[j ferguson]

Do it yourself even if someone else says he/she has done it. If they are going to do it, walk around with them and watch every move and DO NOT TALK. When you do it, look at each item twice and concentrate on it. Tell everyone else to go away. If you do get interrupted start over again - from the beginning. Look in the tanks, every one.

Since we're thinking about unusual planes, here, as Jeff has so prudently suggested, it would be good to have more inspection ports than you might otherwise have and a longer check-list. After all, unless you built your's exactly like the factory did, you are the test pilot.

I used to think that pre-flights were as much to preserve your prestige as to avoid death. you didn't want to be the guy who forever after was known as "the guy who found out you couldn't fly with a concrete block tied to the tailwheel."

I can say of my various in-flight "problems" where I did the pre-flight that not one could have been prevented/avoided by any realistic pre-flight. I think the idea that every in-flight trouble can be avoided by the right kind of pre-flight is nonsense. This is why you want your systems to be as simple as possible. My preference has always been to get the plane on the ground first and then troubleshoot, although most times that hasn't been practical, but if you're flying low altitude, you won't have any time to troubleshoot.

I'm also here to write this because a couple of things that were found on pre-flights by me, or the PIC would likely have put us in a field (had there been one) not far from the runway.

The least comfortable, was where I "assumed" a preflight had been done. It hadn't and the fuel was not where the PIC thought and when the low fuel pressure klaxon went off, we couldn't find it. we did a very quick return to the field, landed and when the tail came down, the engines quit and we got to push the plane to the ramp - with 50 gallons in the "other" tanks. There was an aluminum shelf just below knee level under the panel and from the point that the horn went on, i spent the rest of the flight trying to figure out what to do with my legs if we went into the trees. I think this is why I like singles better than twins. I would much rather a big engine be first at the scene of the accident.

I also have a lengthy tale about my first sailplane flight dual (West Bend, WI) with Gunther Voltz, retired Messershmitt factory pilot - how he picked off-airport landing sites. If anyone wants to read it, just ask.