Full before landing checklist in the pattern?

How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152

Hi BoDean

I do, and I believe that CFI's should teach this. Here is why.
Forget the 152/172 for the purpose of this discussion. To better and more
obviously illustrate the point let's assume that we are in a retractable.
If on every single approach we know that the gear is up, then we know, and
are reminded by our checklists, to put it down prior to landing. But what
if we are just doing pattern work, and decide not to raise the gear on
takeoff? Now we have created a scenario where on final approach our gear
is no longer guaranteed up. It may be up and it may be down - and one day
we'll get it wrong - we didn't need to create that situation!
Now to go back to your 152/172 Scenario. If everything is always a given,
we know where we stand. But if we teach students one way in a circuit, and
another way on a cross country, then we are sowing the seeds of confusion.
Something that we don't need on final, when we are tired after a long
flight.
So - the pre-landing checklist for a 172 is no big deal. It isn't being
abbreviated for the students benefit, therefore it must be being
abbreviated because the instructor can't be bothered with the workload.
That shouldn't be happening.

That's my 2 - 3 cents worth

--
Tony Roberts )
PP-ASEL
VFR-OTT - Night
Cessna 172H

In article ,
BoDEAN wrote:

How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152



The landing checklist should be second nature, as the pattern is no
place to have your head down, buried in a checklist!

"BoDEAN" wrote in message
...
How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152


Personally, I am not a fan of the full landing checklist in the patter
philosophy. What I do, and how it was explained to me, was the before landing
checklist is completed before you enter the pattern, and at some point in the
pattern, review on downwind a quick check: gas, undercarrige, mixture, prop.
Then on short final, review gear down and prop set.

My rationale- you will not always be flying a traffic pattern. When breaking
out of an approach or getting vectored into a controlled field, you often times
will land straight-in. In this situation, it would be very easy to miss the
landing checklist, because you always do it on downwind. Other times, in
faster, more complex aircraft, your landing checklist might not fit on downwind
a 152 is mags, carb heat, mixture, fuel; I can get that in a few seconds;
something more complex might take longer and not fit.

There will always be an "approaching the airport" leg to do the landing
checklist in, and always be a short final to check the last minute "gotcha's"
At least that's my philosophy, take it for what it's worth.

--
Mike

Seat belts, gas on, mixture, carb heat, land. How can you do any more or
any less in a Cessna 172/152/150? Please enlighten me.

Steve Robertson
N4732J 1967 Beechcraft Musketeer Super III
(Seat belts, gas fullest tank, mixture, land for this plane)

BoDEAN wrote:

How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 22:16:36 -0500, BoDEAN
wrote:

How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152


I recently gained my PPL. I don't recall doing the landing checklist
in the pattern ever. Even when I first started lessons in 1964 in a
carburated C172 and I was 15 and a half, we didn't use a checklist.
Carb heat was the only "MUST DO".

What's to check? Flaps? You use them or not, depending on the
circumstances. Mixture? Some leave it in the lean position from
cruise all the way down to touchdown, most go to full rich prior to
entering the pattern. Engine was fuel injected so no carb heat to
worry about.

What else is there for the fixed gear 172?

Personally, I'd prefer to keep my eyes outside the cockpit while in
the pattern.

Corky Scott

PS, yes there was a 40 year span during which I did not pursue the
pilot's license.

I don't like situational instruction, where one action is required under one
set of circumstances and a different action is required under a different
set of circumstances. Teach one procedure that works all the time.

Bob Gardner

"BoDEAN" wrote in message
...
How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152

A checklist doesn't mean that you have to do something, just that you should
think about it. Your mention of flaps is a good example...FLAPS should be
part of the landing checklist, and it means "what flap setting, if any?"

This does not contradict my reply to BoDean.

Bob Gardner

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 22:16:36 -0500, BoDEAN
wrote:

How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152


I recently gained my PPL. I don't recall doing the landing checklist
in the pattern ever. Even when I first started lessons in 1964 in a
carburated C172 and I was 15 and a half, we didn't use a checklist.
Carb heat was the only "MUST DO".

What's to check? Flaps? You use them or not, depending on the
circumstances. Mixture? Some leave it in the lean position from
cruise all the way down to touchdown, most go to full rich prior to
entering the pattern. Engine was fuel injected so no carb heat to
worry about.

What else is there for the fixed gear 172?

Personally, I'd prefer to keep my eyes outside the cockpit while in
the pattern.

Corky Scott

PS, yes there was a 40 year span during which I did not pursue the
pilot's license.

In article ,
BoDEAN wrote:
How many people do / teach doing a full before landing checklist when
doing pattern work? I do with my students, but other cfi's I work with
use a quick / abbreviated one for our Cessna 172/152

Define 'full'? I mostly fly C152 and GUMP pretty much covers
everything. I do speed/flaps as I fly the pattern.

Steve Robertson wrote:

Seat belts, gas on, mixture, carb heat, land. How can you do any more or
any less in a Cessna 172/152/150? Please enlighten me.

Skip the seatbelts. Probably the gas too in a 172.

('Vejita' S. Cousin) writes:

Define 'full'? I mostly fly C152 and GUMP pretty much covers
everything. I do speed/flaps as I fly the pattern.

What do you do for the "U" and "P" in a 152?

Check gear is down and welded.
Check prop pitch is fixed.


All the best,


David