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by Friday Morning Flight Plan at [date]
What pilot doesn't love a good checklist? It's an objective set of steps carefully considered by experts to provide the safest way to conduct a flight. Why, we even have our own mnemonic devices, which are simply checklists we memorized.
...and that's where the trouble begins. While a pilot might run through a mnemonic checklist before each flight, the attention required to verify each item often fades over time.
Let's get back up to speed on one of the classics: IMSAFE, the preflight pilot condition checklist.
Illness
If you're sick, don't fly. Duh. However, what if you're probably okay but just got over a cold? The decision isn't as clear-cut.
Here's a good rule: If you keep asking yourself if you feel okay, you're better off delaying a flight or skipping it altogether.
Medication
The FAA's list of "no-no" meds is clear. What's less clear is how you should handle an afternoon flight if you took a dose of an over-the-counter medication, like NyQuil, the night before. Sure, you would be past the eight hours the FAA requires, and you would be below the .04 blood alcohol level, but you still could be under the influence to some degree.
Take an honest inventory of your acuity and your body's ability to perform with precision. In this scenario, NyQuil is the nuclear bomb of cold medicines. Play it safe if you decide to "ride the Q train."
Stress
When you fly, there's nothing else on your mind...or at least there shouldn't be. However, right before you hop on the airplane, suppose you get a call from home explaining that your kid broke her arm at soccer practice. Your spouse insists she's fine and has it covered.
But will that preoccupy some real estate in your brain while you hurtle 2,500 pounds of metal through the air? Probably. If you have chronic stress, that's even more important to resolve.
Alcohol
Eight hours bottle to throttle is the FAA's way of saying, "Look, we know some people can hold their liquor better than others, but you really need to stop drinking long before you set foot in an airplane." If you can fly well after four hours:
- I'm not sure why you know that.
- Great, but refrain because it's illegal.
More to the point, you should know yourself well enough to determine if you're the kind of pilot who needs 24 hours.
Fatigue
Like stress, fatigue can be acute or chronic. Usually, quality rest will cure the former. Chronic fatigue, however, requires taking your foot off the gas and slowing down as much as possible.
If you've been putting in six-day work weeks for two months with inadequate rest, then a nap won't fix things. You should set aside time to recover before you run yourself into the ground.
Turning to coffee or energy drinks might be tempting in this scenario, but those are a quick fix that won't do you much good at the end of a two-and-a-half-hour flight in the heat of summer with busy Class Bravo radio work awaiting you.
Eating
E also can mean emotion, but eating — while incredibly simple — may be overlooked even more
Having a healthy meal preflight is a much better way to sustain your energy than flying hungry or grabbing a quick junk food snack. Eat something solid that likely won't upset your stomach during the flight.
Add some water and well-balanced snacks to your flight bag as a backup. You don't need to replicate the nutritional intensity of an ultramarathoner, but you'll be glad you have some healthy fuel in the middle of a cross-country.
Keep in mind that any questionable answers to IMSAFE could end up being the first few sentences of an NTSB report. Prepare yourself accordingly, staying on top of each letter to ensure it doesn't deteriorate your performance as pilot in command.