Cowl Door Engine Right Side Engine Rear Empennage Tail Rotor Tailcone Engine Left Side Fuel Tank Main Rotor Fuselage Left Side Nose Section Fuselage Right Side Cabin Interior Other Stuff

R22 Preflight

Fuselage Left Side

Baggage Compartment: Check

The “baggage compartment” is the under seat storage. Make sure that the
seat still has some room to crush down in the event of a crash. Make sure
there is nothing which will injure the seat occupant if the seat is
crushed down into the compartment in the event of a crash.

Removable Controls: Secure if installed

The Robinson controls are fairly foolproof. Make sure the collective is
decal-side up, and that it has clicked into the retaining buttons. As a
cautionary note, I had a collective jam in flight in a different type of
aircraft because someone installed it upside down!

Collective Control Clear

As the decal says: don’t store things under the collective: they could
prevent you from being able to lower collective in the event of an engine
failure.

Seat Belt: Check condition and fastened

Check that the seat belt is not frayed, and is in good condition. If
nobody is sitting in the seat, fasten the seat belt to prevent it from
flapping around in flight.

Door: Unlocked and latched

It would be bad to crash and find you couldn’t egress because you had
left the door locked closed! Check that the door is latched – if it is not
latched it can whip open when you are hovering.

Door Hinge Safety Pin: Installed

The purpose of the safety pin is to make sure that the door doesn’t
come off in flight. Everybody loses these things, so it makes sense to
keep a few spares under the seat.

Landing Gear: Check

Examine the gear attachment to make sure bolts are tight and that there
are no imperfections in the paint that might indicate a crack.

Another view of the gear attachment. Note that the cover of the cross
tube is just glued on. Sometimes the covers come off, but they should be
replaced in this event because otherwise moisture can sit in the cross
tube leading to corrosion.

Check all four bolts are secure, and that there are no cracks.

The wire is a grounding wire so that the aircraft structure is grounded
through the skid gear to earth. You can also see the crosstube cap in this
picture.

Check for excessive bend in the crosstube. Too much bend indicates
someone had a hard landing.

Ground Handling Wheel: Removed

Position Light: Check

For night flight, turn the light on and make sure it works. For
daytime, give it a wiggle and make sure it is secure.