited" discussion on this very topic of the transponder.
Now it's clear. Sort of. :cool:
 
weilke said:
The FAA recently changed their guidance and now wants you to turn on the transponder on the ground. It used to be a requirement only on airports with ground-radar, now it is universal.

I go by the 'lights, camera, action' mnemonic when cleared for takeoff. Check that transponder is on 'alt', turn on the strobes, turn on the landing light, and 'action' is the part where you turn onto the runway.

You are not supposed to run the strobes on the ramp as to not harm the night vision of everyone else you encounter. Now the problem is in a plane where the strobe is the only anti collision light. Some FAR says that you are to operate your ACL at night on the ground. So you have the option of being nice to others vs. being nice to the FAA.
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There's the catch-all that lets you disable the ACL for safety. The ramp guys, other pilots, etc, are arguably in a much safer position if you kill your strobes for them then. If it were me, I'd just run my navs and kill the strobes if there are others around like that, but turn them on as soon as it's safe to do so.
 
.1 on the hobbs is 6 minutes. My runup takes 1 if I'm being lazy about it. If you're trying to save money, the runup isn't the place.
 
I have done it a couple of times over the years, but it is definitely the exception for me. If the run up area is icy, the brakes won't hold, so you kind of have to do it on the roll. I have also done it in line on the way out of a fly-in so as not to impede the flow. This is in a plane I know well and have a good flow. I wouldn't do it in a plane that I wasn't very familiar with.
 
Very seldom have I done a moving run up,prefer to stabilize the aircraft,and do the run up,final control check.
 
ATC_av8er said:
Just wondering, after I get my PPL of course, if it was possible to do my run-up on the taxi out to save a little time (and $$$ of course).
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An airplane owner would never ask such question. The fuel "wasted" during a stopped run-up is negligible compared to brake replacement cost. Of course I am completely ignoring the safety aspect here.

Now go get another rental, fly it like you stole it, break it, abuse it and most importantly: enjoy it. :D
 
When I was approaching the end of my private pilot training, my flight instructor heard something that he thought "sounded funny" while performing a steep turn on a training flight. We made a quick precautionary landing at an airport away from our home base. We got out and inspected the airplane. On top of all of this, my instructor was running late. He had to get back home so his wife could go to work.

As we hopped back in the airplane, my instructor took the controls to start the plane and perform the run-up and mag checks. When I would do this, I would meticulously run through every item on the checklist, and double and triple check things. When he started the plane, I had never seen anyone run through everything so quickly. He did the mag checks as we were taxing while doing some partial breaking to keep us from building up too much speed. This was an un-towered field, and there was another airplane that he wanted to "beat" to the runway so we could depart first. As we rolled onto the runway, he "let" me take the flight controls and fly the plane back to the home base.

After landing back at the home base airport, and as we were putting the airplane away, I commented that I was glad to see how "real pilots" fly once they get their licenses. He was not too happy with that comment and let me know that I should never do anything like that.

Do as I say... not as I do...
 
azpilot said:
When I was approaching the end of my private pilot training, my flight instructor heard something that he thought "sounded funny" while performing a steep turn on a training flight. We made a quick precautionary landing at an airport away from our home base. We got out and inspected the airplane. On top of all of this, my instructor was running late. He had to get back home so his wife could go to work.

As we hopped back in the airplane, my instructor took the controls to start the plane and perform the run-up and mag checks. When I would do this, I would meticulously run through every item on the checklist, and double and triple check things. When he started the plane, I had never seen anyone run through everything so quickly. He did the mag checks as we were taxing while doing some partial breaking to keep us from building up too much speed. This was an un-towered field, and there was another airplane that he wanted to "beat" to the runway so we could depart first. As we rolled onto the runway, he "let" me take the flight controls and fly the plane back to the home base.

After landing back at the home base airport, and as we were putting the airplane away, I commented that I was glad to see how "real pilots" fly once they get their licenses. He was not too happy with that comment and let me know that I should never do anything like that.

Do as I say... not as I do...
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Learning is as much about what to do, as what not to do.
 
You people that take 2-3 min to do the runup... what are you doing that takes so long? I am genuinely curious.

I complete the entire thing in under 45 seconds if I am slow.
 
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N312RB said:
You people that take 2-3 min to do the runup... what are you doing that takes so long? I am genuinely curious.

I complete the entire thing in under 45 seconds if I am slow.
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Depends what you mean by "runup." I doubt I'm over a minute at high power cycling the prop and checking the mags (I no longer set the mixture owing to a combination of being at lower altitudes and having a fuel flow guage to rough set it). However, my pretakeoff checklist is longer than just those two or three items.
 
During taxi you ought to be checking TNB and AI in the turns and braking. I've only done one rolling run-up in over 600 hours. Ground indicated SWA was taxiing behind me and I needed to be ready for immediate departure or plan on a wake turbulence delay.
 
danhagan said:
During taxi you ought to be checking TNB and AI in the turns and braking. I've only done one rolling run-up in over 600 hours. Ground indicated SWA was taxiing behind me and I needed to be ready for immediate departure or plan on a wake turbulence delay.
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At least the delay would have given you time for the most comprehensive regular run-up you've ever done ;)
 
I park my happy ass in the runup area before the hold short. I go through my runup, then I move up to the hold short.

I wouldn't want to abuse the brakes driving the engine up to 1800 on the roll.

I also do a runup any time I've shut down the engine for a couple hours. Do I look down on people who don't? No. But I'm also not flying their plane. ;)
 
mkosmo said:
At least the delay would have given you time for the most comprehensive regular run-up you've ever done ;)
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Again that was a single event, and nothing was skipped as the departure runway is 12k feet (full taxi length KELP 22).

On another note, going through the run-up for me is normally about a minute; however, I am usually sitting in the run-up area trying to warm the engine if its the first flight of the day. The analog oil temp needle takes forever to lift off the peg if you're idling. I have noticed when it is just starting to move my CHT's are generally about 285*.
 
danhagan said:
Again that was a single event, and nothing was skipped as the departure runway is 12k feet (full taxi length KELP 22).
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I wouldn't assume you'd miss anything on the rolling, but the delay would have given you 2+ minutes to do whatever. Short pre-flight nap, maybe? :) Or more if you didn't like what left in front of you.
 
I don't do it, won't even consider it.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
Do instructors still teach this crap? What's wrong with the run-up pad or ramp? Don't block and delay those who don't need to do one.
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The airport I generally fly from is small so the generally do it on the taxiway. If you do it on the pad you are blasting other planes with propwash, which some people do not appreciate.
 
Most of the time I don't even set a squawk, GPS route, or change frequencies while I'm taxiing. Anything I don't get done before I start moving has to wait for the run-up pad. Even with the airport I'm at and the wide taxiways we have, it's not worth the risk of running off or hitting some solo Vietnamese student who doesn't know how to give way.
 
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