One of the important action carried out by a pilot before every take off of flights is the checklist procedure. This forms the important reason for advanced safety during flight travels. Nearly there are one lakh passengers who travel using flights everyday and the numbers are increasing day by day. But flight travels are turning out to be increasingly safe because of its enhanced safety measures and security checks before landings and take offs. Air safety importance during flight travels is the top most priority of all aviation companies. Investigations of airplane accidents and inspections of aircraft safety are becoming effective widely.
Improvements and advancements made in the manufacture of aircrafts and enhanced control over its quality and functioning makes flight travel highly safe. Security checks for proper functioning of airplanes do not end at the aircraft manufacturing industries, but a crew comprising highly qualified and experienced technicians inspects every aircraft before every take off. It is stated that the pilots handling the aircrafts are completely responsible for checking whether the aircraft is safe to travel even before entering into the cockpits from which they handle aircraft movements.
Pilots should undergo check rides every six months and the captains should undertake line checks every 12 months. A proper and a complete checklist usage is the important and basic requirement for clearing these checks. The instructions on the importance and compulsion of proper pre take off checks are taught to the pilots from day one by the flight instructors. Pre – flight checklists are the most important tasks which are to be performed by the pilots and the members of the air crew before every take off. Pilots make use of these checklists for both ordinary and non-ordinary flight operations like handling situations of routing at times of landing and departure, managing unfortunate malfunctioning of aircrafts and emergencies.
The checklists are basically printed on cardboards or paper or at times laminated as well. Each card consists of approximately 12 checklist divisions, which are read aloud in a response pattern depending on the flight phase. One pilot of the air crew member reads out the checklist while another pilot watches over the verification procedures. On ground, the first officer usually carries out the reading, while on air, the pilot who is not literally flying will see to the reading. These procedures of verifying checklists prove to be of great help at times of emergencies.
A pre – flight checklist is usually the longest and consists of more than 30 steps which are to be carried out before every take off. Steps vary depending on the aircraft type and the airline company which host them. The basics for a checklist are always the same but the airline companies modify them suiting their features, training, system operations and the facilities they provide on flight travels. New aircrafts are equipped with checklists available on digital forms which appear on the system screens. But there is always a hard copy of these checklists at the cockpits of pilots.
