WarBikes

Photo Courtesy: CAF Airpower Museum

From the Pilot Training Manual: Mustang P-51 that’s on file in the CAF Airpower Museum Library. They have shelves and racks of resources available, as well as a huge oral history collection. Pretty much anything you want to look up about aircraft from WWII is comfortably residing within this library. There are Flight Manuals from the Army Air Corps, hand-written notebooks that pilots have donated, and all sorts of books written about how these planes were built.

Photo Courtesy: CAF Airpower Museum

So learning to walk didn’t really come with a manual, but pretty much everything since then has had one. There are classes to get your license to drive, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation teaches thousands of riders every month, and new pilots chart hours every week with their instructors.

What’s fascinating to this particular rider is that these “Starting Procedures” and “Checklists” for the P-51 from WWII are so detailed. Current pilots, especially in the military, have pages of things to check off before takeoff. Wingtip to wingtip, nose to tail, there are switches to flip and gears to inspect.

We all have our routines, the things we check out before we set out on the road on a bike. We make sure our chains are good, the tires are ready and we have fuel.

What are some sticking points for you before you take off – on the road or in the air? What is in your checklist that makes you feel better about your journey?