Pilot Technique: 500 Feet AGL Pre-Landing Checklist
Checklists are vital to every flight, whether they are written, memorized or verbalized. They ensure nothing critical is missed by the pilot and also provide “breadcrumbs” if a pilot gets behind or off track during a flight. There a various checklists for preflight all the way through all phases of flight and aircraft shutdown.
This 500 Foot Pre-Landing Checklist is verbalized by the pilot at around 500 feet above the ground on approaches and landings as a final way to ensure the aircraft is configured and authorized to land. In the SF50 Vision Jet, avionics provide a verbal callout at 500 feet and this is a great reminder to perform the 500 Foot Pre-Landing Checklist. This is not meant as a complete Pre-Landing checklist. That would be done before this point on an approach. Instead, it is primarily a safety check.
Review Pre-landing Checks – LPCLL (typically occurs at or before reaching 500 ft. AGL)
- L – Landing Gear Status “Three Green”
- P – Pressurization Status “Pressurization is Good”
- C – Configuration Status “Fully Configured” or “Landing Flaps Fifty Percent”
- L – Landing Clearance “Cleared to Land”
- L – Landing Light Status “Landing Light On”
Doing this prevents:
- Landing with landing gear up
- Landing with a pressurized cabin
- Landing with an improper configuration for the type of landing and wind conditions
- Verification of landing clearance (from Tower Controller)
- Landing with Landing Light on (day or night)
