TAKEOFF CALLOUTS! Single Pilot
In 1977, Cessna was given approva on a single-pilot variant of the citation. Cessna convinced the FAA that its pilot workload was low enough for one pilot to handle safely. Today, there are a number of turbine powered aircraft flying with just one pilot. According to SOPs of the ATO which provided my commercial pilot training, these are the takeoff roll callouts relevant in a single pilot environment.
Callouts during takeoff roll vary greatly from operator to operator. More importantly, they vary greatly from aircraft to aircraft.
“RUNWAY IDENTIFIED!”
First of all, when lining up on an active runway the callout will be “Runway Identified”. This callout forces us to crosscheck that we are on the intended runway of use, with our DI and Compass card confirming the right heading.
“TIME 37!”
After having received our takeoff clearance, we glance at and take note of the time, before calling out “TIME 37”, meaning 37 minutes past the hour.
By making this callout we imprint in our short term memory the time of departure. This could prove useful in a situation where we may need full thrust for as long time as possible, allowing us to reduce power before exceeding any engine limitations.
“TAKEOFF POWER SET & CHECKED!”
When setting takeoff power, we scan our engine instruments to confirm that all parameters are within limits, that T’s & P’s are ‘in the green’, and we then callout “Takeoff power set and checked!”.
“BRAKES RELEASED!
We finally release the brakes (in case of a full stop takeoff) and confirm by calling out “brakes released”.
“40 KNOTS — CROSS CHECKED!”
As we start our takeoff roll down the active runway we monitor our ASI. Once accelerated to 40 knots indicated we cross check our primary and standby air speed indicators and callout “40 KNOTS, CROSS CHECKED!”
“VR, ROTATE!”
At VR, our rotation speed, we callout “ROTATE” and pull back on the yoke to raise the nose wheel off the ground.
“POSITIVE CLIMB!” — “GEAR UP!”
After liftoff, it’s important that we check that the airplane is indeed climbing. We are looking for at least a 500 feet per minute rate of climb. Once this is achieved, we tap our brake pedals to stop our main gear, and nose wheel, tyres from rotating. We callout “POSITIVE CLIMB!”.
If we are flying a complex airplane with a retractable gear, we will callout “GEAR UP!” once we confirm there to be insufficient runway remaining in order to land on the same runway. We then retract our landing gear.
After takeoff, we continue our climb out at our designated climb out airspeed up to the acceleration altitude. Here we will gently reduce our pitch so as to accelerate while continuing to climb or at the very least maintain our altitude.
Here, we will retract flaps and increase pitch to climb continue climbing up towards our Cruise Altitude.
