Critical Assembly Check

There are many steps to assembling a glider and getting it and the pilot ready to fly.

Open the trailer.  Put the glider together, hook up the controls, close the hatch, install the battery, tape the wings, put in the food and water, program the instruments.  Don't forget your hat, sunglasses, cell phone, wallet, etc.  All of these things need to be taken care of before you even move the glider from the tiedown area to the runway.  Once you're in position for takeoff you need to remember to remove the tail dolly, put on your parachute, stow the canopy cap and finally, after all that, you get in and start your pre-takeoff checklist.  After you're in the air, you can relax and think about the things you forgot to do, like leaving your car keys in the car or hooking up the p-system.

It's a lot to remember.  Checklists help, of course, but we still rely on our memory for the lion's share of our preparation.  And this is the way it should be.  Too many checklists or one comprehensive checklist would be so cumbersome we would probably not give each item the attention it deserves.  Checklists should be reserved for the important stuff.

So what, exactly, is important?  Let's do a thought experiment.

Instead of listing all the things that should be done, let's make a list of only the things that must be done in order to assure a safe takeoff and landing.  A proper assembly with the controls hooked up and tested is essential, surely.  But that's about it.  The glider will fly just fine without wing tape, battery, or even  winglets.

So our thought experiment is to write an assembly checklist that is as short as possible and includes only the items that are critical to flight safety.  To be clear, we are not trying to be completely ready for a normal flight.  We are listing the items that are mandatory for getting back on the ground in one piece.  It's a survivability checklist.  Let's call it the "Critical Assembly Checklist (CAC)."  It should be so short that it can be easily memorized.

Note that this checklist is unique to each glider type.

The fact that the CAC is individual to the glider is important.  For example, for a glider with automatic control hookups, attaching the controls is not on the checklist.  Some gliders have safety pins, some don't.  The number of main wing pins could be zero, one, or two.  Big gliders have two or more wing panels on each side.  Some big gliders have more wing pins in the middle of the wing.  Some gliders have thumbwheels to hold things together, most don't.  The bolts holding the stabilizer on could be captive or removable.  Every glider is different.

Unlike the other checklists we teach and use in our club, the design of the CAC is the responsibility of the owner/operator of every glider that is normally kept in a trailer.

The next time an instructor asks you for your Critical Assembly Checklist, will you be ready to recite it?