Cockpit Checkouts
Pilots compensate for an aircraft cockpit poor design and layout. Experienced pilots, who have been exposed to more aircraft of all ages, are able to compensate better than the neophyte. Any pilot who first sits in a cockpit should make a mental and physical survey of controls and instruments. The direction things move are better when consistent with your past training. Some older VOR heads are read from the bottom not the top. Same with older heading indicators which are built like, and read like a compass.

All switches, knobs, handles, need to be checked for identification, operation, and function. The controls may obstruct at least one or more instruments or knobs. A gauge that is hidden or obscured is a no-fly consideration. It is not unusual to have one side of an instrument face be hidden from one seat or the other. Sit in the cockpit and confirm you know what every instrument, knob, and button is used for.

Many Cessna flap switches operate differently from year to model year. Some aircraft only have brakes on one side of the cockpit. Others have only a yoke on one side. Breakers or fuses? Colored or not? Grouped or long rows of identical? Pull, push, turn? Warning lights or sound?

A cockpit layout that requires excessive head movements is not going to be safe for single pilot IFR. Older instruments have needles that give parallax reading problems. Seeing does not mean you can reach handles. I was recently asked to check a 285 # potential customer in a PA-28 by an FBO. We sat in the aircraft for nearly an hour just checking what he could see and do. He could not safely reach the fuel selector. Some switches require two-finger operation and a longer reach.

Your introduction to a cockpit is a good time to initiate a blindfold training sequence for night operations. Consider looking at how well the cockpit can be adapted to a flow pattern checklist for basic operations. The feel of a switch should go a long way toward telling you its function.

Key Elements of Preflight Planning
Preflight preparation and planning is the foundation of safe flying. The failure to recognize the importance of a comprehensive preflight is an invitation to in-flight difficulties. Primary consideration is the condition of the pilot. It takes only one 'risk element' to make a flight no-go.
0.5. Aircraft papers
--Airworthiness certificate
--Registration certificate
--POH or FM on aircraft
--Weight and balance papers

1. Charts
--The line on the chart represents true course
--The sectional has 8-miles to the inch so a ruler can be used to mark checkpoint distances from the straight-line
destination back to the departure either in 8 or 16 mile segments as desired. Quick and easy. Use visual
checkpoints to the left of course where possible and VORs left or right when the intercept angle is 60-degrees
or greater.
-- WAC charts are 16 miles to the inch.
--WAC charts have limited communications and airport information but are useful on longer flights.
--The use of out of date charts or WAC charts for local navigation is a hazardous practice.
--Any flight within the boundaries of an area chart requires possession of that area chart in the aircraft.
--Carrying a current AF/D will give you considerable information not available on charts.

2. Route
--The temptation to fly direct air routes is great. However, the economies of direct route often expose the flight to unnecessary hazards.
--Select alternate routes.
--Review minimum en route altitudes.
--Fly low to study terrain clearance. Use this knowledge when flying at night.
--By flying small ifr (I follow roads) or an airport vicinity route you increase your options.
--A slight bend in your route will allow you to avoid over flying high peaks, desolate areas or large bodies of water.
–Plan an airport vicinity route.

3. The Aeronautical Information Manual
--Answers most airspace questions

4. NOTAMS
--Ask the FSS for all NOTAMS for the route you are taking. This applies to information for all NAVAIDS and
airports.

5. Weather
--What you are looking for is any information that will affect the go/no go decision

6. Navigation Log
--Computed from true course to magnetic course to compass course with wind correction angle to get true
heading to magnetic heading to compass heading for each straight leg of the route.
--get all NOTAMS related to navaids for the route. Put radar frequencies on chart of each area.

6.5 Avionics
--Confirm latest VOR check
--FCC station license
--Com frequencies in and squelch checked
--Navigational frequencies in
--ELT check within five after the hour

7. Flight Plan
--Filing is not required by FAR but it is both a good operating practice and to be expected on a PP checkride.
Along with filing you should know the proper radio procedures for contacting an FSS. how to open, extend,
make a position report, and all the methods to close a flight plan. The FSS often has difficulty handling a
DUATS flight plan. An FSS may have up to twelve different frequencies so you must know how to get the
proper frequency from a sectional. On occasion the transmitter frequency (122.1) will be different from the
VOR receiver frequency.

8. Aircraft Manual (Pilot's Operating Handbook)
--Here you will find the operating limitations, performance capabilities, normal and emergency procedures and many other performance suggestions. Considerable testing has been used to develop the takeoff, landing, distance, fuel consumption and weight/balance charts that insure safe operation. Knowing how to use these charts and V numbers is an integral part of flight planning.
--Know your aircraft performance figures for the planned route.
--Plan into every stop and departure for delays.
--Review the airworthiness requirements as they apply to the route and time of the flight.

8.5 Finding the Runway
--Airport diagram
--Planned radio call-up and request
--Taxiing speed and yoke positions

9. Takeoff Planning
–What to say and when to say it
–Clearing the approach and base legs for traffic
--The takeoff is the second most dangerous single phase of flying. The hazards of the takeoff extend from the
inability or failure of the aircraft to perform, the deficiencies of the airport, the obstructions beyond the runway
and the deficiencies of lighting or navaids used leaving the airport.

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