Too many knobs

Welcome to my new office. As you might expect, lots of knobs, dials and switches to play with. The trick of course is playing with them in the right order.

The first aircraft checklist ever was for the B-17 Flying Fortress, and ever since each aircraft has its own checklist provided by the manufacturer. Operators (like MAF) may modify this, as long as all of the essential items are included.

Pilots tend to forget things if they don't use a checklist, and many aircraft accidents have occurred because checklist items were missed.

Yoke Checklist

MAF here in the US use a combination of up to 5 checklists. There is a tan coloured card for the preflight inspection, then a 'before entry' checklist attached to the pilot's door. Once seated there is a 'yoke' checklist, which as you can see on the photo above is attached to the yoke/control column.

On the MAF yoke checklist there are procedures for BEFORE START, AFTER START, and then there is a further ELECTRIC CHECKLIST to refer to before Take-Off.

The ELECTRIC CHECKLIST is a small box mounted on top of the cockpit so it is in the pilot's eyeline. It is not connected to anything except the aircraft power, and that is only so that some lights come on when all the switches are up (or down). The idea is that there are five clusters of items that need to be verified before take-off, and similarly another five (some the same) before landing. So it is simply just another checklist, but with the added satisfaction of being able to flick a switch when each cluster is complete, and then seeing a nice light come on when they are all done.

As a checklist this is something completely new to me, although I do remember a similar system in the AIMAIR aircraft. It does seem to work quite well as an aide-memoire, although I keep forgetting to actually flip the switches to get the lights to come on once I've done all the items.

Electric Checklist

Whoever came up with this idea was obviously quite forgetful, liked having something to fiddle with, and enjoyed seeing little flashing lights. It was obviously a pilot and my wife will tell you it was probably a man.

Out on the ragged edge...

Stuart and I have had a busy couple of days, hence the radio silence. On Thursday we finished our groundschool classes (Turbo and Engines, Weight and Balance, and Cargo/Tie Down). Then yesterday it was time to go and fly.

Here is Stuart's 206 just starting up outside the MAF hangar, and I followed him shortly afterwards. We each flew for around 2 hours, the main object of the exercise being familiarity with the T206 and as my instructor put it 'being at peace with the aircraft'.

When it was my turn, I took off from Nampa and headed south towards the Owyhee mountains and climbed to around 6000ft. (These are not pronounced 'Oh-yee' as an English Town crier might, but 'Ow-are-hee' so they sound like they are in Hawaii).

Anyway back to the flying. We practiced some gentle turns at 100 and then 80 knots, then some steeper turns at 80. A couple of stalls (very docile for the pilots reading this) and then slow flight, back to around 45kts with 40 flap. Then I was asked to trickle the speed back even further towards 40kts. The stall speed with full flaps is around 46kts at gross weight, and we were several hundred pounds under gross, so I was able to get the aircaft back to around 42kts before it got really mushy and got into pre-stall. It was fun hanging out on the ragged edge, where this aircraft will just about still fly, but we are doing this primarily IN ORDER TO AVOID GETTING THERE IN REAL LIFE. Test pilots do this all the time but us mere mortals are usually found nearer the middle of the flight operating envelope, rather than working at its dark and mysterious corners. MAF takes safety extremely seriously and this training is intended to help us get the most out of the aircraft, but with a clear understanding of its limits.

Talking of stalls, unusual flight and limits, have you ever seen a dog fly? Here is a short flying video that makes me laugh every time I watch it. I wonder what was going through the dog's mind? I just wish I'd have thought of doing this. Anyone want to lend me their pet for a couple of hours?

What exactly is Low-Level?

More groundschool today; this time Airstrip Evaluation, Air Drops and Abort Points. Imagine a small dirt strip in the middle of the African bush. No control tower, no windsock, no runway markers and no published data. You mission is to fly to the strip and evaluate whether it is suitable for landing (and of course taking-off again). So how do you do this? By doing three 'passes' over the airstrip, and if all is well, land.

First you'd fly over it at 80kts around 1000ft (MAF call this a high pass), to assess the wind, surrounding terrain and any obstacles.

Next you'd fly over again at 80kts at 50-100 feet (MAF call this a medium pass) to work out the length (using a stopwatch and your approx groundspeed), the exact altitude of the strip and look for close in obstacles.

Now if you've been paying attention so far you may have noticed that a 'medium pass' is at between 50 and 100 feet. That is EXTREMELY LOW.

And so now for the low pass, again at 80kts. This one is to take a close look at the surface condition, look for yet more obstacles, and to assess the slope of the strip. And the height? 5 to 10 feet! At 80kts!!

One more day of groundschool, and then we start doing this for real.If you'd like to see what its going to be like, take a look at the video.

Happy Landings,

Steve