After landing, parking and securing
The last four minutes: clearing the runway before touching anything, shutting down a complex airplane, the postflight walkaround, paying passengers on a live ramp, and writing the discrepancy down.
12 min read · The complex airplane
After this lesson you can
- Say why no after-landing item is touched before the airplane is stopped clear of the runway, and what the retractable-gear airplane adds to that rule.
- Run a shutdown and securing flow on a complex airplane, and name what each step protects.
- Perform a postflight inspection that finds what a preflight would find too late.
- Move paying passengers across a ramp without relying on their judgment.
- Record a discrepancy, and say where 91.213(d) stops.
The commercial checkride has an Area of Operation devoted to what happens after the landing roll, and it is not ceremony. The Airplane Flying Handbook sets the standard: a flight is not complete until the engine is shut down and the airplane is secured, and a pilot should consider this an essential part of any flight.
For a commercial pilot two things are different from the private certificate. The airplane is more likely to have a retractable gear and a controllable propeller, which multiplies the levers within reach. And the people getting out are passengers who paid, which makes their walk across the ramp your responsibility rather than their business.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Stopped, clear of the runway, and only then
- 2.Shutdown and securing on a complex airplane
- 3.The postflight inspection
- 4.Passengers, the ramp, and the gate behind them
- 5.Documenting discrepancies
These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.