Don't Buy Flows...Am I the Only One?

[172driver]

As a former flight instructor, the last thing I'd want my students doing is trying to flick switches on memory.

Yeah, God forbid they might accidentally turn off the beacon instead of the landing light or something equally insidious.

I find it to be a bit strange that you weren't teaching flows in whatever you instructed in. Did you really pull out the checklist as a 'to do' list every time you started the engine, configured for landing, taught an emergency?

How about in a twin? I can just imagine a brand new multi student pulling out the list.... let's see here... engine failure checklist... mixtures ... props... throttles. Meanwhile, the airplane has entered an inverted spin.

Flows are the way to go in whatever you fly. You probably developed your own in GA stuff and just don't realize it.

 

[Cardinal]

Count another pro-flow vote. The flow can be done more at your own leisure, whenever you get a chance, and the same goes for the other crewmember. Consider rolling out after landing at a busy airport with a short taxi to the gate. The PF can be taxiing and navigating with his head up, etc, while the PNF can talk to tower, ground, ramp, and company during that short taxi. Meanwhile you've both almost instincually accomplished your after landing flow with a couple quick swipes of the hand. Thus despite being really busy you aren't taxiing in with several thousand watts of landing light blazing, the flaps aren't dangling, the anti-ice isn't overheating - all these benefits without having pulled the checklist out yet. Once you get some peace and quiet, you and the captain can mentally "get-together" again and run the checklist real quick before you park. This is in contrast to being heads down in a dolist while the aircraft hurtles off the highspeed and into the fray of taxiways.

Thats the beauty of the flow, everything is actually done, even if you and the captain are mentally/verbally separated because you're on different radios/PAs, paging through charts or performance data or any number of distractions. Then just accomplish the checklist once the crew has a quiet moment together.

 

[Typhoon1244]

Don't Buy Flows...Am I the Only One?

Well Dreamguy, twenty-one replies later...yes, it looks like you are the only one.

 

[AAsRedHeadedbro]

When I instructed in the late 80's I always taught my students how to use "flows" from day one for almost every task - preflight, startup, taxi, runup and before takeoff, climb, cruise, before landing, after landing and shutdown. The students then "checked" their work with the checklist. They were much more in tune with their airplanes and learned to think instead of use a cookbook.

Flows are a pain initially to learn but are well worth the effort in the long run.

 

[Typhoon1244]

...I always taught my students how to use "flows" from day one for almost every task - preflight, startup, taxi, runup and before takeoff, climb, cruise, before landing, after landing and shutdown. The students then "checked" their work with the checklist.

Dreamguy, remember "GUMP?" Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop? Surely you've used that in you light-single or -twin flying, right? Isn't that a flow?

Didn't you have a plan for when an engine quit in a twin? "Mixture full rich, props high, throttles full open, gear up, flaps up!" Isn't that a flow?

I suspect you're more comfortable with flows than you realize. You just haven't experienced them in a multi-crew cockpit yet.

 

[EngineOut]

Okay, I'm a geek...

But I used a "do-list" until I was forced to learn flow from the ATOP class, 737 sim procedures. Now, I developed a flow for the aircraft I fly (little Cessnas and whatnot) and double check with the checklist. It's so much easier and (most importantly) forces me to remember what I'm checking off. Using the checklist as a "do-list" encourages thoughtlessness. I teach flows and double-check, now.