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The classic engine failure in flight. Your flight instructor, without you realizing it, grabs the throttle and pulls it to idle. You immediately are put in the position to recover from your simulated engine failure. What do you do? What steps do you follow? Well According to your Cessna 172 Pilot Operating Handbook, they thought about this situation for you. Whether you are training or flying in a new aircraft, get familiar with the POH sections 1 through 9. For this example, we will take a look at section 3, Emergency Procedures.
Emergency ProceduresSection 3 is divided into two parts: checklist and amplified procedures. Cessna divided the section for coping with emergencies that may occur. The likelihood of an emergency with the proper preflight planning and procedures is slim, but there is always the chance an emergency may arise. This is where the first part of section 3 comes in hand, the checklist.
A checklist is an order of immediate commands to perform in an emergency or standard operation. There are bold items in the emergency procedures and those are the immediate actions you need to have memorized.
The amplified section provides additional information beyond what the Emergency Procedures Checklists portion of the section contains. These procedures listed in the amplified portion of section 3 include information not easily adaptable to a checklist format.
As this information is being reviewed for training purposes, rental, or ownership, detailed understanding should be established prior to flying the airplane, as well as studied on a regular basis to keep the pilot's knowledge of procedures fresh. I always encourage students to take extra precautions to familiarize themselves with emergency procedures. You never know when an emergency could happen, so take committing these items to memory very seriously.