Heard a pilot tell a new hire 'the book is a guide, not a god' during a walkaround

It made me think about how we sometimes overthink a simple rigging check. Anyone else have a phrase that changed how you approach a routine task?

3 comments

3 Comments

riverh492mo ago

My buddy Mike was a new rigger at a theater in Chicago. He got so stuck on the exact inch counts in the manual for a chain motor that he almost missed a frayed cable right in front of him. His lead told him, "The checklist gets your eyes there, but your brain has to do the looking." That always stuck with me for pre-flights. The steps point you at the parts, but you still have to see what's actually wrong.

the_hayden2mo ago

Read about a pilot who caught a cracked weld during walk-around because the light hit it just right... checklist said "inspect landing gear" but seeing it took that extra second.

the_sam2mo ago

Exactly, @riverh49, a checklist is just a map, not the actual seeing.