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Comment by flohofwoe | Hacker News Reader

I've stumbled over the same thing in this video of a "veteran pilot" flying a WW2 aircraft. Notice how he's pointing at the various dials and gears from time to time. I think the first time this might be because he's explaining to the viewer what's going on, but even after that when the motor is running or in the air he's doing a left-to-right sweep through the cockpit from time to time, pointing at things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1F_UJaaP1A

I don't know how common this is in aviation, but I had to think immediately of the Japanese railway workers.

PS: the same thing can be seen in this (admittedly silly and slightly outdated) aircraft carrier operation video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFqlwAWuMTg

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Doing this is generally called a "flow":

* https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/12707/

One popular one is "GUMPS":

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUMPS

Another is the BUMFISH (and variations) pre-landing check:

Breaks (Check Breaks for Pressure)

Undercarriage( Down and Locked)

Mixture (fully rich)

Fuel (Pump ON, Fullest Tank)

Instruments (For Night Flying, DI Align to Compass, Suction Gauge check)

Switches (Landing Lights On)

Hatches and Harness (Secure)

Pointing at instruments and touching the various controls while reciting the mnemonic was (for me) an important part of the procedure.

I think GUMPS is more of a mnemonic device used as a sort of mental checklist in an attempt to be able to remember more things reliably without the use of a written checklist. Different than pointing and calling which associates an action with the thing to be checked.

For computer folks, a mnemonic is like a hard disk b-tree.

It's a way to manage a large database by extracting a small collection of pointers into small fast memory, which is then expanded as needed by accessing slower remote memory

Flowchecks were popular in WWII, but are generally considered a little too vulnerable to memory and attention lapses in modern airliners. Airliners these days usually use challenge-response checklists where the PM (pilot monitoring) calls out checklist items and the PF (pilot flying) touches the switch or control and responds with the setting.

On a checklist it looks something like:

flaps .. set

fms .. set

EPR .. set

v1 .. 80 knots (below - abort for any emergency, above - abort only for those things that you really can't take into the air).

v2 .. 120 knots

runway .. 28L. Compass and HSI match with runway numbers. We are on the left runway.

takeoff clearance .. cleared for takeoff. My controls (PM says "your controls", PF repeats "my controls).

And so on.

You can see/hear the end of the preflight check list at https://youtu.be/vnqZnw25E-E?t=99 which is my absolute favorite aviation video of all time...

Aside from the flow technique mentioned below, I think it is pretty common.

If I'm acting as the non-flying pilot, my job is to talk to ATC, set radios, load flight plans and instrument approaches, etc. As an example (slight variation), if ATC gives us a flight level change, I would dial in the final altitude on the altitude pre-select. Typically, I'd repeat the clearance back to ATC, put my hand on the dial, change it and leave my hand on it until the flying pilot says "I see FL230".

I sometimes use the point technique before changing something, or after while repeating "I see ..." or "I did ...". It's really effective at making sure you don't do things mindlessly.

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