HOW IMPORTANT IS THE PRE-FLIGHT CHECK?

To describe what they do in five words, the Flying School which helped you to gain your PPL would probably answer “We teach people to fly”. Now, I may be called a pedant, but this is technically incorrect - humans are neither birds, bats nor butterflies and so cannot fly! To paraphrase Shakespeare, “Alas poor Icarus, I knew him well”.

As we know, a Flying School in fact trains humans to operate various pieces of equipment designed and built by other humans to enable the transport of themselves and others through the initially unfamiliar environment of the air.

As student pilots, you were trained using pieces of equipment manufactured by groups of people you’ve never met, many of whom don’t know each other, and some of whom don’t even know what the finished product looks like! The equipment you learned on is often also so old in years that those who built it may possibly and sadly by now have left it to us as a legacy. That involved a lot of trust on your part, as occasionally bad things do happen.

Part of your training was to ensure that every part of the equipment you were about to use was fully functional before you used it, even if it was handed over to you immediately following a problem-free previous use. After all, there are no lay-bys above ground level! So, you were told that the routine, but thorough, pre-flight check was an important element of your preparation for each departure.

So then the happy day arrived, when you were granted the freedom to operate your own or someone else’s equipment without anyone looking over your shoulder – no doubt a great feeling, but not strictly true!

Your Instructor and the CAA may have released you into the wild, but from that moment on, like it or not, you yourself immediately assumed a dual role; that of Instructor and Student, because you will still be learning until the day comes when you decide to give up flying altogether.

In “Student mode” you may find yourself from time to time tempted to short-circuit flight preparation for some reason; maybe the dreaded Human Factors including over-confidence, complacency, time or third-party pressure, who knows what …. Or you may decide to accept, for example on retrieving your aircraft back after maintenance, that everything must already be in perfect functioning order …

And at that moment, in “Instructor mode” you must take control away from your “inner Student” to ensure that you complete all your pre-flight requirements, even if it ends up cancelling your plan for the day.  

FLY SAFE!