Being rushed or just too slow?

[TwoTwoLeft]

How long should a post-solo PPL student pilot usually take to take care of all pre-flight activities? I like to take my time and feel like I'm always being rushed by my instructor.

Are you being meticulous or just or just randomly poking around the plane and not being efficient? You CFI should be teaching you efficient ways to preflight. For example, check fluids first. That way if you have to wait for fuel or oil you can get the rest of the walk around done.

There's nothing wrong with begin meticulous. Its better than rushing. If you ever find yourself in a hurry, just take a step back and remember. The airplane goes fast so you don't have to.

 

[dustoff17]

The difference is, the saying that the USAF taught is meant to indicate that the preflight is just a skin-deep check, and not a pre-buy inspection.

I was tracking with you HACKER. I was trying to be funny but I forgot to add the smiley face.

Not to say that your preflight is insufficient but rather the one thing you have is reliable, trustworthy maintenance. You have an assigned crew and crew chief that treat your plane (and thiers) with care and attention. This is not the case in most flight schools.

 

[Flyn-Slow-N-Low]

It depends.

I've taken nearly two hours to preflight a plane I've never flown before and know nothing about, prior to leaving on a cross-country ferry flight. I've also spent less than five minutes walking around a plane that's just landed and the pilot, who I trust, said, "Everything's running great, you should be good to go."

Then there is everything in between.

In general, there is little to no reason to feel rushed during an instructional session. Maybe the instructor needs to talk to you about expectations, like coming in earlier to preflight, or calling him when you're ready to go...but there's no reason to rush.

How can you preflight an aircraft for two hours? Had to have some tools to keep you occupied for two hours I'm sure!!

 

[jrh]

How can you preflight an aircraft for two hours? Had to have some tools to keep you occupied for two hours I'm sure!!

No, just completely unfamiliar with where stuff is and what I should be checking, and what "normal" is for the aircraft. Honestly, that only happened once. I was preflighting a Mooney Bravo with nearly zero experience in Mooneys. I was supposed to leave on a 1500 mile ferry flight, across the Rockies, in weather, with part of the trip at night, followed by training the new owner the following day. I don't just "kick the tires and light the fires" for a flight of that nature. Mikecweb's idea of 15 minutes sure wouldn't have cut it.

I had to dig through the POH and figure out how the landing gear worked, where all the fuel sumps were, how the TKS ice protection worked, how to determine the amount of fuel in the tanks, check the onboard oxygen system, etc. I also needed to dig through the paperwork to make sure it had the required inspections completed, had an airworthiness certificate/registration, etc. I also did some quick performance calculations to make sure my fuel stops would be appropriate, etc.

Is this a common scenario? No, of course not. But it's exactly why I find blanket statements like "15 minutes max" to be absurd. A pilot should preflight for as long as it takes to conduct the flight safely and legally.

 

[Boris Badenov]

If it's the plane you fly every day for work, I think 15 minutes is a pretty good "max" number. I can usually knock it out in 5-7 or so. With that said, as a student pilot or flying an unfamiliar aircraft, all bets are off. It takes what it takes. End of story.

 

[cmill]

My standard preflight for a plane I flya everyday is about five minutes. Longer if the plane just came out of the shop. You never know what those guys have been messing with.

Case in point I was picking up a 185 from an avionics shop, and they replaced the bezel, but didn't label anything. No switches, no nothing. On top of that the plane had just been put together using two different airframes, so it wasn't exactly a "standard" layout. I was on a ferry permit with no airworthiness cert, no poh, etc.. No big deal, I flew the plane out there, and it ran great so I didn't think there would be any problems picking it up.

I hop in, figure out witch switches work what, get the plane started and pull what I think is the cabin air vent. I taxi out, do a nice long run up, no problems. I go to take off and right as I'm breaking ground the engine quits. Turns the fuel shut off valve was put where I was used to seeing the cabin air vent knob, and since nothing was labeled I assumed that's what it was. It wouldn't have been a big deal if the fuel shut off had been working correctly, I would have never gotten the plane to taxi out. The shut off valve didn't shut off untill high power settings though.