Kenny Keller and a fellow pilot explain why helicopter checklists matter. They describe common mistakes like taxiing without rechecking after refueling, and note that training and EMS operations enforce checklist discipline because skipping them costs lives.
Tell me about checklist usage and what you know, what you do, what you've seen and what's important about it.
First of all, it's very important to use a checklist for everything, especially for going through during your pre inspection, you could miss something without checking your checklist that could be broken or something that could make the helicopter unworthy. So using the checklist and sometimes it gets redundant when you continue to use the checklist from front to back. So after a while you might want to switch it up. Start it in the middle, go to one side and then go back and start to the other side, start it reverse, just change it up a little bit to keep you going and keep everything fresh and different. That's for do an inspection. And then you got the startup and shutdown, which is important too because you might skip a step in that and you might make damage to the helicopter or damage to the engine of some sort. So always use your checklist. They're there, that's why they're there. There's no need not to use them. They're there, use them.
Okay. Be honest. How many times have you skipped the checklist on a pre flight number one?
Probably. I don't think I've ever have. That's the first thing I do is go in and grab it.
All right, good boy.
Because they're right next to each other.
How many times have you done a startup without the checklist?
Never. I've always grabbed it. I always grab it just to have it. I mean, I know it, especially the shutdown, but you always have it in your hand.
Okay, how many pilots have you flown with in helicopters specifically that you know, don't use it at all or skip it part of the time or what's your experience with other pilots that you've seen or airplanes too? What's your experience?
Well, in our situation when at our airport the fuel dock is farther away and they don't have any fuel tanks or anything to bring the fuel to the helicopter where the hangar is after the lesson we usually go over, shut it down, get fuel and then at that point we would start it back up and just tax it back around to the hangar. So that's when it gets really lax. We just started up. You don't do any of your checks or anything and you just taxi back. And I see people in that situation just getting it back.
Right. Do you think that's appropriate?
Probably not. I mean anything could happen. Yeah, I mean Even though you're 5, 10ft off the ground and you're Just taxiing. Still something could happen. Okay. And I think that kind of like, get back itis, you know, like just get it back, no big deal. You know, you're not gonna be up high and you're just taxing it.
My take on this is I'm amazed at the amount of people that don't use them, skip them. Have I ever skipped a checklist? Yes, I have. Have I ever skipped it on a pre flight? Yep. Have I ever skipped it on startup? Yep. Do I do it in general? No. You know, I've had those times where I've gotten laxed and then gotten bit by it because I didn't do it properly. And I tried skipping and I've done it in a simple aircraft and I've done it in the more complex aircraft. You know, I was very by the book for the long, for a long time. And then, you know, you get 500 hours, 1,000 hours in a certain aircraft and yeah, it's redundant. And I can tell you that when you decide to do it without the checklist, it can be one simple switch as a, you know, boost pump. And even though the lights on, you don't see the lights on. You did a pre takeoff check and you somehow you didn't catch that that boost pump was not on. Every time I've really tried to do it, I've forgotten something. I've never had anything bad happen. I will forget something almost every single time. So kind of I've been through the cycle of being really good and then I've played the game of getting a little laxed and then I've learned my lessons over doing stupid stuff. And now I'm back to use the checklist every single time. And in the real world, in the training world, I see people do it all the time. And I'll give you the example in the EMS world, you know, professional pilots, they told us, guys, when you go back to your base, when you're out pre flight in the helicopter, there will be a time where someone from our company will be in the parking lot or they'll be in the office. If you're inside a hangar at some point, you will be observed pre flighting the aircraft. And if you do not have your checklist in your hand, you will be told to go home. And they said, we don't care. When you're climbing up on the, on the top to get up and check the rotor head, that checklist needs to be in your hand. When you fall down to the ground, you better be holding that checklist.
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