Flight Controls Free / Active

[MoonlightVFR]

Free flight controls are going to be increasingly on the minds of Pilots.

Gulfstream 1V, MA , pilots were having quick comments about flight controls Active. Too late.

About 30 years ago a business associate in St Louis was at rotation speed for T/O in a beech craft Bonanza when he discovered the control wheel control lock still installed. A RED flag on metal lock pin right under his nose. He survived, injuries included a crushed spinal cord but no lasting paralysis.

I have tried to be fastidious about using a written walk around check list Prior to entering aircraft. However about 25 years ago, after completing the walk around checklist I started taxing toward the taxiway and as a secondary check started moving the controls. Elevator did not respond. I stopped , cut the engine, removed the lock from horz stabilator/elevator and continued the flight. I had removed the big rudder lock but overlooked the elevator lock.

Thankful that instructors drilled something into me. There was even a little tiny clip at end of ailerons hinges they would check. I don't think this was on original factory checklist.

As a 170 pilot sometimes I wonder if we all use the same basic checklist and if not what is the difference?


Regards

[bagarre]

Aside from pre-flighting the airplane, I was taught CIGAR before taking off.

Controls: Free and Correct. Move everything stop to stop in a fluid motion including flaps.
Instruments: Altimeter, DG, GPS....all reading what they are supposed to
Gas & gauges: Fule levels, valve on both tanks, oil pressure and temperature ok
Attitude: Yours and the airplanes (set trim for takeoff)
Radios and run-up: Freq's, transponder, mag checks...

[canav8]

Grady, a checklist is only as good as the person following it. As a suggestion, although it is not a 170 thing but rather a personal technique, I do 2 things. First. I do not allow myself to be distracted. That means I put away my electronic toys. I even turn my cellphone off. When I go fly, I do it for enjoyment. Sorry if my buddies are trying to call they can wait. Not always practical, but I do not use the aircraft as a transportation device. When I approach an aircraft I am going to fly, I actually do 2 walk arounds. The first is just a cursory inspection of the aircraft. This entails looking at the general condition of the aircraft. See if there is anything obviously wrong before I do the preflight. Flat tire? I remove the control locks at this point. It is really hard to go to the airport though and not have people that want to talk to you. I love to talk about the 170. I usually will chat with people after the walk around is done, not before. This is a sore spot with me, because this is where your mistakes are made when you have a perfectly good pilot and a perfectly good airplane with a distraction that disconnected the two. I have made a thorough checklist that I use for flying and flight training in the 170. It works for me. I can provide a copy of it if your interested.

[hilltop170]

I had a potentially fatal experience on my 4th solo flight in a PA-11. I went to the airport early one Sat morning and got the plane ready, propped the engine, untied the tail, and taxied out. Just then my instructor drove up to the airport and waved at me to stop. He came over, looked in the plane, and asked me what color of roses I liked. When I asked him why he replied "you're about to kill yourself". He then told me to move the stick which I had not up to that point, it was firmly strapped down with the rear seat belt.

I'll never know whether I would have checked the controls and found the problem before takeoff or not, but what I learned is never take off in any airplane without checking the controls to the limits of travel, not just a jiggle. It was one of the best close calls I ever had.

[GAHorn]

Within the last two years I've observed two incidents regarding attempted take-offs with flight controls not "full/free/correct".

One of our own Members had an occurrence just last year in which a more thorough pre-flight/walk-around might have prevented what became a potentially fatal loss of elevator control. He admitted that his FAMILIARITY with his own airplane had likely led him into behavior contemptuous of detailed pre-flight inspections.

C-170's do not typically incorporate the control locks found in other aircraft in that few of them have an internal, rigid, locking device. Most are secured with external locks. (Although a few might still have the floor-mounted locks which attach to rudder-pedals and yoke, those types are difficult to imagine anyone taxying with much less attempting a take-off.)
Regardless,.... the FULL, FREE, AND CORRECT MOVEMENT of flight controls, ...the proper setting of pitch-trim,.... the appropriate flap setting,.... and the fuel valve placed in the appropriate position (BOTH in most models)... are LIFE-SAVING requirements prior to flight.

Many good people have died, even some otherwise competent pilots have been distracted, and forgotten to check FLIGHT CONTROLS prior to flight and made their last attempted takeoff.

It behooves us ALL to renew our conscientiousness to DETAIL during pre-flight activities. We addressed this issue at last year's convention seminar and will likely re-visit the issue this year as well.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I've told this story before. Three of my favorite people have taken off in a 170 with gust locks on the ailerons and flaps.

We were lucky to survive.

I did it in my first 170. Then my current 170 partner and another friend did it in my current 170. I was distracted during preflight, I may have wiggled the ailerons before take off but I didn't roll them full travel. My friends probably didn't look for locks because they didn't expect them to be installed. I had installed them at a fly-in not expecting my partner to fly the plane again that day. He didn't think I even brought them as he wouldn't have. And trouble was they were not at the time adequately flagged. And there was probably just enough slop in the control that any wiggle of the yoke did not detect the fact they were installed.

Roll and manipulate the controls through full travel and look at them while your doing it.

[strangebird]

It is so easy to become complacent when we fly the same airplane all the time, I have found my self doing a checklist reading it and only going through the motions, not really checking what was on the checklist, after all I know the airplane and nothing is wrong with it , hey it' been in the hangar for a month and what can be wrong. All got ya's

What about you land and have lunch, do you just get back in, and fly? I do not , I at least do a walk around to make sure no one ran into the airplane and look for leaks and check the oil and that my fuel is not all on the ground.

I agree with some of the others, take your time, no interruptions, tell passengers to just wait over there until I am done pre flighting and turn off the phone, I do not allow talking on take offs and approaches unless they see another airplane real close, ( and not the jet 30,000 above us), I want a sterile environment in those critical stages s much as possible.
If you get distracted start over.

[GAHorn]

The Helios B-737 crew read the checklist item... "Press'n Ctrl - AUTO"... (where it always is...)....and responded "SET"....
But the knob was in manual. (maintenance had run a test during the night)
They all died.

[jrenwick]

It's good practice to check flight controls before starting the engine. Reasons: you can hear things like little noises from binding cables, hinges, and whatnot; and, if you have left a control lock in place, you're still on the ramp with the engine quiet -- attracts less attention to your mistake, y'know!

[GAHorn]

It's good practice to check flight controls before starting the engine. Reasons: you can hear things like little noises from binding cables, hinges, and whatnot; and, if you have left a control lock in place, you're still on the ramp with the engine quiet -- attracts less attention to your mistake, y'know!

The voice of experience, ya' know. LOL

[Ryan Smith]

Can't go wrong with the factory item. It's even the right color!

image.jpg

I suppose that these are near impossible to find, correct? Pretty neat solution. Does it fold down relatively compact, say the size of a towbar?

[Ryan Smith]

Grady, a checklist is only as good as the person following it. As a suggestion, although it is not a 170 thing but rather a personal technique, I do 2 things. First. I do not allow myself to be distracted. That means I put away my electronic toys. I even turn my cellphone off. When I go fly, I do it for enjoyment. Sorry if my buddies are trying to call they can wait. Not always practical, but I do not use the aircraft as a transportation device. When I approach an aircraft I am going to fly, I actually do 2 walk arounds. The first is just a cursory inspection of the aircraft. This entails looking at the general condition of the aircraft. See if there is anything obviously wrong before I do the preflight. Flat tire? I remove the control locks at this point. It is really hard to go to the airport though and not have people that want to talk to you. I love to talk about the 170. I usually will chat with people after the walk around is done, not before. This is a sore spot with me, because this is where your mistakes are made when you have a perfectly good pilot and a perfectly good airplane with a distraction that disconnected the two. I have made a thorough checklist that I use for flying and flight training in the 170. It works for me. I can provide a copy of it if your interested.

Doug, I'd be interested in seeing a copy of your checklist if you care to share.

My new email address is n22 56d at gmail dot com; spaces removed and appropriate punctuation substituted.

[ghostflyer]

when I do my daily inspection in the hanger ,I also do my " you can't see me " flight control checks. I check the full and free movement of all the flight controls without the engine running listening for the odd noise . So if I have left a control lock in ,I find it and the world doesn't know about it . Then when on the taxiway doing my pre-take off checks the controls again are checked for full free and correct movement . It's all good . I have seen people find they have left control locks on the taxiway , jump out to remove them . The radio calls that come on are " Going for a run " oops did you leave some on? Or That's a nice control lock that you have there "!!! Or Get a move on we haven't all day to do your checks out here . Or Beers on ( the aircraft rego) . I often ask some one that flying with me ,that all locks and pitot covers removed and locks removed . A second set of eyes is good for safety as some times " expectation" over comes reality . What this means when you inspect some thing and you expect to be in a certain configuration and you are under pressure or distracted and you look at it but it doesn't register in the brain that it not what it should be .

[DaveF]

when you inspect some thing and you expect to be in a certain configuration and you are under pressure or distracted and you look at it but it doesn't register in the brain that it not what it should be .

That's it exactly! Every time I preflight I stop and ask myself whether I'm really looking at the airplane or just dragging my eyes over it.

[blueldr]

It has been far too many years ago to remember what kind of a check list we used going through flight training in the three phases prior to graduation in the USAAF. I had graduated from single engine school at Luke Field in AZ. and was sent to multi engine training in B-25s at Mather Field in CA. To this day I can remember the flight instructor giving us a "Check List" to memorise. It was "C I G F T P R", But I'm damned if I can remember what in hell they stood for.
I think maybe it was:
C = Controls
I = Instruments
G = Gas
F = Flaps
T = Trim
P = Props
R = Run Up
If that is correct, How in hell did anyone ever learn how to keep from killing themselves ? Actually, we did kill a lot of guys in training back in those days. I guess we were considered "expendables".