Before Takeoff Check

Before-takeoff check: the systematic AFM/POH procedure for checking the engine, controls, systems, instruments, and avionics prior to flight, normally performed after taxiing to a run-up position near the takeoff end of the runway (AFH ch. 2).

Instructor's standard: one level up from the student's — the student must complete the checklist correctly, while you must be able to answer, for every line on it, the reason for checking that item, how it detects a malfunction, and how it ensures the airplane is in safe operating condition as recommended by the manufacturer (verbatim the ACS knowledge element, AI.V.F.K1a through K1c).

A CFI who can run a run-up but cannot explain why the carburetor heat check must show an rpm drop has not met K1.

On a surface that is firm and free of debris (smooth pavement or turf if possible), because otherwise the propeller may pick up pebbles, dirt, mud, sand, or other loose objects and hurl them backwards, damaging the propeller and possibly the tail. Small chips in the propeller leading edge form stress risers or high stress concentrations, which are highly undesirable and may lead to cracks and possible propeller blade failure (AFH ch. 2). Also:

• Clear of other aircraft and the taxiway, with nothing behind the airplane that might be damaged by the propeller airflow blasting rearward.
• Headed as nearly as possible into the wind, for cooling.
• After positioning, allow the airplane to roll forward slightly so the nosewheel or tailwheel is aligned with the longitudinal axis.

That last one is a habit students skip and it's a two-second fix that saves the gear on the next turn.

Because it isn't necessarily parked. The AFH's reason: if the parking brake slips, or if application of the toe brakes is inadequate for the amount of power applied, the airplane could rapidly move forward and go unnoticed if pilot attention is fixed only inside. The recommended operational practice is to split attention from one item inside to a look outside (AFH ch. 2). With a student running the checklist, this is explicitly your job — they are heads-down by design during the learning phase, so the outside scan is instructor-owned until they can carry both.

Ground cooling: air-cooled engines rely on baffled airflow generated in flight; on the ground, much less air is forced through the cowling and around the baffling, and prolonged ground operations can cause cylinder overheating well before oil temperature shows any rise (AFH ch. 2).

Gauge trap: oil temperature is the wrong instrument for that failure — monitor cylinder head temperature if equipped, head into the wind for cooling, and set cowl flaps per the AFM/POH.

The opposite constraint applies too: many engines require oil temperature to reach a minimum value stated in the AFM/POH before takeoff power is applied. Taxiing to the run-up position usually allows enough time, but verify oil temperature is in range before applying high power.

From AFH ch. 2 — most airplanes have at least these:

• Fuel system — set per AFM/POH, verified ON with the proper and correct tanks selected
• Trim — set for takeoff, including elevator and possibly rudder and aileron trim
• Flight controls — checked throughout their entire operating range, full aileron, elevator, and rudder deflection in all directions. The AFH names the error directly: pilots often do not exercise a full range of movement of the flight controls, which is not acceptable.
• Engine operation — temperatures and pressures in normal ranges; magneto or FADEC operation on single or dual ignition acceptable and within limits; carburetor heat functioning if equipped; a constant-speed or feathering propeller exercised with the engine continuing to run normally
• Electrical system — voltages within operating range and the battery system charging
• Vacuum system — an acceptable level, typically between 4.8 and 5.2 inches of mercury at 2,000 rpm (refer to the AFM/POH)
• Flight instruments — rechecked and set; directional gyro and magnetic compass in agreement; heading bug to the runway in use or the assigned heading
• Avionics — frequencies, initial navigation sources and courses, autopilot preselects, transponder code
• Takeoff briefing — see the next card

Yes — the AFH lists the takeoff briefing as an item of the before-takeoff check, made out loud by the pilot even when no other person is there to listen, and it should include a visual verification of the correct surface and direction to preclude a wrong surface departure (AFH ch. 2). For an instructor this is a modeling obligation: what you do at the hold line is what the student will do alone. Saying it aloud is also what converts an emergency from a decision into a recall — the failure gets action instead of deliberation.

Who does what. The content itself — type of takeoff, runway, wind, VR, initial heading and altitude, then the engine-failure plan by phase — is identical to a solo briefing (AFH ch. 2); what a training flight adds is three role-and-plan items missing from every sample briefing you'll find:

• Who rejects. State it plainly: below VR, you call and execute the reject, or the student does and you back them up — but pick one and say it. Two people reaching for the throttle is worse than either one alone.
• The exchange call. "If I say I have the flight controls, let go and put your hands in your lap." A positive exchange briefed on the ground is a half-second faster than one negotiated at 200 feet.
• What is simulated today, and what isn't. If you intend to pull power on this takeoff, the student needs to know it's a training day — and if you don't intend to, say that too, so an actual failure is unambiguous.

The rest of the briefing is content a student can compute; these three are what only the instructor can supply, turning a memorized briefing into a two-person plan. The ACS also expects a stated AGL turn-back altitude converted to MSL — on a training flight, brief your own minimum, not the student's optimistic one.

Teach it as a fill-in-the-blanks product of work they just did, not a script. The AFH's sample briefing is written with blanks for exactly that reason — runway, wind, VR, initial heading, initial altitude, the no-turn altitude, and the turn-back altitude in both AGL and MSL are all numbers the student computes. The instructor sequence:

1. You brief it on the first several flights, aloud, complete, every time.
2. The student briefs it and you fly — the telling-and-doing middle step, where a wrong turn-back altitude costs nothing (AIH ch. 9).
3. The student briefs it and flies it.

Then make it fail: change the runway at the hold line and require a full rebrief with new numbers. A student who can only produce the briefing for the runway they planned has memorized, not learned.

Before beginning the takeoff roll, ensure that runway numbers on paved runways agree with the magnetic compass and heading indicators — that's the item students skip, and it's the one that prevents a wrong-runway departure. Then the last check as power is brought to full takeoff power (AFH ch. 2):

1. Doors latched and windows closed as required?
2. Controls positioned to account for any crosswind?
3. Power correct?
4. Engine rpm normal?
5. Engine smooth?
6. Engine instruments normal and in green ranges?

• Partial control travel. Named as unacceptable by the AFH. Correction: require the student to look at each surface, or to call "full and free, correct" only after reaching the stop in each direction.
• Reading the checklist without checking. Correction: require a value spoken for every item that has one — "1,750 rpm, left drop 75, right drop 50, split 25" rather than "mags good."
• Rushing the gyros. A hasty and quick taxi and run-up does not allow mechanical gyroscopic instruments to indicate properly, and the AFH's conclusion is that under those circumstances a departure into IMC is unadvisable (AFH ch. 2). Correction: teach spool-up as a time requirement, not a checklist step.
• Resuming after interruption from the wrong place. Correction is the rule: back up several items and re-run them.
• Finishing the checklist on the runway. Correction: everything is complete before crossing the hold line, without exception, because a student who learns the exception will use it.
• Never looking outside. Correction: assign the outside look explicitly — "after every third item, eyes out."

Three separate pieces of information, and students are usually taught only the second:

• That a drop occurs at all. No rpm drop on a mag suggests the ignition was not actually isolated. That is the same condition that makes a stationary propeller dangerous: magneto switches work by short-circuiting the current to turn the ignition off, and a faulty switch can be in the "off" position and still permit current to flow in the primary circuit, allowing the engine to start with the switch off (AFH ch. 2).
• The size of the drop, against the AFM/POH limit for your airplane — the limits are type-specific and are never carried over from a different airframe.
• The split between the two. A large difference means one ignition system is unhealthy even when each drop is individually within limits.

Teaching all three is what makes the check diagnostic rather than ceremonial. The AFH's own standard for the check is that magneto or FADEC operation on single or dual ignition are acceptable and within limits.

Have the student compare the assumptions to what is true right now: the current wind versus the planned wind, current temperature and altimeter setting versus the computed density altitude, the runway actually assigned and its surface condition, and the weight the airplane finished at. The AFH ties the risk element together for you — the engine-failure-on-takeoff evaluation depends on airplane characteristics, runway/takeoff path length, surface conditions, environmental conditions, and obstructions (AI.V.F.R4). That survey is what produces the specific altitudes and headings the student then speaks in the briefing; a briefing produced without it is a recitation, and the evaluator can tell the difference by asking where the number came from.

Do the work again rather than adjusting the plan in your head:

• New runway length and surface condition against required takeoff distance
• Recomputed wind components — one instruction can turn a crosswind into a tailwind
• The obstacle and terrain picture off the new departure end
• A rewritten emergency plan, because land-ahead options and the turn-back altitude are runway-specific
• A re-spoken briefing with the new numbers, including the visual verification of the correct surface and direction

Then the taxi work restarts too — new route, new hot spots, new crossings (Task V.D). The instructor move is to make the student produce all of it and to be willing to accept "unable" as their answer, out loud, so they learn that declining is available.

The decision, made while stopped. Avoidance technique on the roll and climb belongs to the takeoff Tasks; what has to happen before the brakes are released is:

• Deciding whether to accept the departure at all behind a large or heavy airplane, and being willing to wait
• Declining a "no delay" or "immediate" departure if the spacing you want isn't there — a flight instructor with a student aboard has more reason to say "unable," not less
• Briefing the rotation point and the intended flight path relative to the preceding aircraft's, because you cannot compute it during the roll

The teaching content is that the pressure to keep the pattern moving is what moves the decision if you let it — and your student is watching you decide.

Three specific things:

• The airplane creeping under run-up power. Your feet cover the brakes, and your outside look is continuous, for the reason the AFH gives — a slipping parking brake or inadequate toe brake pressure can move the airplane forward unnoticed while attention is fixed inside.
• The airplane crossing the hold line. Brief a mandatory stop short, and take the airplane if it isn't stopping.
• The rushed run-up under pressure — someone behind you, a controller asking your intentions. This is the moment the speed-accuracy tradeoff bites: the more hurried the work, the more slips (AIH ch. 3). Model the answer: tell the controller you need another minute.

Underneath all three is the AIH's limit: learners should never be allowed to exceed the flight instructor's limits (AIH ch. 9).

A hard floor. On multiengine practical tests where failure of the most critical engine after liftoff is required, the evaluator must consider local atmospheric conditions, terrain, and type of aircraft, and must not simulate failure of an engine until attaining at least 400 feet AGL and at least VSSE, VXSE, or VYSE (ACS Appendix 2, Safety of Flight). Carry that same discipline into instruction: the altitude at which you will simulate a failure, and the speed gate that goes with it, are briefed at the hold line as part of the takeoff briefing — before the student is airborne and wondering.