Did you know the B-36
Checklist lasted Six Hours (with another hour for a preflight check of 600
items)? The Shortest Checklist is instead that of the T-38 Trainer.
By Dario Leone
Dec 22 2022
How many
items are on a pilot checklist?
In aviation,
a preflight checklist is a list of tasks that should be performed by pilots and
aircrew prior to takeoff. Its purpose is to improve flight safety by ensuring that
no important tasks are forgotten. Failure to correctly conduct a preflight
check using a checklist is a major contributing factor to aircraft accidents.
According to
researcher and writer Atul Gawande, the concept of a pre-flight checklist was
first introduced by management and engineers at Boeing Corporation following
the 1935 crash of the prototype Boeing B-17 (then known as the
Model 299) at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, killing both pilots. Investigation
found that the pilots had forgotten to disengage the crucial gust locks
(devices which stop control surfaces moving in the wind while parked) prior to
take-off.
How many
items are on a pilot checklist?
‘Good
question, easily answered by showing the shortest one and the longest
one,’ Ron Wagner, former USAF Pilot and author at
www.renazonce.com, on Quora.
THE SHORTEST ONE
‘The
shortest one I know of was the spin recovery checklist for the USAF T-38 Talon. It was a bold-faced
checklist, which meant we were required to memorize it verbatim.
‘T-38 Spin
Recovery Checklist
‘Handles
Raise
‘Triggers
Squeeze
‘It was the
bailout checklist for the original ejection seat—the one I rode when I flew
T-38s.
‘The USAF
replaced that old ejection seat about a decade ago and the new one has a loop
to pull instead of arm handles that need to be raised to expose the triggers
that need to be squeezed. So, the ejection checklist could now be a single
item. And I suppose everyone is required to memorize that one, too. LOL.’
WHAT’S THE LONGEST CHECKLIST?
Wagner
continues;
‘According
to an article appeared on Flight Safety Australia, the record
holder is the engine start checklist for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker.
‘The article
says that it took the ground crew six hours to prepare this 10-engined Cold War strategic bomber for a mission, after
which the flight crew took another hour for a preflight check of 600 items.
‘With six
huge radial piston engines and four jet engines, it must have been long.
‘And it was
a bomber, with far more systems than just the ten engines, such as armament,
four bomb bays and associated doors, and guns and a galley.
‘And it had
a crew of 15 and one of those crew members was the flight engineer who had a
scope that could monitor the condition of all 336 spark plugs.
