Aircraft checkouts

Based on the pilot’s experience in similar models, the checkout could require a flight instructor sign-off, or five or 10 hours of dual instruction in addition.

The thoroughness and quality of these checkouts varies widely. But the real completion standard is best determined by the pilot being checked out. Do they feel comfortable and confident flying the new-to-them airplane as pilot in command? Are they knowledgeable about the airplane’s systems? And are they prepared to successfully overcome in-flight malfunctions and emergencies?

Preparation is key, and a good place to begin an aircraft checkout is with the “Limitations” section of the pilot’s operating handbook. It concisely sets the boundaries for things that are approved, and those that are not. A review of the airplane’s normal and emergency checklists is next. Taking a close look at those lists before boarding the airplane gives pilots time to think them through, visualize, and better understand aircraft systems. Should the electric fuel pump be on during takeoff and initial climb? Should engine power be reduced before propeller rpm? Knowing in advance will improve the quality of the time spent in the airplane.

The pilot being checked out and the instructor should define in advance what the checkout will entail and how best to accomplish those tasks. Checkouts can be as rudimentary as a few takeoffs and landings, but ideally, they’ll include slow flight and stalls, and explore the airplane’s normal flight envelope.

When I’m checking out a fellow pilot in an unfamiliar-to-them aircraft, I want them to experience its novel characteristics. I don’t care whether steep turns meet private pilot checkride standards. That’s not the point. I just want them to know how the airplane behaves when it banks steeply and let them make adjustments as they learn.

The main thing I want to know when being checked out—and the central point I try to impart when checking other pilots out—is the new airplane’s gotchas. In the normal course of events, the instructor will manipulate the controls little if at all during the checkout itself. The pilot being checked out should get the maximum amount of stick time.

It’s also critical to learn during a checkout the things an airplane can’t do. One of the most eye-opening demonstrations I ever received during a checkout took place in an amphibious Piper PA–18 Super Cub. We had done many takeoffs and landings in a variety of conditions, and the airplane was on the water and pointed at a small island about 1,500 feet away. The instructor asked whether I thought the Super Cub could take off toward the island and still clear the trees in the middle of it by a comfortable margin. I told him I was sure it could because it was a Super Cub, an aerial billy goat known for energetic climbs in minimal space.

During the takeoff run, however, it quickly became obvious that I was wrong, and the Super Cub couldn’t clear the island, or the trees on it.

By simply turning the airplane slightly right, I avoided the island and took off normally. But the water run had been far longer, in time and distance, than I had estimated. The same airplane on wheels could have easily vaulted off a runway and over the obstacles in that amount of distance, but a Super Cub on amphibious floats is vastly different.

“That’s what I wanted you to see for yourself,” the more experienced Super Cub pilot told me. “Checkout complete.”

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