Every pilot should carefully think through what their own personal rules and minimums will be when they are in the pilot seat and even better if they take the time to document these. Hence Blake, the pilot blogger behind the Fly With Blake blog, has recently written a draft copy of his own personal operating procedures (POPs) and he has posted the document to his blog where he is inviting comments from readers.
So far, his POPs has the following table of contents:
- Purpose
- Deviation
- Sterile Cockpit Procedures
- Weather Minima
- W&B
- Stable Approach Criteria
- Passenger Limitations
- Night Ops
- Multi-Engine Ops
- Lost Procedures
- Radio Communications
- Flight Planning
Of course, this is only a draft copy and Blake is a little over halfway complete with filling in the details for each of the above procedures. However, reader David Megginson added a very detailed comment in the comments section where he asked:
Do you want to add something about survival? I’ve never been good about carrying enough survival gear on board (tents, rations, etc.), but I do always ask my passengers to dress so that they’d be comfortable for a 2-hour walk through the woods in the weather that day, and could survive a night outside.
Definitely a point worth noting and worth adding to your own POPs.