Aviation Acronyms

Acronyms are used throughout aviation. I've found that when I have to make quick decisions they are most helpful. However, they should be well balance with use of checklists. Each at its own time. For the longest time I had problems getting down an efficient emergency flow. After a particularly bad training scenario my instructor Jake Hauserman suggested using the acronym CarbSOFAST. Now I can whip through the flow and then get on to the checklist if enough time remains before the plane has to be on the ground. I practice these flows on my drive to and from work (usually when parked at a red light) which gets me curious glances from fellow commuters.

Engine Out Emergency

Carb - heat on
S - Speed berst glide
O - Outside: landing spot, wind direction
F - Fuel: pump on ; mixture rich ; primer locked
A - Air; This is the throttle. Envision the butterfly valve letting all the air in
S - Spark; check the magnetos and verify they are on both
T - Trim (for berst glide) , Transponder (set to 7700), Talk (declare and emergency)

This flow works particularly well in a Piper Archer. You start on the right, go to tanks on the left and then immeridately come back over to the right.

Also check out this site that has more of the same:

http://www.scottsasha.com/aviation/acronyms.html

Here is a Word document to download that contains a fair number of acronymns.