After Landing, Parking, and Securing (ASEL, AMEL)

Only after the airplane is brought to a complete stop beyond the runway holding position markings (AFH 2-22). Until then the job is airplane control: track the centerline with aileron, hold heading with rudder, and slow to normal taxi speed with normal brake pressure before turning off — "any significant degree of turn at faster speeds could result in subsequent damage to the landing gear, tires, brakes, or the airplane structure."

The reason is written into the handbook in plain language: "There have been many cases where a pilot has mistakenly manipulated the wrong handle and retracted the landing gear, instead of the flaps, due to improper division of attention while the airplane was moving." At the commercial level you're flying complex, retractable airplanes where that mistake is expensive.

Yes — "this procedure may be modified if the manufacturer recommends that specific after-landing items be accomplished during landing rollout." The handbook's own example is a short-field landing where the manufacturer recommends retracting the flaps on rollout to improve braking (AFH 2-22).

The mitigation is non-negotiable: "the pilot should make a positive identification of the flap control handle before retracting the flaps." Touch it, look at it, say it — then move it. Anything the AFM/POH doesn't call for on the rollout waits until you're stopped.

Configuration varies, so the AFM/POH checklist governs — but AFH 2-22 to 2-23 lists the usual items:

• Power — set to AFM/POH values, e.g., throttle 1,000 rpm, propeller full forward, mixture leaned
• Fuel — switch tanks if required; fuel pumps off
• Flaps — retracted
• Cowl flaps — open or closed depending on temperature
• Trim — reset to neutral or takeoff position
• Lights — strobes and others off if not needed
• Avionics — frequencies and transponder set for arrival airport taxi procedures

Leaning at idle and setting the transponder are the two most commonly skipped.

"Unless parking in a designated, supervised area, the pilot should select a location and heading that prevents propeller or jet blast of other airplanes from striking the airplane unnecessarily" — and yours from striking them. "Whenever possible, the airplane should be parked headed into the existing or forecast wind" (AFH 2-23).

Two details examiners like: tie-down rows often aren't wind-aligned, so you take what the ramp gives you and secure accordingly; and after stopping in the desired direction, let the airplane roll straight ahead far enough to straighten the nosewheel or tailwheel so it can be pushed back later without side-loading the gear.

AFM/POH governs, but AFH 2-23 gives the representative sequence:

1. Parking brake — ON
2. Throttle — IDLE or 1,000 rpm
3. If turbocharged, observe the manufacturer's spool-down procedure
4. Magneto switch test — momentarily check for proper grounding in the OFF position at idle rpm
5. Propeller control — HIGH rpm, if equipped
6. Avionics OFF, then alternator OFF
7. Mixture — IDLE CUTOFF
8. Magnetos — OFF when the engine stops
9. Chocks installed (release parking brake per AFM/POH)
10. Master OFF
11. Secure — control locks and anti-theft security locks

Because a P-lead that isn't grounding leaves the magneto hot even with the switch OFF — and a hot mag plus a hand on the prop is how people get killed. Momentarily rotating the switch to OFF at idle rpm and confirming a slight rpm drop / momentary cut proves the grounding path works (AFH 2-23).

Note the ordering discipline in the handbook flow: the engine is stopped with the mixture at idle cutoff, and the magneto switch goes OFF only after the engine stops. Shutting down on the mag switch leaves fuel in the cylinders.

A walk-around of the general condition of the aircraft (AFH 2-23):

• Near and around the cowling — signs of oil or fuel streaks
• The oil breather — excessive oil discharge
• Under the wings and other fuel tank locations — fuel stains
• Landing gear and tires for damage, brakes for leaking hydraulic fluid
• Cowling inlets for obstructions

Then servicing: oil brought to AFM/POH levels, and fuel added based on immediate use. If the airplane is going to be inactive, fill the tanks — it prevents water condensation forming inside the tank.

It gets written up, and it does not get deferred by you. PHAK 9-9 is explicit: "Maintenance deferrals are not used for inflight discrepancies. The manufacturer's AFM/POH procedures are to be used in those situations."

So: document it in the operator's discrepancy or maintenance record with enough detail to be diagnosable — what, when, at what power setting and phase of flight, whether it cleared. Then the airplane goes to maintenance. A deferral under 91.213(d) is a preflight tool for equipment discovered inoperative before departure, not a way to keep an airplane on the line after something broke in flight.

For a non-turbine-powered airplane with no master MEL developed (91.213(d)(1)(i)) — or a nonturbine-powered small airplane where an MMEL exists but you hold no MEL (91.213(d)(1)(ii)):

• The item is not part of the VFR-day type certification equipment, not on the equipment list or Kinds of Operations Equipment List, not required by 91.205 or another rule for the kind of flight, and not required by an AD
• It's removed — control placarded and maintenance recorded per 43.9 — or deactivated and placarded "Inoperative". And read the rest of (d)(3)(ii): "if deactivation of the inoperative instrument or equipment involves maintenance, it must be accomplished and recorded in accordance with part 43." Pulling a breaker is something you can do; "complex maintenance tasks require a certificated and appropriately rated maintenance person to perform the deactivation" (PHAK 9-10)
• A pilot certificated and appropriately rated under part 61, or appropriately rated maintenance personnel, determines the inoperative item does not constitute a hazard

Once the FAA issues you an MEL and Letter of Authorization, using the MEL becomes mandatory for that aircraft, and the MEL, LOA, preamble, and procedures document must be on board each operation (PHAK 9-10).

Nobody unbuckles or opens a door until the propeller has stopped and you say so — briefed before the flight, not improvised at the tiedown. Then:

• You open the door and step out first; passengers follow one at a time
• Name the walking route out loud and walk it with them — no one crosses in front of the nose, and no one goes back for a bag alone
• Hold a child's hand; keep hats, headsets, and loose paperwork under control near any running aircraft
• Keep watching them until they're inside the FBO — the ACS wording is "monitoring passenger movement while on the ramp," which is an ongoing duty, not a one-time briefing

The hazard isn't your propeller once it's stopped — it's the neighboring aircraft that starts up while your passengers are taking photos.

They're secured differently, and getting it backwards damages the airplane.

Chains: not flexible, so "should not be made taut so as to allow the airplane some movement and prevent airframe structural damage."

Tie down ropes: flexible, so they "may be reasonably cinched to the airplane's tie down rings."

Beyond the ropes, the handbook recommends considering pitot tube covers, cowling inlet covers, rudder gust locks, window sunscreens, and propeller security locks to further enhance the safety and security of the airplane (AFH 2-23). Flight controls secured and security locks in place are part of the same paragraph — "the aircraft should be hangared or tied down, flight controls secured, and security locks in place."

No — "hangaring is not without hazards to the airplane" (AFH 2-23).

Space: allocate enough that the airplane is "free from any impact to the hangar, another aircraft, or vehicle."

Inspection: check the airplane after hangaring to ensure no damage was imparted during the move.

At a busy commercial ramp, the airplane is moved by line crews you don't supervise. A quick look at wingtips, tail, and antennas after it's put away is how a hangar rash gets attributed to the right event instead of discovered by the next pilot on preflight.

91.213(d): the general part 91 provision — no FAA-issued list, minimal paperwork, and the pilot makes the hazard determination. PHAK 9-9 calls it "widely used by most pilot/operators… due to simplicity and minimal paperwork."

An approved MEL: treated by the FAA as a supplemental type certificate issued to an aircraft by serial number and registration number — "it, therefore, becomes the authority to operate that aircraft in a condition other than originally type certificated" (PHAK 9-10). With an MEL you make an entry in the maintenance or discrepancy record and then repair or defer per the MEL and the operator's procedures document.

And an MEL has limits: "should a component fail that is not listed in the MEL as deferrable (the tachometer, flaps, or stall warning device, for example), then repairs are required to be performed prior to departure" (PHAK 9-10).

Repair it there, or get a special flight permit — a Special Airworthiness Certificate authorizing operation of an aircraft that "does not currently meet applicable airworthiness requirements but is safe for a specific flight" (PHAK 9-12, 91.213(e), 21.197/21.199). It permits the flight to a base where repairs can be performed, for delivery or export, or to evacuate an aircraft from an area of impending danger. An FAA inspector may inspect the aircraft or require an A&P or repair station to, and the inspection is recorded in the aircraft records.

Either way the airplane is grounded visibly and the operator is told before someone shows up for the next leg. Recurrent AD status is part of the record set required by 91.417 (PHAK 9-12), so a squawk that turns into a repair has a paper trail behind it.

The handbook frames the whole phase as one of situational awareness that "only ends when the airplane is safely and securely returned to its tie-down or hangar" (AFH 2-1), and "a flight is not complete until the engine is shut down and the airplane is secured" (AFH 2-23).

The specific traps in commercial operations:

• Talking to passengers during the rollout — the after-landing checklist waits, and so does the conversation
• Heads-down avionics or paperwork while taxiing — a written-up hot spot and a wrong turn onto a runway
• The rush of the next leg — skipping the postflight walk-around because the turn is tight is exactly how a leaking brake becomes tomorrow's problem
• Passengers moving before you do

Take the phone call after the chocks are in.

Concretely: lock the airplane and take the keys, install the anti-theft security locks the handbook lists among securing items (AFH 2-23), and follow the field's gate and badge rules — don't hold a gate for someone you don't know, and don't let passengers wander into a movement area looking for a gate. Where the ramp is controlled by an FBO or an operator's security program, comply with theirs rather than improvising.

The examiner is looking for a pilot who treats access control as part of the job rather than as an inconvenience, and who knows who to call at that specific field when something looks wrong.