Flying Tips
Mnumonic Checklist for Vital Actions
I have flown many different types of aircraft, and when I was operating both Airline and Air Taxi work single crew it was often slow and ponderous to try and use a check list, especially on simple aircraft like the Islander or Trislander.
So I developed a Mnemonic which I have adapted and use for all the aircraft that I currently fly or have flown. It is necessary to get the mnemonic in your head first, and some of these are well known like the FREDA checks or the HASELL checks that are used for the cruise and pre-aerobatics. When reading many UK checklists there is a pretty standard mnemonic annotated within the checks. This is the one I have adapted and it works for all aircraft I have flown including turboprops like the King Air or Twin Otter.
If you want to develop your own based on the following if it does not quite fit into your current checks, then it is easy to adapt. What is needed is to carefully go through the aircraft check list and make sure that using this mnemonic everything is covered. If there is something missing, then weave it into your mnemonic.
For example, the checklist for piston aircraft does not include turning on the autofeather, and so when I go through the check list, and I get to M for Mixture, Mags and Master, I then add this memory sequence. Manual = Auto feather. Job done.
So here is the list I have created, and you may notice that the final check is controls full and free. I have a good reason for this having taken off in a Twin Otter with the control locks in. That is another story that I may write about one day.
T Throttle friction tight
T Trim set
M Mixture Rich. Mags on Both. Master on both switches. Autofeather on.
P Propellor levers full forward
F Fuel. On and sufficient. Correct tanks. Fuel Pump on. Fuel primer Locked.
F Flaps set as required.
I Instruments and radio aids set as required for departure
H Harnesses
H Hatches and general security.
D De-Icing as required. Pitot Heat as required.
C Caution lights. Out or as expected.
A Altimeters. Set for departure.
When cleared for Take Off
T Transponder for radar visibility On. Strobes for human visibility On.
C Controls Full and Free.
That’s it. I think you will find that covers everything in your aircraft, if not just modify it a bit, or put in a new letter or sequence of letters that you can remember. For instance the DCA is easy to remember for me as many countries have a Department of Civil Aviation.
How to work out a cross wind component in seconds when on final approach to land.
When coming in to land it is often difficult to work out the cross wind component quickly. There are 2 quick methods I know to be able to do this and when you understand them choose the one that suits you best.
The first one is known as the clock code and with it you assume that any wind that is more than 60 degrees off the runway heading is a full strength cross wind. So if landing on say runway 27 which is 270 degrees from North, then if the wind direction is less than 210 or more than 330 degrees, whatever the strength is it is regarded as full cross wind. So if the wind is say 200 at 15 knots then it is a 15 knots cross wind.
Now to work out how much of a cross wind there is between these 60 degrees either side of the runway heading you imagine that the number of degrees off the heading are the numbers of minutes round a clock face. Then imagine how far round the clock face that is, and that proportion round the clock face is the proportion of the wind strength.
So if the wind is 20 degrees off the heading, say for example 290 at 30 knots, then 20 minutes is one third of the way round the clock face, so the cross wind component is one third of 30 knots which is 10 knots.
If the runway was 03 which is 030 degrees, and the wind was 070 at 20 knots, this is 40 degrees off, and 40 minutes round the clock face is nearly nearly threequarters of the way round the clock face so the cross wind is three quarters of 20 or 15 knots.
As wind constantly varies in strength and direction, then you do not need to be highly accurate with your calculation. If the wind is roughly 30 degrees off, it is half strength so roughly half the wind strength is the cross wind component. 45 degrees off is 3/4 of the strength of the wind and 60 degrees or more full strength.
This may look a bit complicated, but when you are flying towards a runway, you will be more or less on the runway heading, and when you are given the wind direction, it is easy to look at that on the DI and work out how many degrees off the runway heading that is. The runway is always a whole number ending in “0″ and the wind is always to the nearest 10 degrees.
How to quickly work out the head and tail wind component in your head.
An easy way to work out cross wind and head wind component is using this simple mathematical formula.
For calculating cross wind. If the wind it 30 degrees off the nose it is .5 the wind strength, 45 degrees off .7 the wind strength, 60 degrees off it is .9 the wind strength, and if 90 degrees of then obviously it is full strength. This applies on cross country flights, or for working out the cross wind when coming in to land.
If for example when coming in to land the wind is 60 degrees off the runway heading it is .9 times the wind strength, so using simple arithmatic on a 20 knot wind just multiply 9 by 2 which is 18 knots. For a wind of 30 knots and 45 degrees off the runway heading the calculation is 3 X 7 which is 21 cross wind component. If like me you learned your multipliction tables as a child, this is easy.
If you reverse the formula, you can use it to work out head wind or tail wind component as well. So if the wind is directly towards you, it is full strenght, if 30 degrees off it is .9 of full strength, 45 degrees off .7 of full strength, and 60 degrees off it will be half strength.
If it is 90 degrees off then there is no head or tail wind component. However bear in mind that any strong wind will be affecting the aircraft by drifting and turning into wind will in effect mean that you have to fly a longer track than a straight line so it will slow you down a little bit.
If the wind is coming from behind you, then the same proportions can be applied to work out the tail wind component, so if it is 30 degrees off your tail, it is .9 of the strength of the wind and so on.
For working out a diversion, you can apply this percentage to your airspeed to get the groundspeed, and then to work out drift interpolate the following formula as well. The formula is that at 120 knots airspeed, half the cross wind component is drift. So if you are flying at 90 knots then your drift would be 25% more than half the drift.
This could be used if you need to work out your groundspeed and drift when planning an unexpected diversion. Or when doing your flight planning, then you can use it to double check your calculations.
