Strike the Right CHORRD on Takeoff

It's important to focus on risk management by scanning the conditions around you and considering any possible hazards—before takeoff.

Martha King

Friday, December 31, 2021 at 09:34 AM ET

Verified

The airport in Goodland, Kansas, felt like the epitome of a Midwestern airfield. [Credit: Martha King]

Key Takeaways:

The article begins with an anecdote where poor pre-takeoff decisions, such as not using the full runway and accepting a tailwind, led to an engine power loss at low altitude, highlighting a critical lapse in situational awareness and risk management.
This near-miss prompted the authors to prioritize risk management and develop a structured pre-takeoff assessment process to prevent future incidents.
They introduced the "CHORRD" mnemonic (Conditions, Hazards, Operational changes, Runway required/available, Return, Departure) as a directed attention scan to systematically assess all critical factors before every takeoff.
The CHORRD framework enhances situational awareness by guiding pilots to consider environmental, operational, and personal conditions, as well as plan for emergency returns and departure routes, thereby improving overall flight safety.

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Goodland Municipal Airport felt like the epitome of what a Kansas airport would be—wide-open spaces and lots of room. John and I were taxiing for takeoff on Runway 12. The problem was that the taxiway entered the runway several hundred feet to the southeast of the runway threshold. We looked at the little stub to the northwest, and then we looked to the southeast—and it seemed like there was plenty of length remaining. At that point, we made two decisions in rapid succession that constituted poor risk management.

First, we made the decision that it wasn’t worth it to back-taxi to get all of the runway. Second, we decided that the light breeze from the northwest was not enough to be concerned with and taking off slightly downwind would be fine. After all, it would be a long taxi to the threshold of Runway 30. Plus, the Hobbs meter was running in our rented Piper Comanche.