Roy Smith wrote
Most of the guys I fly with want to just get in and go. I think we've
got a lot to learn from airline pilots. Maybe the specific procedures
don't translate well to spam cans, but the attitude should.

It's the specific procedures I referred to - especially the handoff of
the airplane on an instrument approach that precipitated this. My
specific procedures for operating my airplane have evolved
substantially since I was trained in it. The operating philosophy has
remianed largely the same.

What you describe in terms of pretakeoff briefings and such is
contingency planning. It's not really so much a skill as it is an
attitude. I guess I don't recognize it as an airline attitude because
I was quite familiar with it long before I ever met any airline
pilots.

My first introduction to aviation was skydiving. My first 'flight'
was about four minutes - and was preceded by over five hours of ground
training. Most of that was emergency preparation, but a good chunk of
it was the plan for my flight under canopy - really a very low
performance glider - because that first flight would be solo.

In skydiving it is quite common to spend thirty minutes planning a
flight that might only take thirty seconds. It is equally common (or
was) to sit around at the end of the day, discuss the 'what might have
beens' and analyze the safety issues. This is largely absent from GA
flight training, and that's not a good thing, but I would hardly call
that 'airline procedure.'

Michael