Rushing to takeoff

I saw the following quote in Flying magazine and it spurred some thoughts:

"Do not let yourself be forced into doing anything before you are ready." 

— Wilbur Wright

Another good quote: "Aviation, to an even greater
extent than the sea, is terribly unforgiving."
- anonymous

Happens to our pilots before takeoff in three ways - 

1.  The pilot doesn't get into the aircraft soon enough.  We usually go over this one at the safety meetings.  I've found over time that if I'm not strapping in when the glider in front of me is taking off, I don't feel that I have comfortably gotten my head in the game.  It only takes one twisted seatbelt strap to cost you a couple of minutes and before you know it the tow plane is taxiing up and you haven't even started the pre-takeoff checklist.

2.  Corollary to number 1, above - people don't realize that with two tow planes, you need to already be strapped in with the checklist complete BEFORE the plane in front of you takes off.

3.  Commercial pilots - strapping a passenger in, giving them the briefing, and then strapping yourself in and doing the checklist takes longer than you think.  Even with one tow plane, if you greet the passenger before the glider in front of you takes off, you are in a race to be ready when it comes back.  It's simply unavoidable that you will delay the tow plane in some instances -especially if they haven't brought the next passenger down already.  This happen often when you have two or even three commercial pilots flying - the cash position doesn't always know to keep the queue full even if the log person is on top of it.  It is helpful to have a ground crew strap in the passenger -very helpful, but even so, you can still end up with the tow plane waiting through no fault of your own.

Thus, at some point, you will almost *always* end up with the tow plane waiting on you while you strap in.  This is when you forget to lock the canopy or don't remember to check the passenger's weight and let them sit in the front.  I've read enough Aftermath articles in Flying to realize that getting rushed unnecessarily is a BAD idea.  The solution?  In this case, you control the tempo.  Take as much time as you need, and as little time as you can and tell the towplane to shut down if necessary.  Unless Heinz Jr. is flying.  Then don't make him wait for anything.  Kidding.  I'll make him wait too, if it means not missing an item on the checklist.

Obviously, we should do the things we need to do so we don't put ourselves in a rushed takeoff situation.  But my ADM says that if it *does* happen, be conscious that it is occurring and take the necessary time to do things right and prevent the issue the NEXT time you takeoff.  According to a chart I found on the O-540 engine, a Pawnee consumes about 10 gallons per hour or .16 gallons per minute.  If you take an extra 3 minutes, that's a 1/2 gallon or $3.25.  Not chump change, but probably worth the cost of ensuring something bad doesn't happen in flight.  Just make sure it doesn't happen again.