Transportation Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

Back in the early 1980s a crew was transporting an airliner for maintenance. It may have been a 7–0–7…I forget.They were flying in instrument/ice conditions. The cabin recorder logged the conversation in the cabin. Everyone was amazed that as they were climbing, the airspeed was increasing. Everyone in the cockpit were commenting excitedly about it. They were so diverted from controlling the airplane that they failed to respond to the stall warning horns and whistles, until of course the end, when they lost it.Evidently, the pitot-heaters were on prior to call out from the checklist. When pitot-heaters was called out, the person flipping the switches failed to notice that the heaters were already on, and subsequently switched them to the off position. Upon entering the clouds, in freezing rain, the pitot-system iced over, which caused the all airspeed indicators to become the same as altimeters. As altitude increased, so did the indicated airspeed. Even the stall warning system did not cause them to deviate and pitch forward. Fortunately, there were no souls aboard other than the crew.Were it not for the cockpit voice recorders, the accident would have just been chock-up to not doing the checklist. But, because there were recorders, it was learned that the checklist was called out, and that it could be determined why the heaters were off, and it was learned how easily it was for a crew to be distracted from the job of flying the airplane.Even though we did not fly jets, all of us used this example as a means of teaching our students to not just do the checklist because, but to look and to think about the switches and knobs to confirm they are where they are supposed to be, and that the systems they were checking were doing what they expected them to do. I am sure that lesson was passed on to airline pilots as well.

I’m going to be literal about your use of the words “being able to fly.” Also, I’m going to interpret your phrasing of “commercial airliner” to mean transport-type jet. The fact that a transport jet is commercial or military registry is irrelevant to the question—in other words, I’m answering based on aircraft type.I see at least one answer that gives an adamant no to your question, and goes on and on about the legality and the licenses. But you didn’t ask if they would be legal. You asked if they would be able, and that answer is yes.How do I know that?Because I’ve done it and I’ve seen many others do it—including one who is world-famous, if you make it to the end.MY EXPERIENCEI pinned on my U.S. Air Force wings after flying the T-38 Talon, which is about as far from a jet transport as one can get.Then I proceeded to my assignment to fly a jet transport at Andrews Air Force Base, which would mostly involve not spilling the coffee of generals and members of Congress—about as far from flying a T-38 as one can get.My second day there, I was hanging out in the squadron, meeting my newest pilot buddies. The scheduler called me over to the scheduling desk, where he introduced me to Major Jose Luna—a recently returned Vietnam POW who was now an instructor pilot in my squadron. Major Luna said that his student had cancelled, so did I want to go out for my first flight? Luckily I did not piss myself with joy. For clarification, this was my second day—no simulator, no ground school, and I’d never flown a jet transport. The squadron knew nothing about me except that they trusted the training of any Air Force pilot—there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation by anyone in the squadron.That day is seared in my mind because the two of us walked across the ramp to our jet in front of the open hangar where the famous 26000 and 27000 were parked, the primary aircraft used as Air Force One. 26000 was the one that took President Kennedy to Dallas and brought President Johnson back. My knees almost buckled at the thought that I was really going to be flying with the same unit that flew Air Force One.We strapped in, he ran the checklist because I hadn’t had even a minute of ground school in this transport jet. When the engines were started he said it was my aircraft. I taxied it out, took off, pulled up into a closed traffic pattern and after flying a transport jet for a grand total of about three minutes, I made my first touch and go. We continued round and round the Andrews pattern for an hour and a half. A couple of times I glanced over while on final approach to see the glint of Air Force One as the sunlight streamed through the open hangar doors.WATCHING OTHERS DO ITFour months later I was an instructor in that jet and I began checking out other pilots. I could not count the number of former fighter pilots I checked out who made their first flight in a jet transport with me—and I did the same to them that Major Luna did with me—they taxied out, took off, and landed on their first flight.I saw this countless times.DOES IT WORK THE OTHER WAY?Would a pilot who has spent decades flying jet transports be able to fly a fighter? Most likely, yes. Of course I had flown T-38s, but I’ll give you a story that happened to me about 35 years after my last flight in a T-38, when I had the good fortune to snag a ride in a Navy F-18 simulator.To the Naval Aviators: You and I both know the significance of this being a simulator. It was on a perfectly glassy sea under perfectly blue sky. Please, in NO WAY can this be interpreted to mean I could do what you do on a pitching deck, in stormy weather, or at night. At no time was my ass in any danger!I got the cat shot takeoff, which was pretty easy, then flew the pattern and came around. At that point I had about five minutes of F-18 time and I was on final to attempt my first trap. The simulator guy was hilarious—he was chuckling and harassing me because he knew that an old Air Force pilot was going to flinch and flare a little and miss the wires. Damn! He was right. My amygdala made me twitch a little and I logged my first bolter.On downwind on the second pass, he paused the simulator and reminded me again to not flinch with even the slightest flare. He reminded me that an F-18 was stressed for that. Then he laughed and reminded me that it was a damn simulator, dummy—so I couldn’t possibly damage anything.On final, he kept saying, “Don’t flare. Don’t flare. Don’t flare.” And I didn’t. And I caught a wire. And my most recent jet time had been 6,000 hours in Boeing 727s just over 20 years previous.SPEAKING OF VIETNAM POWsMonths ago, I wrote a detailed Quora answer about the night I was flying Senator Barry Goldwater back to Andrews when he was accompanied by former Vietnam POW, Naval Captain John McCain, but I’ll summarize it here.McCain came up to the cockpit to chat. Of course he wasn’t remotely as famous as he is today, but with so many POWs in my own squadron I knew who he was and we had some common ground to chat about—he knew Major Luna who had given me my first landing in this jet.I sent my copilot back to sit with Goldwater and had McCain strap into the right seat to give him some stick time. He’d been a fighter pilot in Vietnam. Upon his return he became the commander of a Naval fighter flight training squadron. As far as I know, he’d never flown a jet transport.He flew just fine and I let him start descending into Andrews. He kept asking if I wanted him to go back and send my copilot up. I kept saying you’re doing fine, because he was.I hadn’t really planned to let him land, but he was doing so well, I didn’t have the heart to take it from him, so we continued. I briefed him with the basic numbers he needed on final approach and he kept going.About the time the gear went down, McCain turned to me and said, “What if I make a bad landing?”I said, “Are you kidding me? You’re a Naval aviator. Of course you’re going to make a bad landing! You can explain that to Goldwater on the ride into D.C.”We both laughed. He was a lot of fun.And so, I watched fighter pilot John McCain make his first landing ever in a jet transport that he’d never flown before, at night, at an airport he’d never landed at. And, by the way, he made a very nice landing and Senator Goldwater applauded.MY POINT?My point here is that any accomplished jet pilot in just about any type jet has the basic skills and aeronautical knowledge to be able to fly just about any other jet. They’re not legal, of course, without training—but the question didn’t mention legality, just “being able.”

NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), described the ditching occurred in 'fortuitous circumstances.' This phrase is directly taken from the final accident report. Winds were low at 9 knots, the river was calm with no swells, crew were exceptionally experienced and most importantly help came almost immediately after the crash. The aircraft played a little role in the whole process.Many pilots could have pulled off the feat of landing the plane on water, but the question is how many would have made that decision in the first place. Captain Sully's quick thinking and judgment was the key rather than his skills.Let's go back to the airplane. Airbus A320 is a fly by wire aircraft. It has various protections in built in its flight computer to make sure the pilot does not exceed certain limits. During the investigation it was found out that the airplane touched down the water at around 12.5 feet per second, a value three times higher than the demonstrated ditch by Airbus during flight tests. However, the demonstration was done with a single engine failure. The high decent rate was the reason why the aft of the airplane suffered so much damage.The dual engine failure checklist of A320 was quite long. It was designed for an airplane cruising at an altitude of 20,000 ft, hence, the flight crew were unable to complete the checklist. The speed to be maintained in double engine failure is Green dot speed, or in normal piloting terms Vmd (speed for minimum drag). Due to stress and checklist in completion, Sully unknowingly maintained a speed below Green dot during most of the descent and the speed maintained was close to Vls (Lowest selectable speed to be safe from a stall). At 200 ft above the water, the speed was noted 15-19 knots lower than Vls. This triggered the Angle of Attack protection system. This system will not allow the Angle of attack to exceed a pre determined value no matter how much back pressure pilot applies on the stick. It prevents the airplane from stalling.That is why, Sully was not able to flare the airplane properly and reduce the rate of descent during the fateful approach. The computers overrode his control inputs. If he, however, maintained the speed properly, the protection system would not have become alive and possibly would have enough energy for a proper flare and achieve a lower rate of descent. So, if it was a B737, I think the damage to the airplane would have been lower as its computers are not designed to override the pilot, which would have resulted in a proper flare and slower touch down.The success was down to extremely good failure management and quick thinking.Thanks for Asking.