Here's My Attempt at a New Guy Friendly RAMP / TAKEOFF / DEPARTURE Checklist
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Hi All:
If I could get some folks to critique my Ramp / Takeoff / Departure checklist (see below) I would be grateful!
This is primarily meant to be “new guy” friendly and to get them up in the air with minimal information. The reason I don’t think the BMS checklists are new guy friendly is because he pretty much has to have RTFM to the point where he’s internalized each and every paragraph related to each checklist bullet. (That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a tall order.) If he’s not up to snuff, he’ll have to go back through the documentation to figure out what the checklist is referring to. My point being that BMS checklists are aimed at veterans because they know where the control is and much more about what’s going on regarding all the procedures.
So I’ve tried to reduce the workload on a new guy. I tried to make it so he doesn’t have to refer to external documentation to get the bird up in the air and ready to fight.
To reduce workload I didn’t include instructions on tests that aren’t – IMO – critical for the aircraft. You would never want someone to fly in real life that didn’t do all tests unless there was an emergency scramble or the like. That’s why I’m dubbing these “SCRAMBLE ONE” checklists. I’m not a pilot so I don’t know what a scramble actually involves, but I wanted to give the pilot the immersion of being in a rush and not having time to do a proper checklist while at the same time having information right there in the checklist if he’s forgotten a location or critical consideration.
When it’s finalized I’ll include a Readme.txt in the zip file which will include formatting convention information.
i.e.
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The text is fairly large so the pilot can set it to take up either the left or right half of a second average-sized monitor and still easily read it. An editable version is available should the pilot with to make any modifications, including a change in the font settings.
Keyboard shortcuts are based upon the “BMS - Full.key” keyboard map.
[] Within the checklist [] indicates key(s) to press. Example: Press [Alt]+[C] is an alternate way to close the canopy if the pilot prefers or he is unable to find the obscured canopy switch.
{} indicates an area within the cockpit (see last page of checklist). For example: {LCA} means Left Console Aftward.
ALL CAPS followed by a colon indicates a panel.
For example: There is a switch that causes the aircraft’s exterior lights on the wing and fuselage to flash. The switch is on the “exterior lighting” panel, grouped under the “position” subgroup label, and marked with the options “flash” and “steady”. The checklist will read “EXT LIGHTING : Position : Flash” to direct the pilot to position the switch into the flash position. The boldface highlights the expected final state of the control before moving on to the next item in the checklist. In some cases “On (in the up position)” is indicated where there is no label for the position.
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Finally, I really don’t have a good idea when to take the FCR off standby. It’s my understanding that on a properly working aircraft the FCR is automatically held in standby (if on) while there is weight on wheels. Even so, I was thinking that there was no reason to put folks on the flightline in danger should the automatic standby fail. So I opted to have the pilot take the FCR out of standy at the hold short. That way, in case of a safety failure then it’s only the pilots in front of the faulty aircraft that are at risk.
But this also got me to thinking about formation up close (or very up close) formation flying that I know a lot of folks love to do. I wonder if in real life only the lead pilot would have his FCR on in that situation?
Anyway, if you got this far on my wall of text – thank you for your time!
Edit: Fixed a bunch of typos and omissions.
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Looks good to me. Simple to follow and only details the steps necessary to get the aircraft started and in the air. I think it’ll help new pilots for sure.
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Thanks, Vandal, good effort. On page 2, what about turning the battery switch on?
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Thanks, Vandal, good effort. On page 2, what about turning the battery switch on?
Thanks for the input!
I think you are referring to the main power switch below the throttle that has 3 positions Off - Batt - Pwr? Which I have now as “Turn on Power” “Set ELEC : Main to Pwr {LCA}.”
I watched a video by Tim “Stretch” Morgan and he warns you to make sure you move that switch through battery all the way to main power. Now Red Dog has it that you put that switch into battery for the purposes of doing the battery test and that “This check is eye candy and is not mandatory.” and then in the 2nd sweep he also warns about forgetting to move it out of battery to power.
So my thinking is that stopping at BATT for an eye candy test that might cause the new guy a problem if he misses a BATT to PWR instruction somewhere down the sheet. If he misses the second call to that switch that would likely result in a failed start (in fact I had one last night for this very reason). The only upside I can think of stopping at BATT is if you are using Falcon as a honest to goodness supplementary trainer. If so, you should do in the trainer what you do in RL. Also, if you want to do it as real as possible, then definitely enjoy that.
But for new guy – under scramble purposes – leaving the Batt step out reduces information overload and actually reduces the chance of a failed start according to Morgan, Dog, and my own testing.
When I get all the kinks worked out, sometime in March I’ll upload in .odt (LibreOffice, OpenOffice format that should be compatible with most any other word processor). And that way if folks like any portion of the work but want to tweak it, they will be able to do so.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your inquiry and so I went back through my references and thought processes to provide you with a thorough response.