Outside the Plane Preflight Checklist

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dave Pressey with Saint Charles Flying Service on behalf of Expert Village. During the pre-flight we want to check the structure of the aircraft. Basically touch everything we can touch and see everything we can see. We have rivets holding this skin on the airplane. We want to check to make sure that the rivets are all secure, and there. Want to check our antennas, any place where the control surfaces come together. Back here on the tail make sure all the fairings are all secure. These are the ends of the control surfaces. Also these fairings up on the rudder as well. Up in the front of the airplane we want to check the propeller and the spinner. The spinner is connected by several screws. We want to make sure that they're secure and that the spinner is tight and secure. Also the prop, we want to check the condition of the prop. A lot of times it'll get knicks and scratches and damage to the propeller. We want to make sure that is in good condition. So we check the front of the prop, the other prop, and also check along the backside of the prop as well for any scratches or major damage to the propeller. Down in front here as well we have our front landing gear, our nose gear. Moving back along the cowling here, we want to make sure that the cowling screws are all secure and in place. Want to check this wing strut, make sure that this is secure. Give it a good tug; make sure it's on there. It also has fairings where it meets the fuselage. Want to make sure all those screws are there and secure as well. Here we'll take a look at each leading edge of the wing to make sure there are no dents, scratches or any kind of wrinkles that would indicate any kind of structural damage to the wing itself. Moving back along here, we have another main tire. We want to check for inflation. We want to check the condition of the tire itself to make sure it's not worn down past the point where you see any kind of cord in the tire. Just like a car tires as well, you want to make sure the tire's in good condition. We want to check the brakes, these are disk brakes. We want to check the disk, also check the brake mechanism itself. And moving up we want to check the structure of this landing gear strut as well to make sure that this fairing is in place. This fairing is in place, and that there's no obvious damage to the gear itself."