A Chick in the Cockpit Read Free Page A

were done correctly. If the pilot screwed up, they should go back to the beginning and run the list again.
    Every aircraft manufacturer also puts together emergency checklists to guide pilots through a variety of nonstandard situations. Ask any pilot and they’ll tell you that actual emergencies never happen like the script of the emergency checklist. I can almost guarantee that the cockpit flight recorder listening in on any emergency checklist conversation has one of the pilots whining, “Well, shit, that’s not what it says here...why is it doing that?” There are also two lines of thought on dealing with emergencies and the associated checklists.
    The first philosophy is that you should memorize at least the first ten to fifteen items on any major emergency checklist. However, I found that no matter how many times you train for each emergency, you still pee your pants when those piercing alarms and blinding warning lights make you earn your salary. I have witnessed pilots who shed all information from their brain at the first scream of an alarm, so memorizing a checklist is lovely in theory, but the reality is that the memorizing philosophy is just another accident waiting to happen.
    The second line of thought, which I prefer, is to start by simply remembering one thing: just fly the airplane. After the non-flying pilot has silenced the bells and whistles, then you can grab the checklist and figure out, generally, what is going on. Look around first and take in all the information before deciding which checklist is appropriate and be prepared that it still isn’t going to work out perfectly.
    A palpable example of things not working out perfectly was during my practice student solo cross country flights in a beat up old Beechcraft Sport. The plan was to fly from my home airport to two other airports, about 75 miles apart, and then head back home. Before departure, I’d spent hours on the ground planning the trip. I had visual ground checkpoints between the airports that I would be looking for, along with an estimated time between each to verify I was progressing like my flight plan predicted.
    I made it to the first airport easily. My flight time was exactly what I had planned for, and the weather had been perfect. On the ground, I chatted up a group of old timers who had their lawn chairs in front of a hangar that contained an ancient Ercoupe that had recently met its demise from a ground loop incident, and the owner’s friends were still teasing the pilot about it.
    After the usual Midwest conversation about the weather and where I was headed, I paid for my fuel and started out on the second leg of my trip. I’d only been on the ground for an hour, but in that time the wind had picked up a little, but nothing to give cause for alarm.
    Once airborne, my VOR, which is what I was using as part of my navigation, started swinging from side to side and wouldn’t lock in on a radial. No big deal, I was flying Visual Flight Rules (VFR), so I would just navigate with my sectional map.
    I noticed that I should have reached my first checkpoint, but I couldn’t see the little river that I’d marked as a waypoint on my map. Minnesota is covered in lakes and streams, so I found a river that kind of looked like the river I was supposed to be over, and started looking for the next checkpoint.
    I tuned in the next frequency in my VOR and my ADF (navigation equipment) and watched as the needles swung around, never quite finding their bearing to the station. Meanwhile, my next checkpoint came up faster than I planned. I still assumed it had to be right, so I marked it off and checked my time. Way ahead of flight plan! I must have a tailwind that I hadn’t planned on.
    I couldn’t find my next checkpoint, so I skipped it and planned on finding the next one. It was a town I was supposed to fly over. Who could miss a town? But as I flew over one town and then the next one that wasn’t