Checklist

                                             CHECKLIST

While returning back from solo cross country ,In piper Cherokee  my flight training aircraft , I was pretty excited to go home as my parents were coming to see me today and I just had a wonderful flight to Abilene.

Under ATC vectoring and changing speeds I quickly conducted my landing checklist forgetting to put carburettor heat on ,that time I was 8 miles from Arlington my destination airport. At 5 miles from the destination I decreased my speed to 80 miles, lowered flaps, trimmed the aeroplane and made a VOR approach to RY 16 and did not recall using carburettor heat which I had missed in my landing check.

When I had runway in sight at about ¼ miles at 200 feet I heard engine sputtered several times followed by loss of power. I advised ATC that engine was out and will be landing short on runway 16. Quite nervous I continued to control the airplane till it hitted a tree top with my airplane nose stuck badly in branches!

Little injured I evacuated the airplane and found rescue crew on scene.

My plane was badly damaged with broken nose and right wing.

It went under maintenance for forever!

After investigation it came out that there were no problems associated with the plane and engine before flight. Fuel tank was checked and was found sufficient and clean. Later on through weather reports from national weather report office it came out that accident area was conductive to carburettor icing.

And I knew it as I didn’t turn on carburettor heat during the landing approach.

Life did come back to cruise in some time; I was out of shock and fear. My parents were greatly worried and even insisted me to change the line and leave aviation. But I wanted to grow with this accident and continue.

 I started flying back again; this accident did teach me a big lesson for life.

I understood that day how such small setbacks can lead to disaster.

I could recall Six P formula given by my flight instructor –“Proper prior planning prevents poor performance”. If I would have planned before well I could have never missed carburettor heat .

Now today after getting in airlines, even after flying thousands of hours, being active for ten years I carefully review my checklist prior to every flight. I don’t trust my memory.

Because I have learned and I know failure to check or miss just one critical detail can leave us stranded and may be even put our destination out of reach.