low hour, flying two planes.

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mtnflyr

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mtnflyr
how do you do it??

i plan on building time with plane A but doing xc with plane B..

how do you remember airspeeds, emergency procedures etc?

i have about 100 total times hours, primarily in a cirrus sr20, but i will be building hours in a 1965 Cherokee.

whats a good way to remember their different limitations? emergency procedures etc? i may be over thinking it, but i want to be safe. the first time i flew a 172 on final i thought i was going to stall it due to the lower airspeed compared to the cirrus.

obviously know the POH but mistakes are easy. are there any tips to remember important pieces of info?

sometimes i wonder how my cfi flies a sr20,22, falcon, pc12 and a tbm 930 and never misses a beat.

i guess if it buffers full power and lower the nose right?!
 
When I was in the club I was regularly flying a 172, an Archer III, and a newer 182. I bought checklists for each plane, and carried them all in the flight bag. After a while you get used to each plane, just as you get used to driving multiple cars.

Edit: The benefit to buying my own checklists was that I used a fine line sharpie to add helpful info to flesh out the checklists. Like writing common Vspeeds on the front page, etc.
 
Fearless Tower said:
This. And to help you learn the airplane, I have found it helpful to create your own one page checklist and you can put your critical V-speeds on it.
Click to expand...
With about 30 types under my belt and flying multiple aircraft now with different procedures, avionics, and other accessories, I've gone even further, adding quick reference pages to my checklists for such things as different autopilots, three or four different engine monitors, TKS systems, etc. They are in addition to my basic checklists so the checklists themselves remain uncluttered and usable.
 
Follow the checklist,I like to keep notes on the different planes,with the important numbers.
 
As far as limitations, if it's not marked, sometimes it comes down to brute force memorization.
 
Even going from a helicopter one day to an airplane the next. Follow the checklist, know your EPs and limits and be in the right frame of mind for how that particular aircraft handles.
 
Post It Note. Write the plane your flying on it and slap it there somewhere near the ASI on the panel. Ya don't need to put any other numbers on it, it's just a reminder.
 
Fearless Tower said:
.....you can put your critical V-speeds on it.
Click to expand...

this. I have a little section on my kneeboard xls where I put vspeeds of the plane I'm flying. this helped when I was bouncing from one plane to another.
 
Fearless Tower said:
This. And to help you learn the airplane, I have found it helpful to create your own one page checklist and you can put your critical V-speeds on it.
Click to expand...
Normal ops checklists on front with V speeds and emergency procedures on the back. Keep everything to minimum steps required.
 
Yup... checklist.

Also, add a page with your power settings for each phase of flight. It's one thing to have xxxkts on the checklist, it's another to have x" MP, y RPM, z Flaps to get you "normally close" to that vSpeed.

Here's the one I use for the C-177RG
Configurations.JPG
 
These two things, plus placards.

It gets uglier flying two planes with different avionics when in IMC. :confused: Worse if they are different models. :eek: I try to fly one plane or at least similar avionics for that reason.

Salty said:
A lot of the important numbers are coded into the airspeed indicator.
Click to expand...
Ravioli said:
Yup... checklist.

Also, add a page with your power settings for each phase of flight. It's one thing to have xxxkts on the checklist, it's another to have x" MP, y RPM, z Flaps to get you "normally close" to that vSpeed.

Here's the one I use for the C-177RG
View attachment 57639
Click to expand...
 
To add to the Post-It note comment, throw a few key V-speeds on there. I had Vx, Vy, and L/Dmax next to the ASI.
 
I make up my own checklists on 4x6 cards for every plane I fly and keep them in a photo binder or have them spiral bound at Staples. These are the pages I use for the Cherokee.

Cherokee_140_Airspeeds.jpeg

Cherokee_140_Pattern.jpeg
 
Lots of good advice here.

I’ll add another thing an old instructor said to me once long long ago...

Memorize the things that will kill you.
The checklist will take care of the rest.

Now that has the caveat that you need to review any new aircraft checklist you haven’t flown before with the POH/AFM in hand and you need to have read the POH/AFM of anything you’re going to fly solo at least once cover to cover, paying special attention to any warnings or special items buried in the detailed descriptions therein.

If you find things that will kill you, memorize them. Period. Maybe even transfer them to the checklist if they aren’t there for some unknown reason.

As others have said, you’ll build a system that works for you. Whether it’s post-it notes or Mark’s nicely bound notes and checklists, or anything in between... but that’s the “how”, and if you didn’t do your POH/AFM homework, it’s wasted effort to make a checklist until you do.

Also many new pilots don’t know about this, but airlines always have this concept in some fashion, and some AFMs for small aircraft now have this in their checklists... what airline pilots may call “boldface items”.

On the checklist, anything you MUST memorize and do without looking at the checklist is printed in BOLD. Because there is a time critical element to that item.

Other items are printed in normal text.

(How this is depicted has changed at some airlines, but this concept is still behind however they do their training and publications.)

You’ll hear old pilots say, “Memorize the boldface”.

I highly recommend if a checklist you use doesn’t have this distinction, maybe re-typing it and printing it that way if having nice personal checklists is your style.

Otherwise, the concept still stands, even if you don’t like printing your own stuff... THINK about the checklist items especially the emergency checklists and figure out which ones you wouldn’t ever have time to read ... that’s your boldface. Memorize those.

Hopefully that’s a good introduction to the concept. Make sense? Any questions?
 
I was flying multiple models of 182s (with and without fuel injection, etc.) 172s, and an Arrow. . .had a index card with power settings and airspeeds. Other than that, it's mostly fuel system diffrences. . .I never bothered to learn all the bold face; just had a laminated one-page checklist for each.
 
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