Approach plate briefing

[avbug]

I'd be parked, tied down, paperwork finished, unpacked and on my second cold beverage before avbug was halfway through his briefing.

 

Actually, you'd be attentively listening and participating, or you'd be parked and looking for another job.

 

Those who don't take these things seriously ought not be in the cockpit to begin with.

 

The briefing cited above is a standard briefing that all our personnel provide (in the fixed wing), and includes a few items that aren't applicable to rotor wing. I used the full brief to illustrate a basic safety briefing. It can certainly contain more information as necessary, and some briefings do contain less. For example, in a combat area, use of lights, and other tactical considerations apply, which needn't be taken into account here.

 

Once the briefing is in practice, it can be gone through fairly rapidly without any loss of detail. It doesn't take long, and it's not very complicated.

 

avbug, your post isn't thorough enough. There should be a lot more explanation to fill in all the blanks you left.

 

We try.

Edited January 12, 2012 by avbug

[helonorth]

I have to listen "attentively" AND participate in the briefing or get run off? Yikes! We do have something called "passive participation" which is also known as "sleeping." Usually, while on approach in the R-22, either the first officer or myself (I am a captain, and always have been) are searching for the nearest Hooters (we are connoisseurs of fine chicken wings) on our iphones. This is standard procedure, even on tactical missions.

Edited January 13, 2012 by helonorth

[aeroscout]

I have to listen "attentively" AND participate in the briefing or get run off? Yikes! We do have something called "passive participation" which is also known as "sleeping." Usually, while on approach in the R-22, either the first officer or myself (I am a captain, and always have been) are searching for the nearest Hooters (we are connoisseurs of fine chicken wings) on our iphones. This is standard procedure, even on tactical missions.

 

I've landed a JetRanger at the local hooters a couple of times for lunch. Your hooters brief sounds intriguing. Could you give an example of your hooter's approach briefing ?

[akscott60]

Damn, I guess us Army dudes do it wrong. I guess I should read the FAR/AIM 2012 aloud, along with AR95-1(flight regulations) and FM3-04.240 (instrument flight) before every approach too.

 

Strange, I do exactly what I was trained to do and I have a job

[helonorth]

I've landed a JetRanger at the local hooters a couple of times for lunch. Your hooters brief sounds intriguing. Could you give an example of your hooter's approach briefing ?

Thank you for the question. First off, I'd like to echo the avbug in that the importance of checklists cannot be overstated. One time our relief pilots did not verify that the gear was down on our highly modified R-22 Tactical, which resulted in approxamately $400,000 worth of damage to the aircraft and missing happy hour. I will be a comprehensive as I can, however I will try to keep this post under 7000 words.

 

The briefing is different depending whether we are VFR, IFR or both.

We have installed windsocks at all the local Hooters so we can land downwind whenever possible. A high ground speed and run on landing to the parking lot is the preferred arrival for obvious reasons. As for the briefing, it's casual but unrefined, kind of like Hooters.

 

1 Are you thirsty? Check

 

2 Are you hungry? Check

 

3 Is Tiffany working? Verified with text. Check

 

4 Let's go. Check

[SBuzzkill]

I've landed a JetRanger at the local hooters a couple of times for lunch. Your hooters brief sounds intriguing. Could you give an example of your hooter's approach briefing ?

 

"We are doing the 069 approach into the Hooters parking lot. Our decision altitude is 20 feet at which point we will look at the front door for the lines. If we see a line we will go missed and climb to 2000 feet and enter a hold over Amy's Honda Civic. We will do one more attempt before asking approach for our alternate, which today will be TGI Fridays. Any questions?"

Edited January 14, 2012 by SBuzzkill

[aeroscout]

Do I have permission to use this checklist ? It's value is priceless, and cannot be overstated.

[helonorth]

^{After consulting with our attorneys, they deemed none of the information I provided as proprietary, so feel free to use any or all of it.}

 

^{As you can see, a checklist such as this did not come about without considerable input for many aviation professionals and safety experts. We convened at Hooters #2673 over the course of several consecutive Friday nights. They included (but was not limited to) representatives from the local FSDO, FAAST team members, line pilots, OSHA, several Hooters girls, my brother-in-law Leroy, Frank Robinson and was chaired by none other than avbug, who was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule. Experience such as avbug does not come cheap, as he required a ride from the bus station, a daily rate and per Diem of $47.50, a room at the Days Inn and a half a dozen Jagermeister body shots from Tiffany. Our efforts have paid off well, as (other than the gear up) we have a spotless safety record.}

 

^{Our unit is actively seeking volunteers due to budget constraints and the increased cost of poultry. We our quite selective and require candidates to obtain Secret clearance, a student pilot certificate, a notarized letter from an authorized CFI stating satisfactory completion of Robinson safety awareness training, an Autozone rewards card and a note from your mother.}

 

 

^{Fly safe everybody!}

[aeroscout]

I am aware of Robinson's. It wasn't a real formal course, though. Disqualifier ?

[helonorth]

I don't understand the question. Just the Autozone rewards card and the note from mom and we'll call it good. We used to have a requirement that you be a speed reader and an auctioneer as avbug required us to read the entire flight manual, appropriate plates, the AFD and Tolstoy's War and Peace aloud before every take off and landing. We tried it for a while but we kept losing our place, losing our voices and running out of fuel. I changed it to the briefing we now use with no compromise in safety. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though.

[crashed_05]

[aeroscout]

Permission to use helonorth's hooter's checklist, check.

[SBuzzkill]

Check mate.

[aeroscout]

That's not on my checklist, but I could add it

Check mate, check.

[Helibear]

Thanks everybody for the input.

I actually agree with avbug that a detailed briefing is very important. I've seen so many students missing important information which would have brought them into dangerous situations would they have been in IMC.

I guess my real question was what tools I can use to prevent them from flying straight through final approach courses, descending below minimums, overflying their clearance limit and all the other things which can go wrong because of missed informations.

I personally do the top-to-bottom brief, but a lot of students have struggles with it.

Well I guess it's the good old practice, practice, practice.

[Maggie]

I used a checklist, but it used the acronym WRIMTIM (2 more T's at night).

 

W WX: ATIS/AWOS/ASOS

Wind

Visibility

Ceiling

Altimeter

Runway

Approach

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

R Radios

COMMS: Approach

Tower/CTAF

NAVS: VOR

LOC

Missed Approach NAVAID

GPS: Airport Loaded

Approach select/load/activate

Mode select GPS/VLOC

MARKERS: Receiver on, Light check, audio on

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

Instruments

Flight Inst. check

HSI slave mode & aligned with compass

warning lights out

engine/rotor tachs in green

3 green (CHT, oil pressure, oil temp)

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

M Minimums

Brief VIZ/MDA/DH/DA Mins

INSTRUMENT SCAN

T Time

Time to MAP - Groundspeed

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

I Ident

IDENT VOR/LOC

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

M Missed Approach Review

MAP

Missed approach procedure (I'd read the text, then look at the profile view to correlate it)

 

INSTRUMENT SCAN

 

Turn on landing light (I got in the habit of doing this on every approach, not just at night)

Turn on airport lighting

 

 

I would add things for different types of approach (Just came with experience), but this is the bare bones that I used for all of my instrument. You can google WRIMTIM too.

[avbug]

I guess my real question was what tools I can use to prevent them from flying straight through final approach courses, descending below minimums, overflying their clearance limit and all the other things which can go wrong because of missed informations.

 

I've seen a lot of different ways used. A briefing is only a process to get everyone on the same page and review the information at hand. It's not a memory exercise.

 

Where checklists are used, the checklist should always be held when one arrives at something that can't be done yet, rather than breezing by that item and continuing the checklist. One should make a note of the stopping point by marking the list or doing something else to remind one that the checklist is paused. When in doubt or out of order, the entire checklist should be done again.

 

Avoid those who try to tell you it's just a simple aircraft and that they've got the checklist memorized. Simple aircraft can just barely kill you.

 

Altimeters which have "bugs" attached are useful for setting altitude reminders. I like to put stickum notes on the panel or other places that I can see, with details of the procedure jotted down.

 

If a clearance limit is given, it should be written down. It shoud be marked on the flight plan or chart.

 

Flying through the final approach course is an issue that either revolves around an inattentive controller or an inattentive pilot, save for those cases when the aircraft is intentionally allowed to drift through the inbound course, or when unusual and extenuating circumstances are encountered.

 

It's easier to avoid this if one has a moving map or HSI.

 

Step down fixes are best noted in advance. I like to include them separately on a sticky note which goes on the panel, in my field of view. I have all the pertinent things noted on that sticky before we ever begin flying the procedure. It notes the altitudes, airspeeds, and distances necessarily to fly the procedure. A movable "bug" on the altimeter, or a piece of a sticky note pointing to minimums on the altimeter, make it easy to remember the appropriate altitudes.

 

Some people like to put the altitude in the ADF as a reminder. Those folks usually don't ever use the ADF, but it does make a handy way to display and remember an altitude assignment. For example, an altitude assignment of seven thousand five hundred feet can be put as 750; a simple reminder of the altitude assignment

 

Write things down. It works wonders.

[aeroscout]

To amend avbug's post slightly. The controller is required to notify the aircraft they intentionally fly through the FAC. As for paused checklists, the whole checklist is overkill. CRM industry standard is to restart checklist one item before pause point. As for the use of checklists in general, more often than not they shouldn't be "do" lists, they should be what they are named after.

[avbug]

No industry standard at any place I've trained (including some fairly big names in training) has suggested starting one point before where one left off. I'm in recurrent training right now, in fact, and that's not what we do.

 

We begin where we left off.

 

Checklists, however are NOT overkill. Checklists are important. Very important. Whether one uses them as challenge-and-response, or has other means of accomplishing the checklist, often as not they're written as they are for a very good reason.

 

Skipping or ommitting checklist items or checklists in general is very bad counsel. Use your checklist.

[aeroscout]

Going back over a whole checklist after a pause is overkill. Current CRM guidelines is one point prior to pause, then the rest of the checklist. I would never counsel to omit or skip checklist items. What I said was, checklists are not "DO" lists.

[avbug]

That depends on the checklist.

 

Repeating the entire checklist isn't normally necessary, but sometimes it's well advised.

 

Some checklists are best done by doing cockpit flows then reviewing a checlist to ensure everything was done, but other checklists should be executed line by line diectly from the checlist.

 

If any doubt exists as to one's place on the checklist, the entire checklist shoudl be executed again.

[aeroscout]

I can agree with you there.

[Rogue]

Simple is better - just the FACTS

 

F - frequency

A - altitudes

C - course

T - time or timer

S - supplemental data (i.e. when doing practice approaches the tower will give you a missed procedure that varies from the published)

 

use it like people use 5T's (time,turn,twist,throttle,talk) but instead of having to remember hey throttle means ascend/descend and then still having to identify where you can ascend/descend to we can assume that you actually have a brain and are capable of using it - if you you call out 2000 for this leg and you're at 2500 i hope to god that you can figure out at this point in your flight training/career that you need to descend and make whatever control inputs to descend but hey if you need "throttle" to tell you how to descend.... whatever....

 

so real simple - enroute you go over the FACTS - frequencies, altitudes, course....

hit the IAF - confirm your FACTS

at each waypoint - confirm your FACTS in fact after starting approach you will most likely only be ACTing (ACTing as PIC of course)

Edited February 2, 2012 by Rogue

[aeroscout]

I like it for it's simplicity. I am also taking acting lessons.