Helicopter Daily Preflight Check
When you are starting to learn how to fly a helicopter, one of the first things you learn is how to do a helicopter daily preflight check. As a helicopter instructor, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of this check. Some day, this check could save your life. When you begin to fly a new type of helicopter, your instructor will usually spend about one hour teaching you how to perform this check. You will eventually reduce this time to about 10 to 15 minutes with a little practice.
You will also be shown how to use the check list and where to find all the items on the list. Always use the check list for the preflight check.
Complacency is one of the most important errors to be thinking of when carrying out your checks. Complacency will eventually lead to you ommitting or skipping items on your list. Distractions during your preflight checks are a usual reason for ommitting items on the check list. Taking telephone calls during the preflight can distract you. I turn my telephone to silent and return any calls when I have finished the checks. If my helicopter daily preflight check is interrupted for some reason, I go back to the start of that section in my check list to ensure that I do not omit any items.
Take your time doing the preflight as rushing it will lead to errors. A few years ago I watched a pilot do a helicopter daily preflight check on a Bell 206 Jetranger. As he progressed around the helicopter he had a telephone stuck to his ear and I knew he was not doing a thorough check. I heard him start the helicopter and then I heard the helicopter shut down about 30 seconds later. Approximately 5 minutes after that, he arrived into my office and asked me to come out to the helicopter as he had a problem. I did so. His problem was that after start-up he noticed a red on the Turbine Outlet Temperature (TOT) guage and it did not extinguish on shut down. I informed him that he had over-temped the engine on startup and he emphatically denied this. When I pointed out that this was the ONLY reason that the light could be illuminated, he eventually conceded that he may not have been looking at the guage during start-up. This is a cardinal sin on this type of helicopter. Because he could not tell the engineers what temperature the engine went up to and for how long, the engine had to be removed and sent to Rolls Royce for inspection. The subsequent bill came to almost 60,000 euro. He was lucky that his distraction only cost him money and not his life.
Use your instructor wisely. Pick his/her brains and find out where all of the items are on the helicopter. When a helicopter is in for maintenance, ask if the engineer will let you see it with the panels removed. Better still, ask the engineer to show you the helicopter and let him show you what he looks for during a helicopter daily preflight check. You will never stop learning and you can never know enough. Use the internet to find more information (be careful of the sources) and check out my helicopter weblog.
You will also be shown how to use the check list and where to find all the items on the list. Always use the check list for the preflight check.
Complacency is one of the most important errors to be thinking of when carrying out your checks. Complacency will eventually lead to you ommitting or skipping items on your list. Distractions during your preflight checks are a usual reason for ommitting items on the check list. Taking telephone calls during the preflight can distract you. I turn my telephone to silent and return any calls when I have finished the checks. If my helicopter daily preflight check is interrupted for some reason, I go back to the start of that section in my check list to ensure that I do not omit any items.
Take your time doing the preflight as rushing it will lead to errors. A few years ago I watched a pilot do a helicopter daily preflight check on a Bell 206 Jetranger. As he progressed around the helicopter he had a telephone stuck to his ear and I knew he was not doing a thorough check. I heard him start the helicopter and then I heard the helicopter shut down about 30 seconds later. Approximately 5 minutes after that, he arrived into my office and asked me to come out to the helicopter as he had a problem. I did so. His problem was that after start-up he noticed a red on the Turbine Outlet Temperature (TOT) guage and it did not extinguish on shut down. I informed him that he had over-temped the engine on startup and he emphatically denied this. When I pointed out that this was the ONLY reason that the light could be illuminated, he eventually conceded that he may not have been looking at the guage during start-up. This is a cardinal sin on this type of helicopter. Because he could not tell the engineers what temperature the engine went up to and for how long, the engine had to be removed and sent to Rolls Royce for inspection. The subsequent bill came to almost 60,000 euro. He was lucky that his distraction only cost him money and not his life.
Use your instructor wisely. Pick his/her brains and find out where all of the items are on the helicopter. When a helicopter is in for maintenance, ask if the engineer will let you see it with the panels removed. Better still, ask the engineer to show you the helicopter and let him show you what he looks for during a helicopter daily preflight check. You will never stop learning and you can never know enough. Use the internet to find more information (be careful of the sources) and check out my helicopter weblog.
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