Catching problems on the ground and keeping the paperwork honest.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Conduct a postflight walk-around looking for new damage, leaks, or wear.
Record flight time and report discrepancies (squawks) accurately.
Explain how postflight records tie to airworthiness and the next pilot's safety.
Resist normalizing small defects ('it's been like that').
1 · The postflight inspection
A postflight walk-around is a fresh-eyes check while problems are easy to see and time isn't pressing: look for new leaks, cracks, loose or missing hardware, blade and tail-rotor condition, damage from FOD or birds, and fluid levels. Catching a discrepancy now — before it's someone else's preflight surprise — is part of the safety chain. Note anything abnormal immediately.
2 · Records & discrepancies
Record flight time accurately and write up any discrepancy (squawk) clearly so maintenance and the next pilot know the aircraft's true state. Required inspections and airworthiness depend on honest records; an aircraft with an open, unaddressed squawk may not be airworthy. Follow NCHF procedures for grounding, deferring, or clearing items — and never sign over a known defect as 'normal.'
3 · Watch
⚠ DRAFT — video pending CFII verification (Walter). No clip was embedded this run: automated oEmbed verification was unavailable (build sandbox offline + restricted fetch), and course rules forbid embedding any unverified/guessed video ID. Suggested candidate to verify & embed: “How to review aircraft maintenance records” (YouTube, watch?v=MWHalGWFh9E). Confirm it is real, reputable, and embeddable via oEmbed before inserting.
Your aircraft: use the R44 documents and NCHF squawk/log procedures; cross-reference airworthiness/inspection requirements with the aircraft's maintenance records. Confirm what makes the R44 airworthy with your maintenance provider.
Risk management (the “Consider”): the quiet hazard is the unreported squawk and the normalization of defects — small issues that get flown 'just one more time' until they aren't small. A careful postflight and an honest write-up protect the next pilot and keep the aircraft legally airworthy. When in doubt, write it up and ground it rather than rationalize it.