Chris Colohan wrote:

Matt Whiting writes:


Chris Colohan wrote:

Another data point -- I am not nearly as experienced as you are, but

going through every item on the Citabria checklist takes me 20-30
minutes.

Wow, you've got to get out of 1st gear. :-)

I could preflight my 182, wash the windshield, change the oil and
check the tire pressures in 10 minutes time. I didn't realize a
Citabria was so complex. Does the preflight require ultrasonic
inspection of the structure or some such? :-)


I admit I am new to this, and I could probably go faster with
experience. But I attribute most of this time to checking everything
that can be seen, touched, or smelled that I can get my hands, eyes,
or nose on. The plane I fly is kind of old and creaky -- and I am
paranoid enough to check everything that reasonably can be checked
without tools. Sometimes I find myself falling into habit, and doing
a check quickly -- when I notice this, I force myself to slow down and
do the check again purposefully. Sometimes I notice things on the
second time which my eyes skimmed over on the first check.

My instructor also provided a 10-page checklist for me to use on the
preflight. Perhaps this is more detailed than average? (My
instructor claims that the checklist started off much shorter, but
grew every time something went wrong over his many years of flying
Citabrias...)

A 10 page preflight checklist is simply ridiculous. All of the
checklists for my Skylane, including the emergency ones that I made up
myself since Cessna didn't provide much of any, were less than 10 pages.


Matt