More Home Grown Checklists - Emergencies

midlifeflyer

midlifeflyer

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This should be interesting given all the varying opinions on checklists in general.

How are folks who roll their own checklists dealing with emergency checklists? I don't like polls, so here's a short list of what I've come across from other sources:
  • Don't mess with them at all. In an emergency, pull out the POH.
  • Don't mess with them at all, but the POH is a pain, so duplicate the emergency section and have it available for quick reference.
  • The manufacturer's emergency checklists are as bad to work with as the normal ones. Duplicate verbatim the ones that require immediate action for quick reference, but the others can stay in the POH.
  • The manufacturer's emergency checklists are as bad to work with as the normal ones. Rewrite them to fit more modern checklist concepts like including bold-faced items and removing extraneous notes.
  • Leave them to the POH, but create a quick reference card for really important stuff.
 
I've created my own checklist - mainly to make the items flow better and to add pre-flight checks of things not contemplated in the POH. But the emergency section is pretty much a verbatim version of the manufacturers.
 
The second, but formatted to fit on one 5.5x8.5 page front and back.
 
Seems like that's the reason the SAFO came out recently...a modified abnormal/emergency checklist that didn't include "extraneous" information. How are you going to decide what's "extraneous"?

Abnormal/emergency checklists from the OEM tend to be more concise than the normals. The biggest issues for me are quick reference and familiarity. I've seen very few abnormal/emergency checklists that didn't do the intended job, but I've seen quite a few that made you stop and think about what exactly you were supposed to do. Familiarity solves that problem, and under most circumstances I'd rather make notes in and put tabs on the manufacturer's checklist than actually modify the checklist.
 
Number 2 but not quite. I'll have my own checklist taken from the POH but modify it slightly.
 
#3. I duplicate verbatim the ones that require immediate attention for easier access and leave the rest in the POH.
 
I don't understand why verbatim is needed. As long as I don't eliminate any of the steps, if I use my own words that make more sense to me in a stressful moment, is that bad?
 
This is the checklist I made for the 172. The Preflight section has killer items, but not a detailed list of everything to inspect. I included procedures for every start situation because the fuel-injected engine is new to me. My checklist for the -N skips the Start section.
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I wrote them in Word. Anyone have a suggestion for how to get the Response items' leftmost letters to be aligned with each other?
 
If you can, shorten them to one column. If you really need two columns, make two documents. Put the real emergency ones on pink paper, the lesser emergencies on yellow. Print them same thing front and back so you'll never be flipping the card looking. Make two sets and laminate with 6+ mil plastic.

I copy the important things from the POH. The only change I make to order is that on engine failure, I want to engage carb heat first while there is still heat to engage.
 
Write my own. Put it on my tablet.
I also add it to the "Emergency" function in Avare.
Push the button and it pops up the check list and makes the calls automagically.

I've never had a reason to use the Avare function.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I don't understand why verbatim is needed. As long as I don't eliminate any of the steps, if I use my own words that make more sense to me in a stressful moment, is that bad?
Click to expand...
Sometimes the words in the checklist are the only ones that tell you to do or look at the correct things. I see people botching checklists all the time because they don't understand that the words actually mean what they say.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Seems like that's the reason the SAFO came out recently...a modified abnormal/emergency checklist that didn't include "extraneous" information. How are you going to decide what's "extraneous"?
Click to expand...
I read the SAFO as advising us to be careful when we adapt and especially when we use someone else's adaptation, not forego the process altogether.

But to answer your question, sometimes the whole checklist is extraneous! :eek:

An example from a real emergency checklist. It has an attempted restart procedure followed by:
LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE; CORRECT MALFUNCTION PRIOR TO NEXT FLIGHT
If engine does not re-start, proceed to FORCED LANDING EMERGENCY​

No, that's not from the engine failure in flight checklist - it's from the engine failure after takeoff checklist. Go through a 7-step restart process and, if it doesn't work, then go to the forced landing procedure. But before you do, don't forget to think about having e maintenance check it out before your next flight!

I'll take the gear-up in the SAFO, thank you!
 
My Owners Manual doesn't have any Emergency checklists. The entire Emergency section is front and back of one page, with half of one page dedicated to the alternator. "In case of engine fire, close cabin heat" is far from thorough, but it's a paragraph all by itself.

So I made my own Emergency checklists.

The best thing to do is to read your POH and know the Emergency section. When I had total electrical failure on a VOR-A approach with the gear only partially extended, I finished the job before pulling out the Manual for my CFII. We discussed it, then flew home slowly, gear down and flaps half exfended.
 
And here I thought the SAFO was mostly for those trying to use a commercially prepared checklist written for a generic vanilla version of the plane. My checklists is taken from my Owners Manual, includes items from surrounding discussion, and is specific to my plane. I removed old thngs (Radios--ON and Set) and put in new things (AVIONICS MASTER--ON), etc.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
Immediate action items should be memorized.
Click to expand...
Agreed on that as a goal.

I wasn't referring to immediate action/boldface items within a procedure. I was referring to the difference between an emergency that needs to be addressed (engine failure) and an abnormality you can take your time resolving (landing gear doesn't extend). Newer POHs make the distinction but older ones do not. So, for example, in my third one, one might choose to duplicate the engine failure checklist to get at it quickly, but not the landing gear "emergency" extension.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I read the SAFO as advising us to be careful when we adapt and especially when we use someone else's adaptation, not forego the process altogether.

But to answer your question, sometimes the whole checklist is extraneous! :eek:

An example from a real emergency checklist. It has an attempted restart procedure followed by:
LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE; CORRECT MALFUNCTION PRIOR TO NEXT FLIGHT
If engine does not re-start, proceed to FORCED LANDING EMERGENCY​

No, that's not from the engine failure in flight checklist - it's from the engine failure after takeoff checklist. Go through a 7-step restart process and, if it doesn't work, then go to the forced landing procedure. But before you do, don't forget to think about having e maintenance check it out before your next flight!

I'll take the gear-up in the SAFO, thank you!
Click to expand...
I agree with you on the purpose of the SAFO, and sometimes it IS pretty obvious what's extraneous. ;)

But sometimes it's easy to think something is extraneous and remove it because we don't think the malfunction through, which is the specific issue that the SAFO was written to address.

Keep in mind that the purpose and interface philosophy has changed dramatically over even the last 20 years. Older certification AFMs and checklists tend to be much worse than newer ones.
 
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Hank S said:
And here I thought the SAFO was mostly for those trying to use a commercially prepared checklist written for a generic vanilla version of the plane. My checklists is taken from my Owners Manual, includes items from surrounding discussion, and is specific to my plane. I removed old thngs (Radios--ON and Set) and put in new things (AVIONICS MASTER--ON), etc.
Click to expand...
when do you set your radios/program your GPS, etc.?
 
jbDC9 said:
Can't tell if you're serious, but, you need a checklist line for that? Just set 'em when you get to 'em...
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Do you need a checklist line to tell you to turn the Avionics Master on that somehow "Radios--ON" doesn't cover?

IMO, one of the bigger problems with checklists is that pilots don't know how to use what they've got. It goes back to my previous question of who decides what's extraneous.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Sometimes the words in the checklist are the only ones that tell you to do or look at the correct things. I see people botching checklists all the time because they don't understand that the words actually mean what they say.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you give me an example?
 
midlifeflyer said:
  • The manufacturer's emergency checklists are as bad to work with as the normal ones. Rewrite them to fit more modern checklist concepts like including bold-faced items and removing extraneous notes.
Click to expand...

That pretty much works for me. I keep a laminated copy of the emergency checklist handy, but I don't plan to use it in an emergency. I simulate one of them before taking the runway in hopes that I'll memorize them all if I ever need one.
 

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\__[Ô]__/ said:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you give me an example?
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Sure...why doesn't "Radios On" work? Why does one need to get so specific as to designate the exact switch? That sounds like making the checklist into a do-list rather than making it more effective and/or efficient.

Personally, the "I" in CIGAR TIPS takes care of that and more, and once engines are started, CIGAR TIPS on the taxi and Ice & Lights pulling onto the runway Has gotten me safely intp the air in any propeller driven airplane, including turboprops, that I've ever flown.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I've done it a number of different ways, although I've personally settled on something that has parts of a number of them.

I started chuckling when I saw this one:
dmspilot said:
The second, but formatted to fit on one 5.5x8.5 page front and back.
Click to expand...

I fly multiple airplanes. One of them is a Mooney Ovation with 15 pages of emergency procedures, not counting the ones in the Supplements. I doubt I could read any of them if I duplicated them onto a single 2-sided 8.5X5.5 sheet of paper, at least not without a microscope :D

Flying multiple airplanes also means I would do things differently than if I flew one that was my own. For owners, I real like @MauleSkinner's annotated and tabbed manufacturer checklists. That would be a lot of extra paper to carry around; the best I can do is copy the manufacturer's emergency procedure section to a pdf file for my tablet. It's annotated and bookmarked.

Other than that I have copied what I felt to be the most important or most likely to occur emergency procedures and copied them with what I consider to be very minor modifications. The intent is for it to be a quick reference for two situations - (1) when there is time to pull a checklist, but probably not enough time to dig into the POH and (2) things that I figure are more likely to happen even though not that serious (landing gear won't come down; alternator failure). The process of selecting what to include and what not to include is the most difficult part of the process.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Sure...why doesn't "Radios On" work? Why does one need to get so specific as to designate the exact switch?
Click to expand...
That's going to be a matter of personal preference. I share your philosophy. Flow & verify, and my normal checklists simply say, for example, "Avionics" (I stopped using challenge/response), and I probably could get away without even that much. But it's not for everyone. I have a good friend who is pretty much a read & do guy for before takeoff tasks. The usual, detail, rental aircraft checklist was missing so he asked to use mine. It was useless to him.
 
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