Some of you are thinking, "What the heck's a cockpit flow?" Most GA pilots aren't familiar with this term. Many pilots will be surprised that they've been using cockpit flows for years without knowing it. A cockpit flow is a systematic way of configuring an aircraft's systems by visually sweeping your eyes and hand across various panels while manipulating any switches or knobs that need to be selected or changed for the current phase of flight. Jet crews do this every flight. There's a flow for each phase of flight. For instance, captain's receiving flow, first officer's after takeoff flow, captain's landing flow, etcetera. After a flow is completed a checklist is run to make sure nothing was missed. This is the difference between a check-list and a do-list. A checklist is used to check that everything was completed as required, and a do-list is used to walk the pilot through a flow. Some airlines refer to a do-list as "read and do."
Cockpit flows are typically only used on flight decks of high performance aircraft. However, cockpit flows are just as useful and contribute just as much to flight safety in a Piper Archer cockpit as they do in a transport jet.
Light aircraft demand a professional approach to their operation in just the same way complex jets do. A Cessna 150 can be just as deadly as Concorde or a Boeing 767. In terms of safety and human survivability, 110 MPH is no less dangerous than 550 MPH. On the same token, an altitude of 2,000 feet above the surface holds no less potential to kill a human than flight level 390. Far more people die in GA airplanes than on air carriers every year. While GA airplanes aren't nearly as complex as higher performance aircraft in terms of systems they're just as hazardous to a person's health when not operated in a professional manner; sometimes they're even more hazardous due to lack of systems redundancy that jets are built with. Transport jets always have more than one engine, backup fuel pumps, backup flight instruments, and an APU or air driven generator to provide electrical (and hydraulic) power in the event of engine(s) failure. Many light airplanes also aren't equipped with ice control systems or weather detection/avoidance gear. Light airplane pilots don't have the luxury of climbing above certain adverse weather conditions and are forced to operate in the lower atmosphere where most of the earth's weather is concentrated. Light airplanes are affected by winds and turbulence (including wake turbulence) to a greater extent than heavy aircraft too, and turbine powered airplanes have drastically superior climb and cruise performance capabilities. On the human factors side, jets are almost always operated by two or more pilots. Us GA guys are often the only pilot in the cockpit and don't have an extra brain and set of eyes and ears to catch our mistakes. Some GA airplanes don't even have an autopilot; many don't even have a heading bug. I can remember years ago flying a Piper Cherokee without an autopilot installed in low IFR conditions at night shooting approaches and executing holds just for fun, single pilot (I wouldn't do that today).
GA pilots flying IFR operate in the exact same air traffic control system as the airliners do, and often we fly in more challenging weather systems than the slippery high flyers do. We fly far more nonprecision instrument approaches than jet crews do, often in nonradar environments without the aid of ATC vectors and safety alerts. Often the runways we use are marginal in runway lighting and length at airports without weather reporting or radar service.
Light airplane flying requires just as much professionalism and discipline as jet flying. Somehow people will argue this. I suppose when all one considers is aircraft systems complexity it is true that high performance aircraft require more flip switching and systems configuration during operation, but missing one switch or lever in a light airplane can be just as risk-elevating as it would be in a jet (landing gear lever, for instance). Certainly the flows in a Piper Archer cockpit will look different than in a Boeing 737, fewer switches to manipulate and fewer systems to configure or re-configure, but forgetting something as simple as turning on the carburetor heat for descent could potentially lead to an engine failure. And maybe that engine failure occurs at night at low altitude over rugged terrain. There has to be a system used to prevent us from forgetting these things. That's what cockpit flows are for.
I can remember a time before I used cockpit flows when I was preparing for takeoff in a Piper Archer. I had completed my before takeoff do-list but had deferred a couple of items on the list (fuel pump and landing lights) because of a delay in receiving takeoff clearance. I had planned to turn them on upon taking the runway for departure. The takeoff clearance came and at five hundred feet I reached up to perform my after takeoff do-list and realized I had forgotten to turn the fuel pump and landing lights on. Whoops. Luckily that day wasn't my day to have a runway incursion or low altitude engine-driven fuel pump failure. Had I been using cockpit flows those switches wouldn't have been forgotten and the risk during takeoff would have been more effectively managed.
Cockpit flows are designed to minimize human error, and there's plenty of human error to be minimized. Do yourself, your passengers, and the innocent folks on the ground a favor and design a cockpit flow that works for your airplane. One of my aviation heroes, Richard L. Collins, used to own a Cessna P210. He used cockpit flows by starting at the left side of his panel and methodically working his way to the right side, considering and acknowledging every switch, knob, or lever along the way. That's an excellent way of doing things and strongly resembles the way airline crews conduct their overhead panel flows. In designing a flow for your airplane you want to make a logical, orderly pattern or route that your eyes and hand follow across applicable panels for each phase of flight. Many GA pilots are taught an engine failure flow where they start on the left side of the panel and work their way across changing any control along the way that could restore engine power. Certain flows will be extremely short, possibly one item. My after takeoff checklist flow is two items: fuel pump OFF, landing lights OFF. In a retractable gear airplane it becomes three items: gear UP--3 dark NO red, fuel pump OFF, landing lights OFF. My takeoff flow (not to be mistaken with before takeoff flow) is similarly short: mixture FULL RICH (or as required), fuel pump ON, landing lights ON. Once you have your flows for each phase of flight designed, you'll need to standardize the exact times that each flow will be completed. For instance, my takeoff flow is always completed after takeoff clearance is received and I'm lined up with the centerline, and my after landing flow is completed after the tail is clear of the hold lines and I've brought the aircraft to a complete stop on the taxiway. Don't forget that checklists must still be used after each flow is completed to double check yourself. In using a checklist you'll visually check to make sure the flow was accomplished completely and correctly.
We've got a real safety problem in general aviation. The primary reason for this is because of the people who settle in behind the yoke and throttle. Most pilots understand that an extremely high percentage of aviation accidents occur due to human error. That's completely unacceptable, and we must do better. Fly your light airplane like it's an airliner. By doing so you'll be keeping yourself, your passengers, and those innocent ground-bound people much safer.
