You can write anything you want in a tech log but that doesn't mean anything to the airplane.
At every job I've had it's the pilot's responsibility to check for gear pins and pitot covers. The only pins I havn't been responsible for is the NWS bypass pin and the arming pins on bombs, missiles, and rockets. The push crew, or arming crew, showed us those pins.
Technique - power is set, and then it's 'speed, speed, speed(HUD- speed if required)' verifying that all airspeed indicators are working.