Taxi briefing

This page contains an outline of an VFR taxi briefing for an general aviation aircraft.

1. ANWB

Aircraft

During the pre-flight inspection, we have searched for possible reasons to not fly. We could have seen things we don’t like and we don’t want to take risks with, so our taxi briefing actually starts here.

NOTAMs

We review again the possible NOTAMs that apply for our flight, and how they can affect our flight.

Weather

We will again take a look at the weather for a proper risk assessment. The weather can change very fast sometimes, so we review at this point of the weather is still within our aircraft and personal limits.

Briefing (what we will do)

In the briefing part, we will brief our co-pilot and passengers on what to do to all be on the same page and to minimize questions in more critical phases of the flight.

2. Taxi-ing

We will start taxi-ing by testing the brakes of the aircraft at both sides. Then we will make a turn onto the taxiway where we will do our taxi checks. Here we check if every primary flight instrument works as expected.

We will also note all emergency equipment we must have on board.

In short:

  • Brake tests
  • Route to run-up area/hold short
  • Taxi checks

3. Passenger briefing (only with passengers)

We must also brief passengers on various features and things:

  • Seats and Belts
  • Silence
    • Sterile cockpit meaning
    • Radio first
  • Sickness
    • Call out
    • Waste bags
  • Smoking
    • Never allowed within 100 meters of an aircraft
  • Emergency
    • Brace
    • Exit aircraft to the tail because of the propellor

4. Taxi checks

On the taxiway, we will perform some taxi-checks, checking our primary instruments which must work without airspeed.

4.1 Left turn

When we perform a left turn, we check and call-out the following

  • Symbol left
  • Ball right
  • Compasses decrease
  • Attitude Direction Indicator stable

4.2 Right turn

When we perform a right turn, we check and call-out the following

  • Symbol right
  • Ball left
  • Compasses increase
  • Attitude Direction Indicator stable

The checks summarized

We checked all instruments who are not dependent of airspeed, as these are very critical in flights. These belong to the basic 6 of aviation.

  • Turn coordinator angle
  • Turn coordinator ball
  • Directional gyro compass
  • Magnetic compass
  • Attitude Direction Indicator

That were all taxi checks and briefings.

 

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Last modified April 22, 2026: Update taxi-briefing.md (7fe0d9b)