Hi,
This is a good story to think about, the next time you decide to skip the checklist.
It was sent to me by a retired USAF colonel who also retired from TWA. He flew overseas flights in a B-747.
Clay


Subject: The Checklist



Interesting piece of aviation history.

On October 30, 1935, at Wright Air Field in Dayton, Ohio, the U.S. Army Air Corps held a flight competition for airplane manufacturers vying to build its next-generation long-range bomber. It wasn't supposed to be much of a competition. In early evaluations, the Boeing Corporation's gleaming aluminum-alloy Model 299 had trounced the designs of Martin and Douglas. Boeing's plane could carry five times as many bombs as the Army had requested; it could fly faster than previous bombers, and almost twice as far. A Seattle newspaperman who had glimpsed the plane called it the "flying fortress," and the name stuck. The flight "competition," according to the military historian Phillip Meilinger, was regarded as a mere formality. The Army planned to order at least sixty-five of the aircraft.

A small crowd of Army brass and manufacturing executives watched as the Model 299 test plane taxied onto the runway. It was sleek and impressive, with a hundred-and-three-foot wingspan and four engines jutting out from the wings, rather than the usual two. The plane roared down the tarmac, lifted off smoothly, and climbed sharply to three hundred feet. Then it stalled, turned on one wing, and crashed in a fiery explosion. Two of the five crew members died, including the pilot, Major Ployer P. Hill. (re. Hill AFB, Ogden, UT)

An investigation revealed that nothing mechanical had gone wrong. The crash had been due to "pilot error," the report said. Substantially more complex than previous aircraft, the new plane required the pilot to attend to the four engines, a retractable landing gear, new wing flaps, electric trim tabs that needed adjustment to maintain control at different airspeeds, and constant-speed propellers whose pitch had to be regulated with hydraulic controls, among other features. While doing all this, Hill had forgotten to release a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls. The Boeing model was deemed, as a newspaper put it, "too much airplane for one man to fly." The Army Air Corps declared Douglas's smaller design the winner. Boeing nearly went bankrupt.
Still, the Army purchased a few aircraft from Boeing as test planes, and some insiders remained convinced that the aircraft was flyable. So a group of test pilots got together and considered what to do.

They could have required Model 299 pilots to undergo more training. But it was hard to imagine having more experience and expertise than Major Hill, who had been the U.S. Army Air Corps' chief of flight testing. Instead, they came up with an ingeniously simple approach: they created a pilot's checklist, with step-by-step checks for takeoff, flight, landing, and taxiing. Its mere existence indicated how far aeronautics had advanced. In the early years of flight, getting an aircraft into the air might have been nerve-racking, but it was hardly complex. Using a checklist for takeoff would no more have occurred to a pilot than to a driver backing a car out of the garage. But this new plane was too complicated to be left to the memory of any pilot, however expert.

With the checklist in hand, the pilots went on to fly the Model 299 a total of 1.8 million miles without one accident. The Army ultimately ordered almost thirteen thousand of the aircraft, which it dubbed the B-17. And, because flying the behemoth was now possible, the Army gained a decisive air advantage in the Second World War which enabled its devastating bombing campaign across Nazi Germany.

Good story,

Makes me feel a little stupid for using a checklist in an airplane as simple as a 175. Though I know I need it, when I get in a rush I do miss things.

Craig,

You ain't stupid buddy...the ONLY times I can remember getting into trouble (big & small) is when I failed to run the checklist...little things...like flying for an hour before "wondering if I remembered to put the cap back on the oil fill." I hadn't. I made a precautionary landing and found oil all over the inside of the cowl...luckily, good design of the aircraft/engine prevented loss of more than a quart after an hour flying...I was "Stupid" for NOT running the checklist...Fortunately, the consequences in this case weren't too egregious.

Regards,

Darth

My checklists are printed on my panel. Makes it easy to look at and follow. Using check lists makes you more professional and more precise. Wait till something happens that would have been caught on a checklist, then you will follow one more closely.

Every time I get in a hurry I forget simple things. How about move the ladder from in front of the airplane after refueling so you don't run over it when you taxi away..... Even a fuel up checklist can be handy. Minds have a habit of squeezing out the things that are not so important as to hold our immediate concentration..

Forgetting to remove the chocks is the most common mistake I notice.
I confess that I had done this more than once.
It is fun to make side bets to see if the pilot moves them or not. Have seen homebuilts to corperate pilots miss this one.
I have even seen people forget to untie tie-down. That one gives a big laugh .
At least I have not done that one. Yet .

Last summer I rented a 172 for a short trip while 43M was still down. After doing the preflight and just before takeoff we discovered that a few things needed to go in the baggage compartment. I loaded up and hopped in and started to taxi to the runway.

One of the flight instructors stopped me and asked if I wanted to leave the baggage door open as I had or if I wanted it closed.

I shut down and took a 30 minute break to regather my thoughts and properly prepare myself for the flight in front of me. We still arrived on time and with all our baggage.

Getting in a hurry and skipping steps is the wrong way to fly. Someone told me about the six P's years ago:

Proper
Prior
Planning
Prevents
Poor
Performance