UNICOM—February 2025

Aviation Safety

Monday, February 03, 2025 at 05:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: Omar Filipovic

Key Takeaways:

Thorough post-flight inspections are crucial for safety and efficiency, including tasks like verifying fluid levels, cleaning, organizing the cabin, and properly securing the aircraft.
Combating complacency is essential for pilots, as lessons learned from errors or unsafe situations tend to be the most impactful.
VFR flight following offers significant benefits for pilots, particularly in gaining valuable experience interacting with Air Traffic Control.
Utilizing flight following enhances situational awareness, eases entry into complex airspace, and provides learning opportunities by actively listening to the "party line."

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Expanded Preflights

Thanks for Ryan Motte’s January 2024 article on pre-flight inspections, “Expanding Your Preflights.” I especially appreciate the sidebar on post-flight inspections, which I think are under utilized.

I’d expand your list of items to check after a flight. Of course, the extent of a post-flight we perform has a lot to do with any problems or anomalies we experienced on the way in, but a little extra attention can make getting out again a lot simpler and quicker.