The pre-solo learner was having a difficult time staying ahead of the airplane. According to his CFI, at first the learner spent a lot of time heads down in the checklist when he should have been looking outside, such as when they were on downwind coming in for landing. He looked at the checklist but didn’t perform the tasks required, such as power reduction, deploying flaps, etc.
He developed a habit of coming in fast and yanking the power to idle and dumping the flaps in when the aircraft was on short final. This had happened more than once, with more than one CFI, who often found themselves yelling “My plane!” and grabbing the controls to avoid bending metal.
After being admonished not to spend so much time heads down, the learner developed a habit of tossing the checklist into the backseat after takeoff. His CFI taught him the mnemonic GUMPS to use to remind himself to make sure mission-crucial items were checked. For the unfamiliar, it is a mnemonic device designed to help pilots remember the tasks required of the before-landing checklist. It stands for: Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Primer, Safety items such as lights and seatbelts. It’s been used by pilots for decades.
When the aircraft rolled wings level on downwind, the learner would chant “GUMPS Check! Gas! Undercarriage! Mixture Primer! Safety Items!” but had to be prompted by the CFI to actually check the position of the fuel selector, look out the window (he was flying a Cessna 172) to check the landing gear, fist bump the mixture knob, or check lights or seatbelts.
Part of the problem was that the learner was in a hurry to get into the airplane. He had to be reminded to use the checklist for the preflight inspection and didn’t like to study, or have preflight briefings that went over ten minutes. At first, both the flight school and the CFI were okay with this because it meant more time in the air, which meant more money for both.
However, when the learner was about ten hours into his training and “nowhere close” to solo, his CFI suggested he do an evaluation flight with a more seasoned instructor. The second instructor observed the learner’s difficulty staying ahead of the airplane and noticed his reluctance to reduce the throttle on downwind because he thought the airplane would fall out of the sky. He also worried about using too much bank angle in turns, and his final approach was unstabilized.
New Instructor
A change of instructor was made. The new to him CFI insisted they do a lengthy ground session because it was obvious that the learner was unclear on some concepts that needed to be addressed so that the learner’s performance could improve so he could do his first solo.
The CFI explained the verbalization of the GUMPS check was to remind the pilot of what to do, and the pilot simultaneously did the actions and verified they were all completed with a glance at the checklist. This is when the learner had his “Ah-ha!” moment, as he admitted he developed an aversion to looking at the checklist once in the air, especially in the pattern, as he was worried about having a mid-air collision. He’d seen so many aviation influencer videos about mid-air collisions in the pattern he was convinced they happened frequently.
He was praised for his caution, and the CFIs (there was a village now helping him) worked on his division of attention skills.
One of the senior instructors, who had thousands of hours in a variety of aircraft and spent most of his 20s ferrying airplanes for different manufacturers, suggested the learner use a flow in addition to the verbalization and adopt a “clear the area, do the flow, look back outside” habit. The flow check, as it is known, can vary from aircraft to aircraft.
Sometimes it is in the shape of a letter “T,” so it is called the “T” check, or it can be a backwards 7 or L, depending on the aircraft. This did the trick, and soon the learner was using GUMPS and the flow check and the checklist, depending on how busy the pattern was.
He was taught the GUMPS check is not a one-time-only thing. I was one of the CFIs who worked with him, and I asked to hear it and see it performed at least four times: when we departed the practice area to head back to the airport, then on each leg of the pattern. There were times when the task was “deferred” until later in the flight. For example, the landing gear (in a retractable gear aircraft) was not deployed until the aircraft was on the 45. He was taught how the GUMPS check segued into the power reductions and aircraft configuration, along with the importance of maintaining the proper published speeds for each leg. Basically, every time you make a turn, double-check the GUMPS.
To get this learner in the habit, we took him out to the practice area and had him fly a rectangular pattern at 3,700 feet. Each leg was a cardinal heading. Downwind was north, base was east, final was south, and crosswind was west. He flew the “legs” while verbalizing the checklist and configuring the airplane. When he was ‘on final,’ the CFI waited until the aircraft was in the approximate attitude for touchdown and on speed, then called out “GO AROUND!” and the learner would do so. It took a few tries for the learner’s procedures to become smooth. He was then taken back into the pattern, and his performance improved greatly. Learning had taken place.
