Landing Check Lists

Derek Copeland wrote:
For all landings, my pre-landing check is:

W- Water jettisoned.
U - Undercarriage down and locked.
L - Loose objects stowed away and, considering myself
as a potential loose object, straps tight.
F - Flaps set as appropriate.

I don't include "Straps" or "Loose Objects" in my check list because
loose anything in the cockpit can become problematic at any point in a
flight. Is this a regional item?

Shawn

At 22:36 26 December 2005, Shawn wrote:
Derek Copeland wrote:
For all landings, my pre-landing check is:

W- Water jettisoned.
U - Undercarriage down and locked.
L - Loose objects stowed away and, considering myself
as a potential loose object, straps tight.
F - Flaps set as appropriate.

I don't include 'Straps' or 'Loose Objects' in my check
list because
loose anything in the cockpit can become problematic
at any point in a
flight. Is this a regional item?


The basic pre-landing checklist I use is the one recommended
by the BGA in the UK. Loose items and loose straps
are more likely to become an issue when flying in the
turbulent air close to the ground, and during the ground
run in a bumpy field.

Derek Copeland

For an out landing I use: Wild Woman Seek Sex, WWSS Wind,
Wires,Slope,Speed. Tom Hubbard

Nyal Williams wrote:
I wonder how many different landing checklists are in use. If the list
you use is not USTALL, (Undercarriage, Speed, Trim, Airbrakes, Look out
for Traffic, Land), please post here and label the items.

BFUBBS WATT

Ballast - dumped

Flaps - Landing configuration

Undercarriage - down and locked

Brakes - Deploy spoilers and check operation

Brakes - Verify brake control either on spoiler or stick (esp. if
flying various ships)

Straps - Tight

Wind - Direction, speed, gusts

Airspeed - Appropriate for Terrain and Wind

Traffic - Look and Listen

Transmit - Announce IP and other locations as appropriate

A checklist should only be used for actions that are not routinely done
during flight, and are essential to the procedure (landing, in this
case). So really, the only thing needed for most glider landings, is
making sure the gear is down (if it's retractable in the first place).
Everything else listed in the common Before Landing "checklists" are
just reminders.

Note that the same logic applies to before takoff checklists - they
should only cover items that are critical to the maneuver about to be
accomplished - takeoff and flight in this case.

Some of the actions listed are a joke. Airspeed? Especially in
gliders, we are always adjusting our airspeed to the phase of flight we
are in - cruising, thermalling, pattern, landing. No checklist needed.
Trim? Ditto - and pretty obvious if not done. Flaps? Sure, when
appropriate - but depends on winds, etc.. and you've been playing with
them since takeoff anyway, haven't you? Traffic? YGTBSM! When in
flight can you not be looking for traffic!

So - reminders are fine - but don't get hung up in the pattern trying
to remember what the second L in WUFSTALLLLSWAFTWTFO means. By all
means prepare yourself for landing by getting ready and analyzing the
environment; but fundamentally landing is no different from entering or
leaving a thermal! Do you have a pre-thermalling and a
post-thermalling checklist?

The classic old power plane/military GUMP (Gas Undercarriage Mixture
Propeller) check was created to ensure that the critical, life-or-death
(or at least -damage) items were checked in the pattern prior to
landing. Since we glider pilots don't usually have any G, or an M or P
to worry about, only the U would seem to be useful for that small
percentage of the gliding community fortunate enough to be able to land
gear up.

And when we are blessed to be tooling around the pattern in a 2-33 or a
K-13 or whatever - tell the front seat stick actuator to quit yakking
about "wufstall" or "swafts" (whatever they are) and just land the darn
thing! As slow as possible! Preferably on the runway!

Kirk
66

Oh, and a nice loud "Shut up and look out the window!" is almost always
called for...especially when there are nice shiny gadgets on the panel
to look at...

I despise long checklists. The chance of landing with
the gear UP is directly proportional to the length
of the checklist followed. The more checklist items
you follow, the less time spent doing something important.

Oh, unless putting the gear down is just repeated throughout
the checklist umpteen times

A very real exception, however, is the airspeed. Might
be a useful item for those who fly a lot of different
aircraft, or at different weights. But even then it
***might*** be ignored if the runway is long enough


Takeoff checklist seems to be another matter entirely.
I look carefully through the fatal accident reports
and prioritize my checklist by what killed the most
pilots in type. Do THAT stuff at the beginnning AND
the end of the checklist...

At 05:12 27 December 2005, wrote:
A checklist should only be used for actions that are
not routinely done
during flight, and are essential to the procedure (landing,
in this
case). So really, the only thing needed for most glider
landings, is
making sure the gear is down (if it's retractable in
the first place).
Everything else listed in the common Before Landing
'checklists' are
just reminders.

Note that the same logic applies to before takoff checklists
- they
should only cover items that are critical to the maneuver
about to be
accomplished - takeoff and flight in this case.

Some of the actions listed are a joke. Airspeed?
Especially in
gliders, we are always adjusting our airspeed to the
phase of flight we
are in - cruising, thermalling, pattern, landing.
No checklist needed.
Trim? Ditto - and pretty obvious if not done. Flaps?
Sure, when
appropriate - but depends on winds, etc.. and you've
been playing with
them since takeoff anyway, haven't you? Traffic?
YGTBSM! When in
flight can you not be looking for traffic!

So - reminders are fine - but don't get hung up in
the pattern trying
to remember what the second L in WUFSTALLLLSWAFTWTFO
means. By all
means prepare yourself for landing by getting ready
and analyzing the
environment; but fundamentally landing is no different
from entering or
leaving a thermal! Do you have a pre-thermalling and
a
post-thermalling checklist?

The classic old power plane/military GUMP (Gas Undercarriage
Mixture
Propeller) check was created to ensure that the critical,
life-or-death
(or at least -damage) items were checked in the pattern
prior to
landing. Since we glider pilots don't usually have
any G, or an M or P
to worry about, only the U would seem to be useful
for that small
percentage of the gliding community fortunate enough
to be able to land
gear up.

And when we are blessed to be tooling around the pattern
in a 2-33 or a
K-13 or whatever - tell the front seat stick actuator
to quit yakking
about 'wufstall' or 'swafts' (whatever they are) and
just land the darn
thing! As slow as possible! Preferably on the runway!

Kirk
66

Oh, and a nice loud 'Shut up and look out the window!'
is almost always
called for...especially when there are nice shiny gadgets
on the panel
to look at...

I'm told George Lee used

W-ind
W-ater
W-heels

I'm told George Lee used

W-ind
W-ater
W-heels

In article ,
M B wrote:

I despise long checklists. The chance of landing with
the gear UP is directly proportional to the length
of the checklist followed. The more checklist items
you follow, the less time spent doing something important.

Here in New Zealand the standard pre-landing checklist is Straps,
Undercarriage, Flaps, Brakes, which is pretty short.

You could argue that Straps is unnecessary, but I think it proabbly is a
good reminder that in some of the conditions we fly in it can get a lot
bumpier as you drop below 1000 ft or so. But the big reason to tighten
straps is in case of a sudden stop, right?

I've never quite known what to do for flaps at that point. No problem
if you don't have them of course, but in the one flapped ship I fly,
landing flap is about half as effective as the airbrakes (i.e. about 1/3
of the total drag available) and I do not generally want to have that
deployed all the way along downwind unless I'm worried about possible
1000+ fpm sink in the circuit and starting high and doing a Stuka
circuit. So I just make a plan (and announce if it there's someone in
the back seat) which is generally along the lines of "I'll fly clean (or
in +6) until on base (or turning final), when I'll put in landing flap.

Brakes: just open and close them to make sure they deploy and are
symmetrical. If they're not going to deploy (whether for mechanical
fault or due to icing) then best to find out before you're on finals.
Conversely, if they're not going to close properly after you test them
then best to be somewhere where you can get to the airfield with full
brake. Which argues for this being a downwind check rather than
something you might do too much earlier.


A very real exception, however, is the airspeed. Might
be a useful item for those who fly a lot of different
aircraft, or at different weights. But even then it
***might*** be ignored if the runway is long enough


I can understand how pilots of powered aircraft might have trouble with
speed, since they generally have to slow down to speeds they'd never
otherwise use. But it seems to me that most gliders should be
approached at a little bit over min sink in calm conditions, to a little
bit over best L/D when it's blowing and those are speeds and attitudes
and stick positions that you're going to know very well.


Takeoff checklist seems to be another matter entirely.
I look carefully through the fatal accident reports
and prioritize my checklist by what killed the most
pilots in type. Do THAT stuff at the beginnning AND
the end of the checklist...

Right. There can be a lot of thngs that might prevent a sucessful
transition from not-flying to flying. Switching from flying to
not-flying is pretty fail-safe as long as you don't do it by hitting
something or stopping flying while too high off the ground.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

At 10:06 27 December 2005, Keith Morgan wrote:
I'm told George Lee used

W-ind
W-ater
W-heels

I kind of like the WWW. Leave off the first two Ws
and add F. (flare)
at the end. Ofcourse I'm the guy that landed with his
spoilers taped shut.
Chuck