Wingrunner Checklist

My club is considering implementing a wing runner checklist. The wing runner would perform this mental checklist at some point before they give the Begin Takeoff signal.

"CATP"

Canopy....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)
Airbrakes....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)
Taildolly.....REMOVED
Pattern.....CLEAR

A FEW QUESTIONS....
1. I heard about this at the 2012 SSA convention in Reno. Does anybody know which club has implemented the checklist?

2. Have any of you implemented this or a similar wingrunner checklist?

3. Pros & Cons?

Thanks,
Jamie Shore

Many pilots of single seaters will start the take-off run with open spoilers to increase aileron effectiveness and some pilots will deploy them to activate the wheel brake to prevent the glider overrunning the tow rope on taking up slack.

A clear pattern is overly conservative and in most cases it is best to get the tow- plane and glider off the runway to give landing ships more options. I usually hold a take-off only when a glider is on short final and there may be a potential conflict.

Good judgement is better than a one-rule-fits-all.

But tail dollies - definitely!

Mike

"CARDS"

This one was taught to me for wing runners to be part of the safety process:

C- canopy (closed and latched)
A- airbrakes (as briefed)
R- rudder lock (removed)
D- dollies (removed)
S- scan (in front of glider, up the rope, in front of tow plane)

Turns out it also works for Final Items in the cockpit.

Raul Boerner
LS6b

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 4:51:55 AM UTC-7, Jamie Shore wrote:
My club is considering implementing a wing runner checklist. The wing runner would perform this mental checklist at some point before they give the Begin Takeoff signal.



"CATP"



Canopy....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)

Airbrakes....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)

Taildolly.....REMOVED

Pattern.....CLEAR



A FEW QUESTIONS....

1. I heard about this at the 2012 SSA convention in Reno. Does anybody know which club has implemented the checklist?



2. Have any of you implemented this or a similar wingrunner checklist?



3. Pros & Cons?



Thanks,

Jamie Shore

You could make this required of new members, or present at your annual safety meeting.

http://www.soaringsafety.org/school/wingrunner/toc.htm

It's good for people to know what things are important. If you've been following RAS for a while, you'll know that a pilot nearly took a launch with the horizontal cover in place.

Frank Whiteley

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 5:51:55 AM UTC-6, Jamie Shore wrote:
My club is considering implementing a wing runner checklist. The wing runner would perform this mental checklist at some point before they give the Begin Takeoff signal.



"CATP"



Canopy....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)

Airbrakes....CLOSED AND LOCKED (to the best of their judgement)

Taildolly.....REMOVED

Pattern.....CLEAR



A FEW QUESTIONS....

1. I heard about this at the 2012 SSA convention in Reno. Does anybody know which club has implemented the checklist?



2. Have any of you implemented this or a similar wingrunner checklist?



3. Pros & Cons?



Thanks,

Jamie Shore

As one who takes off with spoilers open -- spoilers either closed and locked, or all the way open. The trouble sign is spoilers cracked, but not all open. On fiberglass gliders (not blaniks) the spoilers will not stay open by themselves, so if they are open you know the pilot's hand is on the spoiler lever and it's intentional.

A checklist is a good idea. As others mentioned, the pattern need not be clear, but looking to see who is in the pattern where they are and helping to decide whether the tow can proceed, or needs to wait for the landing glider is important.

What's nice about this one is you proceed in a logical direction from front to back.

John cochrane

John, that's not always true. My LS8 spoilers will stay open by themselves, even without me in the cockpit. I agree with the rest of what you say.

-John, Q3

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 10:18:35 AM UTC-5, wrote:

As one who takes off with spoilers open -- spoilers either closed and locked, or all the way open. The trouble sign is spoilers cracked, but not all open. On fiberglass gliders (not blaniks) the spoilers will not stay open by themselves, so if they are open you know the pilot's hand is on the spoiler lever and it's intentional.

A checklist is a good idea. As others mentioned, the pattern need not be clear, but looking to see who is in the pattern where they are and helping to decide whether the tow can proceed, or needs to wait for the landing glider is important.

What's nice about this one is you proceed in a logical direction from front to back.

John cochrane

On Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:34:11 -0800, John Carlyle wrote:

John, that's not always true. My LS8 spoilers will stay open by
themselves, even without me in the cockpit. I agree with the rest of
what you say.


Its not limited to just single seaters either: the spoilers will stay
open on a parked Puchacz.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

of course the buck stops with the pilot but the wingrunner, towpilot and any knowledgable bystanders are all part of the safety net. an american cheese model of safety does not work, we have swiss cheese. case in point, Sean Fidler (F2) who does like to drive us all crazy in the winter, managed to save a couple pilots lives at Uvalde as they nearly took off with the cover on their horizontal stabilizer. the wing runner didn't notice, the two presumably experienced pilots didn't notice, and their presumably well trained crew missed it. sometimes you need a lot of layers of swiss chees before all the holes were filled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuTBQIb721g

Originally Posted by Tony[_5_]

of course the buck stops with the pilot but the wingrunner, towpilot and any knowledgable bystanders are all part of the safety net. an american cheese model of safety does not work, we have swiss cheese. case in point, Sean Fidler (F2) who does like to drive us all crazy in the winter, managed to save a couple pilots lives at Uvalde as they nearly took off with the cover on their horizontal stabilizer. the wing runner didn't notice, the two presumably experienced pilots didn't notice, and their presumably well trained crew missed it. sometimes you need a lot of layers of swiss chees before all the holes were filled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuTBQIb721g

Agree,

But even more so, most of us operate from clubs, and we want the club to remain strong and in operation, and part of that is ensuring the club is a professional, safe and dependable operation. This helps with insurance costs directly and costs of club aircraft or facilities, but also helps with perception of the operations at the club, perceptions or feelings people have about the culture of the club, and lastly it's important to the sport itself to entice new piltos, keep the FAA at bay, and to ensure someone else has our six.

This includes wing runners going over the major things that can cause an emergency in one of the phases of flight where soaring pilots have them the most: Take-offs. Canopies and spoilers locked, dollies and covers removed, pattern is deconflicted for takeoffs and landings.

While no one doubts the PIC is ultimately responsible for this, having the wing runner check these things is not an onerous task, and I as Duty officer say it out loud and ask my ADO's to do the same, as a last safety and sanity check. Our club is even starting to consider having the duty crew ask private ships is they accomplished a critical assembly and/or positive control check as a last chance reminder as well. It's not intrusive, and it's not out of bounds--it's just a help which takes no time and could save an incident or accident.

I hope no one is against prevention.

Cheers
Squeak

I thought all this was the pilot's responsibility. I don't want someone blaming the wing runner if I take off with my canopy unlatched or tail dolly on and something happens. No harm in wingrunner checking these things but it is not their primary responsibility.