Every flight begins on the ground. Doug prepares Billy for the unexpected on departure from Columbia County (1B1) and shares some of his signature procedures. First is the practice of loading the approach for the departure airport prior to takeoff if the weather is IMC. Typically this is the reciprocal for the departure runway.

They are taking off from runway 21 today so Doug loads the RNAV Rwy 3 approach. This way if there is any trouble on takeoff and they need to return to the airport it's just a matter of activating the approach. After a run-up and completing the pre-flight checklist, Doug double checks the flight plan and the NAV/COM frequencies. Scroll further down for another video showing Doug's taxi check procedure.

View from the pilot in training. What I learned...

"Two of the bigger lessons from the ECIE are here. If you're anywhere near IMC conditions pre-load the approach for the best procedure to get you back into the airport. This could save you valuable time if you find you need to return to the airport for any reason. Two, we can use the NAV radio as a backup. On this departure we're using Delancy (DNY) as an initial waypoint so why not have that tuned into NAV-1 in case the GPS fails."

BW

Doug takes Billy through his taxi and autopilot check procedures on the way to, and at the threshold. Full disclosure - this was filmed during another leg of the ECIE.