Checklist Usage in Aviation

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Introduction

Introduction
  • Checklist useage is critical in aviation
    • During preflight, a checklist ensures pilots inspect an aircraft’s components and systems for proper operation and structural integrity and allows them to verify airworthiness
    • On taxi and during flight, they help ensure the airplane and engine are functioning properly and are configured appropriately for each phase of flight

Checklist Methods

Checklist Methods
  • Three primary types of checklist methods are the challenge-do, do-verify, and flow
  • Read-Do:
    • Pilots read the checklist and perform the action just read
    • Read-do technique is useful technique for abnormal or emergency procedures
  • Challenge-Do:
    • With challenge-do, also called challenge-response, the checklist is read by a crewmember, the action is performed, and the crew moves onto the next step
  • Do-Verify:
    • Opposite challenge-do, a crewmember performs an action which is then confirmed by another (or the same) crew member
  • Flow-Verify:
    • The flow is designed for expeditious checklist completion whereby a pattern is memorized around the cockpit with several steps performed at once, then verified with a checklist
    • Abnormal and emergency procedures should not be practiced as a flow, however, memory items should be conducted as a flow before transitioning to another technique such as read-do, or challenge-do

When Not to Use Checklists

When Not to Use Checklists
  • Emergencies require immediate action
  • For this reason, "bold" or important items should be memorized as immediate action items
  • Following their completion, pilots should open their checklist and verify that they've completed the appropriate memory items (never assume!) and move on to the follow-on steps

Airman Certification Standards on Checklist Usage

Airman Certification Standards on Checklist Usage
  • Throughout the practical test, the applicant is evaluated on the use of an appropriate checklist
  • Assessing proper checklist use depends upon the specific Task.
    • In all cases, the evaluator should determine whether the applicant demonstrates CRM, appropriately divides attention, and uses proper visual scanning
    • In some situations, reading the actual checklist may be impractical or unsafe. In such cases, the evaluator should assess the applicant's performance of published or recommended immediate action "memory" items along with their review of the appropriate checklist once conditions permit
  • In a single-pilot airplane, the applicant should demonstrate the crew resource management (CRM) principles described as single-pilot resource management (SRM).
    • Proper use depends on the specific Task being evaluated. If the use of the checklist while accomplishing elements of an Objective would be either unsafe or impractical in a single-pilot operation, the applicant should review the checklist after accomplishing the elements

Conclusion

Conclusion
  • Checklists establish habits/patterns and are a safety backstop to ensuring operations are conducted within the required parameters
  • Often time its best to use slower more deliberate techniques like the read-do when on the ground, but in the air, transition to a flow-verify, when time is not as available, and especially if single pilot
  • As aircraft are upgraded, so too must the checklists associated with the changes
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References

References