Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Extending Flaps For Preflight Inspection

Asked by: 4376 views Aircraft Systems, Student Pilot

I was reading a 1977 Cessna 172 N model preflight inspection checklist  that’s in the POH and other 70 model Cessna 172’s as well and noticed that nowhere does the checklist say to extend the flaps and visually check them. However, everyone I’ve seen do a preflight on a Cessna extends the flaps for preflight. I think it's a good idea to extend flaps to verify they are operational, etc., but just wondering why the POH doesn’t include extending or checking the flaps on the preflight checklist.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Brian on Jan 31, 2013

    With the exception of section two on limitations, the POH is a guide. That doesn’t mean that you should ignore the rest of it, but it does mean that it isn’t necessarily complete: especially older aircraft.

    If you need to extend the flaps to check operation, do so. No harm no foul. For what it’s worth, however, on a real cold day you may opt not to do that. Operating the flap motors drains some of the battery. On warm days that’s not an issue (usually anyway). On cold days it could mean the difference between starting it or jump starting it.

    There is no way to be certain, but if i had to guess I’d sat the POH leaves it out because you can verify operation with the engine running during taxi/runup without using battery power you may need for start.

    -1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 2 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.