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Writer's picturebernardtiziano3

Cherokee PA28-180 Checklist

There will never be a checklist that works for any airplane. Unless you generalize it so much that it becomes useless...


That being said, a checklist is a CHECK-list, not a TO-DO list. It assists with a flow, it does not replace it. Training is the only case where the checklist serves the purpose of the to-do list... to help the pilot familiarize themselves with a new aircraft.


To that affect, I wrote the attached checklist for Piper Cherokee 180s (PA28-180) to help my students learn the various phases of flight and facilitate procedures out of a class Charlie airspace.



A few notes on my checklist:

  1. Frequencies out of KSAV (that's my home base)

  2. Bolded elements are "memory items" which a pilot should do by instinct. For example, when landing, I check multiple times "mixture rich, fuel pump on, landing light on". I learned that in flight school at Florida Tech and it's still vivid in my mind today.

  3. LOS = line of sight... Ground controllers will often look outside. If they see you, better.

  4. Fullest tank vs. Safest tank... I often see checklists telling the pilots to switch tanks before takeoff to the fullest tank. I don't like that because I teach my students to stick with the tank on which you performed your run-up. You know those fuel lines work, the fuel is good, so don't switch to an "unknown" tank. So before takeoff... safest tank, not fullest tank. And for the run-up, I instruct to switch to the fullest tank. There, see?

  5. Run-up Locations. In this checklist I assumed that your FBO/facility does not have space for engine run-ups. So I wrote engine run-up AFTER taxi. Of course, you can move things around. You're no slave to a checklist!

  6. Mixture Leaning. The POH for the Cherokee 180 indicates that fuel mixture leaning should be done above 5,000 ft. I believe that to be way too high - based on my evil flight experiments - so I recommend anytime above 3,000 ft.

Ok, enough said. Go use it. Have improvements? Shoot me a message on instagram @FlyWithTizi.


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